:format(webp)/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/50632919/598008974.0.jpg)
The Detroit Tigers have announced the names of six players who will be going to the Arizona Fall League, which will run from October 11 to November 19, 2016. Detroit is one of five clubs that will be sending players to play for the Salt River Rafters in this year’s AFL, which features 21 of MLB.com’s top 100 prospects in its 25th season of operation. Full AFL rosters are listed here.
The Tigers will be sending five of their top 30 prospects, including their latest rookie sensation, JaCoby Jones, to Arizona. Jones is one of eight players going to Arizona who has made their major league debut prior to this year’s September 1 roster expansion. Detroit will also send slugging outfielder Christin Stewart, who is their No 3 prospect. Catcher Grayson Greiner (No 26) and right handed pitchers Spencer Turnbull (No 12), Adam Ravenelle (No 20), and Jeff Thompson are also heading to Arizona.
Jones got a late start to the 2016 season due to the remainder of a 50-game suspension — part of which he served during last year’s AFL — but has been making up for lost time. Should the Tigers advance deep into the postseason, they could decide to keep Jones on the playoff roster and send another player to Arizona instead.
Stewart has hit 28 home runs with an .885 OPS between Advanced-A Lakeland and Double-A Erie this season. He was the Tigers’ supplemental first round selection in the 2015 draft from the University of Tennessee. Greiner is a 6’6 catcher who hit .297 between the same two minor league stops as Stewart. Greiner was selected in the third round in 2014. He will be teammates in Arizona with Kade Scivique, another catcher who was dealt from Detroit to Atlanta in the trade that brought Erick Aybar to the Tigers.
Turnbull, a second round selection in 2014, missed the first three months of the season with a shoulder injury. He has made only made six starts in the Gulf Coast (Rookie) League and five more thus far in Lakeland. Ravenelle posted a 3.86 ERA in 56 innings of relief between Lakeland and Erie in 2016. Thompson has spent the season in the starting rotation for the Lakeland Flying Tigers.
Every major league club will be sending players to one of six teams in Arizona, with five teams contributing to each team. Games are played six days of the week while taking Sundays off in six venues. Here is the full schedule of AFL games.