Three players had standout weeks in the system, and three players were added to the system yesterday via the draft
Full season affiliates worked on building (or destroying, as the case may be) their second-half resumes, an overlooked player showed up in a big way, and there was a hitless start.
The Week That Was
Reno continued their free fall as they won just one game. Amarillo split with Frisco, Hillsboro tripled their second-half win total but that still only involved winning two of six, and Visalia split with Lake Elsinore. Amarillo and Visalia are both tied for first, while Reno and Hillsboro are both essentially out of it. The Pygmy Rattlers enjoyed a 4-1 week, the DSL Black squad went 4-2, and the DSL Red squad went 1-4, including a loss to the Black squad. So on the whole, affiliates posted an 18-22 week.
Offense slashed .256/.353/.384 and scored 208 runs. Pitching allowed 229 runs in 336.1 innings, striking out 288 and walking 215.
Batter of the Week
Photo by John E. Moore III/Getty Images
A.J. Vukovich, OF, Reno (.500/.571/.778, .449 RC/PA)
Despite a poor week for the Aces as a team, Vukovich turned in a second consecutive great week with the bat. The fourth-round pick in 2020 had struggled to the extent that he was placed on the development list before an injury to Cristian Pache brought him back more quickly than expected. Since then, he’s just been one of the best hitters in Reno, slashing .294/.372/.515. A little of that is BABIP inflation, but at .383, the BABIP isn’t extremely unreasonable.
Vukovich signed for an over-slot $1.25 million out of East Troy High School in Wisconsin. He was expected to play third base, but after struggling there, was moved to the outfield. While he played a fair amount of center field in Amarillo, he’s grown and gotten slow for the position. (As an illustration, he stole 36 bases and was caught just four times in 2022, stole 13 bases in an Arizona Fall League stint in 2023, but has attempted just two steals this year and been caught both times.) His defense profiles best in a corner, but his bat hasn’t in the past, leading to his falling off of prospect lists, not even appearing in the Fangraphs top-53. Power is not the issue; you’d be able to lock him in for 20 home runs. It’s been swing-and-miss and strikeouts. His strikeouts have steadily increased as he’s climbed the ladder, and in the month and a half leading up to his placement on the development list he struck out in 48.1% of plate appearances while walking just 6.6% of the time. Since his very short break, he’s essentially cut the strikeouts in half and doubled the walks.
While he’s been in the system for a long time, Vukovich will be turning 24 next week, so he’s still young. In fact, of players to take a plate appearance for Reno this year, only Juan Corniel and Jordan Lawlar are younger. Ivan Melendez is 18 months older than Vukovich. Tristin English, who experienced struggles at Reno last year before becoming the 23,535th player in major league history, is 28. That fourth-round selection in 2020 might pay off yet.
Starting Pitcher of the Week
Daniel Eagen, Hillsboro (6 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 3 BB, 6 K)
This week found the easiest choice ever for this honor, with Eagen’s hitless outing easily taking the top spot. Eagen has demonstrated that he was an excellent choice with last year’s third-round selection, and has been an organizational bright spot in what has been a pretty dismal year from a pitching perspective. This was simply the latest chapter in his excellent 2025.
Eagen has made a very real case to be the top pitching prospect in the system, and that’s not just because of the struggles of those above him on the list. He does need to command his pitches better. But he’s shown three pitches with enough promise to show that, with refinement, he can be a solid mid-rotation starter at the big-league level. It would be a bit of an upset if anyone other than Eagen is named organizational Pitcher of the Year.
Relief Pitcher of the Week
Jhosmer Alvarez, Amarillo (2 G, 5 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 5 K)
Alvarez had a longer outing than he normally does, and rose to the occasion, still sitting mid-90s and hitting upper 90s in his third inning of work on Saturday. Alvarez, who was signed for a $65,000 bonus all the way back in 2017, really started putting it together last year and has followed that up with another good year this year. He’s going to force the Diamondbacks to make the decision whether or not to add him to the 40-man roster, as he is Rule 5 eligible and it is far easier to keep a Rule 5 reliever than a position player.
If (as seems more likely by the day) the Diamondbacks wind up as sellers at the deadline, we might see Alvarez in Phoenix before the year is out. That would be a stunning rise from a pitcher who just last year accomplished the rare feat of striking out five batters in one inning (and six in an inning of work!) in Visalia. He’s not a piece in a contending bullpen at the moment, but he is the kind of player who should get a look on a team looking to reset and be better in 2026 (and especially 2027).
Draft Day One Recap
By the time this is published, the draft will be nearly completed and there will be many more new Diamondbacks. But the higher the pick, the greater the expectation, and the three chosen yesterday will slot in with the top Diamondbacks’ prospects. How do they stack up?
