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The Arizona Fall League season is in its final week after a campaign full of outstanding performances. As is always the case, there will be countless big leaguers to come out of this year’s AFL, and many of them will contribute in 2026.
You need only to look at this year’s Rookie of the Year Award winners for very recent proof. Both Nick Kurtz and Drake Baldwin played in the AFL … last year. They are the 37th and 38th alumni of the league to win top rookie honors, and this is the ninth time both Rookie of the Year Award winners spent time in the Fall League. And it’s just the third time that they did so the year before winning the hardware (Mike Trout and Bryce Harper in 2012; Huston Street and Ryan Howard in 2005).
More on the Arizona Fall League:
Winning Rookie of the Year doesn’t make you a Hall of Famer or all-time great, but it’s a good start. And we all know the AFL has churned out some of those as well. There are four players who participated in “MLB’s finishing school” who are enshrined in Cooperstown: Mike Piazza, Roy Halladay, Derek Jeter and Todd Helton. And there are certainly more to come, which led to us wondering about the greatest AFL alums ever, which, in turn, led us to think: Hey, that’s good fodder for the MLB Pipeline Newsletter.
Let’s start with a list of retired players, all of whom are in the Arizona Fall League Hall of Fame. This top 10, ranked by career WAR, includes the four guys mentioned above in the National Baseball Hall of Fame, and I’m including the year they played in the AFL and their total WAR, according to Baseball-Reference:
Albert Pujols (2000), 101.2
Derek Jeter (1994), 71.3
Chase Utley (2002), 64.6
Roy Halladay (1998), 64.2
Todd Helton (1996), 61.8
Mike Piazza (1992), 59.6
Dustin Pedroia (2004), 51.8
Brian Giles (1994), 51.1
Torii Hunter (1998), 50.6
Mark Teixeira (2002), 50.5
Jason Giambi also had 50.5 WAR to round out AFL alumni north of that 50 mark. There are 19 total, when you fold in active players. Here’s the top 10 taken from those players still competing in the big leagues through the 2025 season:
Mike Trout (2011), 87.5
Max Scherzer (2007-08), 75.6
Mookie Betts (2013), 75.2
Freddie Freeman (2009-10), 64.2
Aaron Judge (2014), 62.3
Nolan Arenado (2011), 57.8
Francisco Lindor (2014), 55.7
Bryce Harper (2010-11), 54.0
Marcus Semien (2013), 49.2
Andrew McCutchen (2007), 49.0
Let’s combine our all-time AFL lists, shall we? And this is a list I think we can update annually to reflect movement by the active players. I have full confidence that there are some guys who are in the earlier stages of their careers who will climb closer to the top. I’m looking at you, Ronald Acuña Jr. (28.6 WAR), Vladimir Guerrero Jr. (25.9) and Julio Rodríguez (22.9), who played in the Fall League in 2017.
1. Albert Pujols (2000), 101.2
2. Mike Trout (2011), 87.5
3. Max Scherzer (2007-08), 75.6
4. Mookie Betts (2013), 75.2
5. Derek Jeter (1994), 71.3
6. Chase Utley (2002), 64.6
7. Freddie Freeman (2009-10), 64.2
8. Roy Halladay (1998), 64.2
9. Aaron Judge (2014), 62.3
10. Todd Helton (1996), 61.8
If you told me all 10 of these guys will end up with a plaque in Cooperstown, I don’t think I’d disagree with you. I think Judge has the best chance for upward mobility based on what he’s been doing, so it wouldn’t surprise me if we end up with him and Betts in some order at 3 and 4, then we’ll have to watch to see how those younger guys keep putting up numbers and climb into this top 10.