2 The Bigs

By Matt Castagna: Sept 25th, 2026

Now that the dust has settled from Sal’s and my trip to Arizona, it’s time to share some players who not only impressed me but caught my attention while watching some of the games live. Below are some of the college prospects I’m monitoring and buying before March because of their strong performances in the AFL to date.

Kyle DeBarge (MIN)
Level: Double-A
2026 Season Stats: .221/.325/.352 | 12 HR, 49 RBI 35 XBH 41 SB, 30.1% K rate
2026 AFL Stats: .367/.500/.571 | 2 HR 9 RBI 5 XBH 7 SB
Bowman Set: 2025 Bowman
Base Auto Price: $10

Kyle DeBarge wasn’t initially on my radar, but sometimes being in the right place at the right time changes that. Sal and I were at the Salt River Rafters game on Friday, October 9th, and the lineup had guys we’ve covered in Demetrio Crisantes batting 2nd and Jared Thomas batting 3rd. Both had great games, but it was the guy batting leadoff that day who put us on notice. In that game alone, Kyle smoked a double and went 3 for 5 with 2 RBIs, 1 BB, and 3 runs.

We’ve seen the Arizona Fall League serve as a launchpad for prospects’ careers in the past, and I feel like Kyle DeBarge could be the next to take off. Let’s dive a little deeper into Kyle as a player and prospect. He was selected by the Minnesota Twins in Round 1 (comp pick), 33rd overall, in the 2024 draft. As seen in recent drafts, the Twins have been targeting college infielders with high contact and success rates in college. In 2024 they drafted Kalen Culpepper, Kyle DeBarge, and Billy Amick in the first two rounds, then Marek Houston in 2025, and now Vahn Lackey in 2026. Why the Twins spent such high draft capital on Kyle in 2024 can be traced back to his incredible 2024 season at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette (Ragin’ Cajuns). In his draft-eligible season, Kyle hit .355 with 21 HR, 43 XBH, and 72 RBI. During his breakout season he racked up the accolades, earning a 2024 Consensus All-America selection, a 2024 First-Team All-America (D1Baseball) selection, and 2024 Sun Belt Conference Player of the Year.

Fast forward to Kyle in the Arizona Fall League. Through 12 games, he’s hitting .366 with an OPS of 1.119. Albeit in a small sample, he’s walking at a higher rate (11 BB) and managing his strikeouts. What intrigues me is not only the high average against a higher level of competition but also the power that’s coming with it. The concern with Kyle coming out of college was that he tended to hit the ball on the ground due to a flatter swing. He seems to be finding his groove in Arizona and can carry this momentum into next season. The Twins have always been willing to move college prospects aggressively, and Kyle could climb quickly alongside C2C favorite Marek Houston.

Jared Thomas (COL)
Level: Double-A
2026 Season Stats: .282/.357/.435 | 4 HR 17 RBI 10 XBH 12 SB (*only played 32 games)
2026 AFL Stats: .298/.403/.544 | 1 HR 14 RBI 8 XBH 5 SB
Bowman Set: 2024 Draft
Base Auto Price: $15

I hope you bought back when I introduced him in July, or at least during your second-chance opportunity when the C2C report card was released. The value-buy window for College 2 Chrome favorite Jared Thomas is quickly closing. I said a strong AFL performance could make a big impact on his 2027 outlook, and he’s delivered just that. He has been one of the hottest prospects in the Arizona Fall League, and as I’m typing this, he just had a four-hit game. I was lucky enough to speak with Jared before the Glendale Desert Dogs vs. Salt River Rafters game on October 9th. We talked about his transition from college ball at Texas to pro ball, what it was like to return from injury and play in the MiLB playoffs, and his development goals for the AFL and 2027. You can tell Jared is laser-focused and ready to make his push to the big leagues in 2027, as he said in our interview. He still falls within the value-buy window because injury delayed his 2026 season, which is ultimately why he got the opportunity to play in the Arizona Fall League this year.

The October 9th game featured quite the offensive showing from a few of the players highlighted in this article, Jared Thomas included. Call it 2TB interview luck, but in the same game we interviewed him pregame, he went 2 for 5 with a HR and 2 RBI. However, that was just one game in a collection of great performances Jared has put together this fall. Across 15 games, he leads the league in triples with 4 and is hitting .294 with 8 XBH, 14 RBI, and 5 SB. He was also named one of MLB Pipeline’s AFL Week 3 top performers. This may be the last time you see Jared Thomas’s name on a value-buy list.

BUY BUY BUY!