Kayson Cunningham, SS, San Antonio, TX
Cunningham was the eighth prep shortstop selected in the first round despite being just the 18th pick overall. That illustrates how much of the early draft was about high school shortstops. High school shortstops accounted for 12 of the first 28 picks, leading to many players who were more highly touted falling. According to Ian Rebhan, the Diamondbacks saw Cunningham’s hit tool as superior to any of the others. While people will fixate on the height and draw comparisons to Corbin Carroll, his body type is more Slade Caldwell than Carroll, as he’s listed at 5’10” and 182. This was a case of the Diamondbacks taking the player who was highest on their board, and no one should be concerned about a glut of shortstops. Cunningham is an athlete; his ability to play shortstop in the big leagues will hinge on his all-around athletic ability rather than a single great fielding tool or arm tool. He makes the most of his range by moving quickly and makes the most of his arm with a quick release. But second base might be a more likely eventual destination for Cunningham, or he could even wind up in the outfield, as other infield prospects have done.
Rebhan also confirmed a story making the rounds that Cunningham, on his visit, asked to hit off the Trajekt machine, throwing as Paul Skenes. He mashed one that analytics estimated as a home run. But that is not the impressive part of the story. The impressive thing about this story is that, on a visit where he needed to impress people as a possible condition of future employment, he ran the risk of facing some of the best possible stuff the machine could throw at him.
The Diamondbacks were a bit fortunate to see Cunningham reach them, given his advanced hit tool for a high school player and the run on shortstops. He likely won’t play this year; he seems set to follow the same path as Caldwell and spend some time at the complex and debut in Visalia next year. As far as where he would slot in prospect rankings, I’d put him sixth among position players right now, without his playing a game. Those in front of him would be Lawlar, Caldwell, Waldschmidt, Demetrio Crisantes, and LuJames Groover. His ceiling, though, is as high as any of them, and his floor isn’t low.
Patrick Forbes, RHP, Louisville
While Cunningham was generally rated higher than where the Diamondbacks picked, Forbes was rated lower, and the Diamondbacks took him earlier than many expected. There had been some noise about him going to the Dodgers at 40. He was as under-the-radar as possible for a pitcher on a College World Series team, partially because of a flexor strain that cost him two starts in April. He came back and ramped up slowly, but was at full strength by conference tournament time, where he pitched well against Wake Forest. He followed that up by striking out 13 in his first national tournament appearance against East Tennessee State, and he struck out nine against Miami in the super regional. But he may have saved his best for last, striking out ten while walking just one in his College World Series appearance against Oregon State, including strikeouts of Aiva Arquette, Gavin Turley, and Trent Caraway.
Forbes features a fastball that sits comfortably in the mid-90s and has been up to 100, a slider with two different shapes (one is harder with shorter break, the other more of a sweeper) and an occasional changeup. While evaluators don’t care for his changeup, the Diamondbacks see him as a four-pitch guy. This doesn’t mean that they don’t see the problems, it likely means that they believe they see a way to improve the shape of his pitches so that he has four good offerings.
The floor for Forbes, given health, is a late inning reliever. Given the dearth of pitching prospects in the system, he could comfortably slot in as the top pitching prospect system-wide. The Diamondbacks have certainly had some success with pitchers from Kentucky. Forbes, who went to high school in Bowling Green, will look to join Brandons Pfaadt and Webb on that list.
Brian Curley, RHP, Georgia
Curley spent most of his college career as a reliever and started out there in 2025, but found himself the Friday starter on a team that hosted in the NCAA tournament by the time it was all said and done. The results that he’s gotten against high competition levels stand against anyone in the country; his rate stats measure up against top pitcher in the draft Kade Anderson. There are three simple reasons why Curley isn’t held in such high regard. First, Anderson has a longer track record. He started the full season in the SEC and had starts last year as well, while Curley lacks even a full year of starts. Next, Anderson has shown greater refinement on his pitches and command. Finally, Anderson is a left-handed pitcher who is 6’2” and Curley is a right-handed pitcher who is 5’10”. The height does not bother the Diamondbacks, since his stuff backs up the results he’s gotten.
Curley might have a higher ceiling than Forbes, and should certainly slot in the same tier of prospects as Daniel Eagen and Connor Foley. He’s faced better competition than either of them, though. He could probably get outs now in a big league bullpen. But he’ll probably take the same route as Eagen and start out in Hillsboro next year, with the possibility of being a quick mover if all goes well.
Up Next
Full-season affiliates take a break along with the big leaguers, meaning that there will be no action outside of the complex and the DSL until Friday. Then, Reno goes to Albuquerque, Amarillo to San Antonio, Hillsboro to Everett, and Visalia to Inland Empire. There’s been a lot of player movement already, but there might well be some more. In fact, expect a lot of player movement for the rest of the month, as players will be brought up to fill gaps made by trades (this always happens in the minor leagues regardless of buying or selling) and some new players will likely join, as if the Diamondbacks are deadline sellers, they are going to look to acquire near-MLB ready players.