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The Arizona Fall League, the annual fall baseball festival Major League Baseball touts as a “finishing school”<\/a> for the top prospects big league clubs select and spread across a half-dozen teams, launched its 2025 season earlier this week. <\/p>\n <\/p>\n And right in the thick of the action are seven Kansas City Royals prospects<\/a> hoping to further polish their professional r\u00e9sum\u00e9s with good performances for the Surprise Saguaros before the AFL schedule<\/a> winds up in mid-November.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Count Colleran, a right-handed collegian from Northeastern drafted in the seventh round of the 2024 amateur draft, among Kansas City prospects who didn’t attract much attention this season. <\/p>\n <\/p>\n And that’s a bit of a shame. Working exclusively in relief, Colleran’s campaign-long excellent pitching justified the swift rise he made from Single-A to Double-A ball \u2014 he opened his pro career with a 4-0, 4.06 effort at Columbia, then went 5-0 with a vastly improved 1.83 ERA at High-A Quad Cities, and closed out his rookie campaign with a scoreless inning for Double-A Northwest Arkansas, where he’ll likely begin the 2026 season.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n He finished 2025 with a 9-0 record, 2.85 ERA, and 1.06 WHIP. Excellent numbers to be sure, especially for a young hurler who underwent Tommy John Surgery in college. <\/a>Fortunately, he’s showing no lingering ill effects of the underlying issue.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Colleran threw a scoreless inning to help Surprise beat Glendale in extra innings Wednesday night. <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Martin hasn’t had a questionable season since Kansas City took him in the 12th round of the 2023 draft. He signed quickly, immediately reported to the Arizona Complex League where he struck out six in three scoreless appearances, then closed out his first, albeit short, campaign with a two-start 3.60 ERA at Single-A Columbia. Back with the Fireflies for the entire 2024 season, he went 4-3 with a 3.62 ERA spread across eight starts and 17 relief appearances.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The right-hander moved up to High-A Quad Cities this year and in 22 starts lowered his ERA to 3.45, won eight games and lost four, displayed decent control, and averaged less than half a homer per game<\/a>. <\/p>\n <\/p>\n His career numbers \u2014 12-7, 3.49 ERA, and a .221 OBA in 51 games \u2014 suggest he may well be a starter or reliever the Royals can depend on down the road.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Martin started against Glendale Wednesday night and worked three scoreless, one-hit innings.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Mitchell wasted no time rocketing to the top of MLB Pipeline’s Kansas City prospect rankings, reaching that coveted spot little more than a month after the club made him its first pick<\/a> in the 2023 amateur draft. <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Jac Caglianone unsurprisingly displaced him last year, but Mitchell rose back to the top when Caglianone’s big league playing time knocked him out of Pipeline prospect consideration.<\/p>\n <\/p>\nExpect big things from Royals pitching prospect Dennis Colleran<\/h2>\n
Pitcher Logan Martin deserves close scrutiny this fall<\/h2>\n
No. 2 Royals prospect Blake Mitchell bears close watching<\/h2>\n