Dillon Lewis (MIA)
Level: Double-A
2026 Season Stats: .242/.302/.460 | 18 HR 48 RBI 34 XBH 26 SB 30.1% K-rate
2026 AFL Stats: .275/.333/.451 | 1 HR 9 RBI 7 XBH
Bowman Set: 2026 Bowman
Color Auto Price: $30

The Yankees selected Dillon Lewis in the 13th round of the 2024 draft out of Queens College. Dillon was always touted as a power-speed prospect, but no one knew if that would translate to professional ball. He showcased that exact skill set in 2025, hitting 22 HRs with 79 RBIs and stealing 26 bases across two levels. His 2025 success made him an intriguing trade chip, and the Yankees ended up sending him to the Marlins in exchange for Ryan Weathers. We’ve already highlighted a few Marlins outfield prospects in Max Williams and Cam Cannarella. Dillon could be the next outfielder traded into the Marlins’ system to make it to the big leagues, a path we’ve seen in recent years with Kyle Stowers, Jakob Marsee, and Owen Caissie.

Dillon’s 2026 season was interrupted when he was placed on the IL on June 27th with a broken wrist. Prior to the injury, he slashed .240/.315/.512 with 17 HR, 43 RBI, and 14 stolen bases over 66 games. He returned in mid-August, but after a wrist injury it takes time to readjust and get your swing back. He hit just 1 HR after his return, with a .247 AVG. Given the long absence, the Marlins sent Dillon to the AFL so he could get more ABs and the live game reps his swing needs to get right.

Enter the October 9th Glendale Desert Dogs vs. Salt River Rafters game. Again, Sal and I were there, and we got to speak with a ton of 2TB prospect favorites, including the Marlins’ Max Williams and the Dodgers’ Chuck Davalan. On this stacked Glendale team, Dillon Lewis batted 5th and played CF. He went 2 for 5 with two doubles, 1 RBI, and 2 runs. Both doubles were absolute missiles. In 11 games so far in the Arizona Fall League, he’s hitting .273 with a league-leading 6 doubles and a .790 OPS.

Dillon still has strikeout concerns, but the power/speed upside has me leaning in on him as a very intriguing value buy.

Colby Shelton (CHW)
Level: Double-A
2026 Season Stats: .244/.338/.488 | 24 HR 82 RBI 61 XBH 14 SB 27% K-rate
2026 AFL Stats: .279/.377/.465 | 2 HR 13 RBI 4 XBH 1 SB
Bowman Set: 2026 Bowman
No 1st autograph

This may be the biggest sleeper on the list, but he’s certainly earned the right to be in the conversation for college-drafted prospects to watch. We all know the Florida Gators are a college powerhouse with a great college-to-MLB pipeline. With that said, in 2024 Colby hit 20 homers while playing SS, which stands as Florida’s all-time single-season home run record for a shortstop, a position that has seen plenty of great talent come through the program. In Colby’s draft-eligible season, before a season-ending injury, he hit .377 with 7 HR, 26 XBH, and 35 RBI. He ended up being a 6th-round pick of the Chicago White Sox out of the University of Florida. The injury in his junior year is most likely why the White Sox were able to grab him at a bit of a discount in the 6th round, and they were surely stoked to get him there.

Enter pro ball, where 2026 became Colby’s breakout year and showed both the White Sox organization and evaluators that the real Colby Shelton was back. He climbed all the way to AA in 2026 thanks to his hot start in High-A, where he hit a cool .339 with 7 HR and nearly a 1:1 BB/K ratio across 31 games. What was impressive about his move to AA was that he not only maintained a high contact rate of 72.3% but also found his power stroke. His home run total jumped from 7 to 17, with 40 XBH. His strikeout rate did rise from 18% to 24%, but a sub-25% K rate with a 70%+ contact rate and 17 HR in Double-A is not something to overlook. As mentioned earlier, Colby has the range to play almost anywhere in the infield, but he’s been slotted in at 2B for most of the 2026 MiLB season.

The White Sox have quite a plethora of talent to choose from, especially in the infield; however, that didn’t stop them from giving Colby Shelton an Arizona Fall League nomination. So far, he has delivered. Across 13 games, he’s hitting .273 with 13 RBIs, just one away from the top 3 in the league. He has also been getting a lot of time at 1B in the AFL, and it will be interesting to see whether that means the White Sox are trying to boost his value to trade him this offseason or getting him ready for the majors so they can move Murakami to DH full-time. Colby is certainly a nice sleeper, and you can find his color variations in the Bowman 2026 set for very cheap at the moment.

Ones to Watch

The players below don’t have a Bowman card yet, but they’re worth watching and getting excited about for when they get the Bowman checklist call. The Bowman set listed for each is where I expect their first Bowman card to appear.

* (predicted)

Alex McCoy (SD)
Level: Double-A
2026 Season Stats: .278/.355/.467 | 19 HR 71 RBI 50 XBH 24 SB 29.8% K-rate
2026 AFL Stats: .256/.348/.641 | 4 HR 11 RBI 7 XBH 2 SB
Bowman Set: *2027 Bowman

As a Long Island guy, it’s not often you get to see a Hofstra baseball product make waves in professional baseball. Enter Alex McCoy, an undrafted free agent out of Hofstra who signed with the San Diego Padres in 2024. He was coached at Hofstra by former major leaguer Frank Catalanotto. At 6’5″, Alex offered the Padres true power upside. In his only season at Hofstra, he hit .306 with 11 HR, 23 XBH, 22 SB, and 44 RBI.

