Arizona Fall League Preview: San Francisco Giants
By Taylor Anderson ·
Eight Giants join the Scottsdale Scorpions this fall. The group ranges from a major-league reliever working back from elbow surgery to a power-and-speed outfielder still ironing out the contact side of his game. No single theme covers all of them, but the through line is opportunity: innings for a pitcher coming back from surgery, at-bats for a hitter who hit a wall at Double-A, and competitive reps for younger players who have barely seen full-season ball. Here's what to watch.
Randy Rodríguez Gets Back on a Mound
The most significant Giants story in Scottsdale has nothing to do with prospect development in the traditional sense. Randy Rodríguez, the 27-year-old right-hander who made the 2025 All-Star team before a right elbow sprain ended his season in August, had Tommy John surgery in late September 2025. He has not pitched in a game since, and the Giants are using the AFL to get him live innings before a planned return for spring training.
Before the injury, Rodríguez was one of the best relievers in the National League. He posted a 1.78 ERA and a 0.89 WHIP with 67 strikeouts and 11 walks in 50.2 innings. Statcast had his four-seam fastball averaging 97.4 mph with well-above-average induced vertical break, and his mid-80s slider produced a 33.5 percent whiff rate. That two-pitch mix doesn't need a third pitch to miss bats at the highest level. His control also took a big step: he walked 5.6 percent of the batters he faced in 2025, down from 8.1 percent in 2024.
Returning from Tommy John with the same arm speed, the same slider shape, and a consistent release point is the work of the coming months, not a given. But these innings carry low stakes in the best way: a short outing here, some slider work there, and a chance to see how the elbow responds to game-intensity effort. If he gets four or five outings this fall and comes out healthy, that's a win for San Francisco regardless of the ERA.
Dakota Jordan Needs October to Answer a Question
Jordan is the org's most notable position player in this group, and 2026 gave him both proof and a problem to solve. At High-A Eugene, the 23-year-old right-handed hitter batted .290/.346/.533 across 81 games, with 18 home runs and 15 stolen bases. That is a legitimate power-speed line, and it earned him a trip to the Futures Game and a promotion to Double-A Richmond in mid-July.
Richmond went less smoothly. In 21 games, Jordan hit .253/.330/.367 with one home run and a 29.5 percent strikeout rate. The pattern fits his scouting profile: an aggressive approach that produces hard contact when he squares a pitch up but falters when advanced arms stay off the plate with breaking balls. The power is genuine, but the swing decisions don't yet hold up against pitchers willing to work backward.
He also spent a month on the injured list during the Richmond stint, from late July to late August, so he arrives in Scottsdale still carrying that question. What to watch: whether he can cut his chase rate on breaking balls below the zone while keeping the aggressive posture that makes his power dangerous. If he can, the second-division regular projection has legs; if he can't, the floor drops toward a depth role.
Kaeden Kent Brings a Contact-First Approach to Fall Reps
Kent, a 2025 third-round pick by the Yankees and the son of Hall of Famer Jeff Kent, had a productive 2026 split between two High-A clubs. At Hudson Valley he hit .302/.359/.433 in 76 games, with 20 doubles, six home runs and 20 stolen bases, striking out in just 16.1 percent of his plate appearances. The Giants acquired him on Aug. 3 in the trade that sent Heliot Ramos to New York, and he played 10 games for Eugene after coming off the injured list. His combined line of .298/.350/.440 with 24 steals and a 16.0 percent strikeout rate tells a consistent story: hit over power, disciplined enough, and active on the bases.
The projection has him at second base rather than shortstop long term. Below-average athleticism and limited range make shortstop at the upper levels a stretch, but the bat and baseball IQ can carry a second-base profile. The AFL reps are straightforward development: more at-bats against older arms and a test of whether the contact approach holds. He sits No. 19 on 80Grade's Giants list, and a 23-year-old who hits .300 at High-A with that strikeout rate is worth watching at Double-A next year.
