Arizona Fall League Home Run Derby 2024

Once again, the AFL’s top sluggers will convene at Sloan Park in Mesa to swing for the fences. Now in its third year, the AFL Home Run Derby pits the top power hitters from the elite prospect circuit against one another in an All-Star weekend style event set for Friday at 8:30 p.m. ET.

The event will be streamed for free on MLB.com (here and on the AFL site).

Reigning AFL Derby champion Kala’i Rosario (Salt River Rafters) will look to defend his crown amid a field of eight talented hitters that includes some of the top-ranked prospects in the Fall League this year. Rosario would be the event’s first repeated champion if he can pull it off, after winning a swing-off to advance to the final round and ultimately beat Damiano Palmegiani for the 2023 title. Mariners prospect Robert Perez Jr. won the inaugural event in 2022.

For more on the history of the AFL Derby, see here.

Here are the rest of the 2024 AFL Home Run Derby participants and the skinny on each player.

Carter Jensen, C, Surprise (KC No. 5)
Kansas City’s third-round pick in 2021, Jensen hit a career-high 18 homers across two levels this season, and has been on a power surge since arriving in Arizona. He’s only played eight games for the Saguaros but already homered four times, including twice last week, when he also notched a five-hit game.

Josue Briceño, C/1B, Scottsdale (DET No. 9)
A revelation of the Fall League, Briceño is the AFL’s home run leader through four weeks and has been the circuit’s most productive hitter all fall. He’s hit seven homers and produced a .409/.481/.818 slash line over his first 18 games in Arizona.

Moises Ballesteros, C, Mesa (CHC No. 4/MLB No. 44)
The 20-year-old Ballesteros has been one of the AFL’s most consistent bats this fall, and coming off a regular season where he hit a career-high 19 homers, he’s gone deep five times in his first 15 games in Arizona. He’s the only full-time catcher in the AFL with at least five homers so far.

Jac Caglianone, 1B, Surprise (KC No. 1/MLB No. 17)
Caglianone only homered twice in 29 games in his pro debut and got off to a slow start in Arizona, but recently broke out with a two-homer game. Nonetheless, his slugging bonafides are well established, with top-of-his-class 70-grade power and 68 homers over his final two seasons at the University of Florida, where he was the best two-way player in the country before the Royals drafted him sixth overall in this year’s Draft.

Peyton Williams, OF, Scottsdale (Blue Jays)
The 24-year-old Williams showed he can leave the yard with authority on Oct. 29, when he clocked one of his two homers of the night a projected 453 feet, per Statcast. That tied the fourth-longest in an AFL game this fall. He also went deep 11 times in 77 games at High-A Vancouver this season.

Brock Wilken, 3B, Peoria (MIL No. 8)
Wilken set multiple school home run records as a collegian at Wake Forest as well as the ACC’s all-time home run record before becoming a first-round pick of the Brewers in 2021. His plus power resulted in 17 homers at Double-A Biloxi this season, as well as two more so far this fall.

Garrett Martin, OF, Salt River (Yankees)
Like Williams, Martin also has a 453-foot homer under his belt this fall. His wallop came on Oct. 12 against Surprise. He’s hit four homers in his first 15 games this fall, giving him a share of the Rafters team lead with organization-mate Caleb Durbin.

Kala’i Rosario, OF, Salt River (MIN No. 19)
The Derby’s reigning champ is back in the Fall League for a second straight year after he missed more than two months of the regular season due to an elbow injury, and he’s finding his swing at the right time to defend his title. The 22-year-old Hawaii native had to win a swing-off against three players — Ivan Melendez, Kyle Manzardo and Jase Bowen — to reach the finals last year, and ultimately finished with 25 total homers in the event. His longest was projected at 465 feet.