McCoy didn’t start his pro career until 2025, and he entered as a true underdog as an undrafted college free agent. He spent the majority of his 2025 season in A ball, where he hit .315 with 7 HR, 26 XBH, 14 SB, and 40 RBI. He put up those impressive numbers despite spending part of the season on the injured list.

The power flashed in his first pro season with 23 XBH, but he took it to the next level in 2026, with 19 HR and a total of 50 XBH across High-A and Double-A. McCoy was a player I expected the Padres to move at the deadline, as his power was a trait I thought a selling team (I was hoping for the Mets) would want in return from a depleted Padres prospect pool. It seems that, for now, the Padres know what they have in Alex McCoy and may have turned down offers that asked to include him.

His reward was an invite to the Arizona Fall League, where he’s making some noise, quite literally, with the home runs he’s hitting. In 11 games, Alex is currently tied for 2nd in HR with 4. He’s coming off a two-homer game and still has time to hit more. With the Padres’ prospect pool quite depleted, I see Alex as having a real chance to move quickly in 2027, and he could be one of those players who gets a rookie card and a 1st Bowman in the same season.

Core Jackson (NYY)
Level: Double-A
2026 Season Stats: .262/.360/.459 | 14 HR 62 RBI 42 XBH 41 SB, 22% K-rate
2026 AFL Stats: .128/.346/.282 | 1 HR 11 RBI 3 XBH 10 SB
Bowman Set: *2027 Bowman

This is a player whose current Arizona Fall League numbers I’m going to ask you to look past at first glance. Core Jackson may be hitting just .128 in 11 games, but he’s also tied for the league lead in SB with 10 and is top 5 in the league with 12 BB. Although he doesn’t have a Bowman card yet, he should start to be on your prospect-collecting radar.

He was a 5th-round pick of the New York Yankees out of Utah in the 2025 draft. Core earned first-team all-conference honors in both of his years with the Utes and was a Brooks Wallace Award finalist. In his draft-eligible 2025 season, he hit .364 with 12 HR, 32 XBH, 44 RBI, and 20 SB across 48 games. He was touted as a player who makes consistent hard contact and has 20-HR potential.

The Yankees’ struggles with infield depth and their overall hitting prospect pool are also well documented, so I see a great opportunity for Core to make a push in 2027. He reminds me a lot of a prospect they traded, Kaeden Kent. Core had a very high contact rate of 77.6% in 2026. He also finished his season in AA, where he dropped his K rate by 7 points, from 20% to 13%, albeit in a smaller sample. So maybe the Yankees are having him focus on his approach during his time in the Arizona Fall League, as he’s walked 12 times. 2027 will certainly be a big development year for Core, and it will be interesting to see when his name lands on the Bowman prospect list.

Zion Rose (KC)
Level: High-A
2026 Season Stats: .268/.389/.338 | 1 HR 11 RBI 3 XBH 14 SB 22.5% K rate (19 games)
2026 AFL Stats: .306/.468/.444 | 1 HR 8 RBI 2 XBH 5 SB
Bowman Set: *2026 Draft

Zion Rose entered the Arizona Fall League as the only hitter from the 2026 draft class invited to participate, something I chatted with him about during our interview. Being the 6th overall pick in the 2026 draft comes with expectations, and Zion is already proving he’s ready for the challenge. Coming out of Louisville, Zion was one of just six NCAA Division I players to total at least 30 extra-base hits and at least 30 SBs in 2025. In his draft-eligible 2026 season, he was limited to just 36 games due to an ankle injury and a hamstring issue. He still hit .417 with 6 HR, 20 XBH, 47 RBI, and 24 SB in his limited time. Like most 2TB-covered prospects, Zion was touted for his elite bat-to-ball skills leading up to the draft, and they translated to pro ball, where he posted a 78% contact rate in High-A. With his limited games in college this season and only 19 games in High-A, the Royals wanted Zion to keep developing and getting ABs, so they sent him to the Arizona Fall League.

Zion is more than holding his own in the Arizona Fall League, where, again, he is the only hitting prospect from the 2026 draft class playing this season. Across 9 games, he’s hitting .306 and even hit a grand slam on October 15th. Zion will certainly be a sought-after 1st Bowman player in the upcoming Bowman Draft 2026 checklist, and for good reason. His path to the majors with the Royals is quite clear, as the Royals don’t have much OF talent in their prospect pool outside of Angeibel Gomez, who’s on a bit of a longer timeline, or on the major league roster (Kyle Isbel/Isaac Collins). Zion’s polished approach, elite bat-to-ball skills, and success at the college level should allow him to make a push in 2027.

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