Miguel Mendez, the Trade Deadline Piece, Gets a Fresh Start
Mendez arrived from San Diego on Aug. 3 as part of the Robbie Ray deal, and his 2026 numbers show a starter with premium stuff and a command problem. His fastball touches 101 mph with carry at the top of the zone, and the mid-80s slider is a legitimate bat-misser with tight shape. The issue: he walked 10.7 percent of the batters he faced across 49.2 innings and posted a 1.51 WHIP, with two injured-list stints breaking up the year. His 11 Double-A starts with San Antonio before the trade produced a 4.93 ERA and a 1.44 WHIP; his four starts at Richmond afterward produced an 8.44 ERA with two home runs allowed.
The fastball-slider pairing is good enough to project a relief role that works. The changeup is usable but hasn't missed bats like the slider, which leaves a durable starter path contingent on development that hasn't arrived yet. His AFL outings are a chance to throw consistent innings and work on first-pitch strikes and release-point stability. He's 24, he's already on the 40-man roster, and the Giants valued the stuff enough to make him part of a deadline return. Whether the command comes is the whole story.
Alexander Fuentes' Strikeouts Are Worth Tracking
Fuentes is the youngest arm in this group at 21, and his profile is high variance in both directions. The 6-foot-6 right-hander, signed out of Venezuela in 2023, works with a mid-90s fastball, and he struck out 32 batters in 20.2 innings this year, almost all of them in the Arizona Complex League. The issue, as with most large-framed power arms at the complex level, is command: he walked 16.3 percent of the batters he faced.
He worked mostly as a starter in the complex league before one late-season outing at Single-A San Jose, and the strikeout-to-walk ratio is the thing to monitor in Scottsdale. His swing-and-miss against better hitters will show whether the fastball and slider are missing bats because of quality or because of a level mismatch. He ranks No. 51 on 80Grade's Giants list and projects as a long reliever for now, but the arm speed keeps a back-end starter ceiling in play if the delivery and command stabilize.
The Rest of the Group: Wentz, Smith, and George
Three other Giants round out the Scottsdale contingent.
Dalton Wentz is a 21-year-old switch-hitting infielder whom the Giants took in the 16th round of the 2026 draft out of Wake Forest. He logged 13 games at High-A Eugene after signing, hitting .265/.368/.429 in a small sample. The 14.0 percent walk rate suggests a patient approach, though a 33.3 percent strikeout rate keeps expectations grounded. Fall reps against better pitching are what a young infielder at this stage needs.
Darien Smith is a 26-year-old right-hander whose 2026 was split by an injured-list stint. Before it, he was effective at Double-A Richmond: 31.2 innings across seven appearances (five starts), a 2.84 ERA, a 1.11 WHIP and 30 strikeouts. After a rehab stint in the complex league, he finished at Triple-A Sacramento, where he had a 6.92 ERA in 13 innings with a 9.8 percent strikeout rate and three home runs allowed. He opened his AFL stint on Oct. 3 with two innings and two strikeouts. He needs to miss more bats to stick at Triple-A.
Drake George has no 2026 stats because he spent the entire season on the injured list, after landing on the full-season injured list in August 2025. When healthy in 2025, the 25-year-old right-hander posted a 3.20 ERA with 62 strikeouts in 56.1 innings at Single-A San Jose. He's a 2024 13th-round pick out of Lewis-Clark State with a low-90s fastball and a full four-pitch mix, projecting as a long-relief or depth-starter type. The AFL is his first chance to pitch in a game in more than a year.
Bottom Line
Of the eight Giants in Scottsdale, Randy Rodríguez is the one San Francisco will watch most closely. The developmental players carry their own stakes, but Rodríguez arriving healthy, arm speed intact, and leaving with several clean outings sets up his 2027 return. Everything else is development on the normal timeline. Rodríguez getting back to his 2025 form would be a significant piece of San Francisco's bullpen picture.