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Blue Jays Arizona Fall League check-in: Their season comes to an end with 5-2 loss in quarterfinals

Blue Jays Arizona Fall League check-in: Their season comes to an end with 5-2 loss in quarterfinals
Photo credit: © Jonathan Dyer-Imagn Images
Cynthia Ryley Delaney
Nov 14, 2026, 12:00 ESTUpdated: Nov 13, 2026, 17:50 EST
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Just like that, the Arizona Fall League season has come to an end for Toronto Blue Jays’ prospects participating.
On Thursday, their Mesa Solar Sox fell 5-2 to the Salt River Rafters, ending the season of eight Blue Jays prospects. Overall, it was a solid few weeks for prospects like Aaron Parker and Jake Cook, but one to forget for Jake Casey and a few other prospects.
In the final AFL check-in, we’ll look at how their final three games went since the last check-in, as well as how all eight prospects did.

The three games

Following the Home Run Derby and Fall-Stars game, the Solar Sox played just two more regular season games. On Tuesday, they tied the Glendale Desert Dogs 3-3 thanks to two seventh inning runs. Three of the five Blue Jays pitchers involved in the AFL pitched in this game.
That tie was followed up with a 12-4 loss to the Rafters in the season finale. Only two Blue Jays prospects were involved in this game, as the Rafters scored 10 runs in the final three innings to set up a quarterfinal matchup between the teams.
On Thursday, the two teams entered the bottom of the third in a nothing-nothing tie game, but a “throwing error” by Blue Jays’ prospect Jake Cook at third base moved them into scoring position. Kyle DeBarge hit a two-out single, and the Rafters never looked back in the 5-2 victory.

How the position players performed

Cook was the lone Blue Jay position player to play on November 10th, going 1-3 with an RBI and a single. Casey was the lone Blue Jays’ position player to play on November 11th, and he went 1-3 with a strikeout and an RBI.
In their final game of the season, the quarterfinal matchup on Thursday, Cook went 2-5 with a double, an RBI, and a strikeout. Casey went 0-3 with two strikeouts. Cook made a nice diving catch in the third, then proceeded to throw a seed to third base that wasn’t picked. It wasn’t the only nice throw he had in the game, just missing picking up an outfield assist later in the game.
Aaron Parker didn’t play in any of the three games, a disappointing development given how his weekend went.
Cook ended his season slashing .343/.397/.371 with two doubles in the regular season and another one in his lone playoff game. Among qualified hitters, the outfielder’s batting average ranked seventh in the AFL.
By not playing in the final two games, Parker is no longer considered a qualified hitter. Still, it was a strong season for the catcher/outfielder, as he slashed .356/.483/.511 with two home runs and a double in 58 plate appearances. Only Welbyn Francisca finished with a higher batting average than Parker of any player with more than 50 plate appearances.
Casey was the polar opposite to Cook and Parker. Over 80 plate appearances, the outfielder slashed just .121/.275/.258 with three doubles and two home runs, alongside 11 RBIs. His .121 batting average was the second-lowest among qualified hitters. It dampens what was an encouraging 2026 season.

How the pitchers performed

Fernando Perez started November 10th’s game, giving up two earned runs and three walks over two innings of work. Gilberto Batista followed him, giving up an earned run with two walks in his inning of work. Yondrei Rojas pitched later in the game and had the most success of the three, striking out a batter in a scoreless inning.
Brandon Barriera pitched on November 11th, striking out two and walking a batter in a scoreless inning. Since Jake Bloss pitched in the Fall-Stars game, he didn’t appear over the final three games to end the AFL season.
Perez had a tough AFL, posting a 9 ERA across nine innings of work. That’s concerning enough, but the righty issued 17 walks and struck out just four, a 31.5 BB% and 7.8 K%. If the numbers were reversed, that would have been a strong K% and BB%.
Batista didn’t have an encouraging AFL season either. Across 11.1 innings of work, he had a 7.15 ERA, with 11 strikeouts and 11 walks, or a 19.6 BB% and K%. Paired with a tough season in High-A, where he posted a 7.86 ERA and 6.61 FIP across 87 innings of work, it’s a season to forget for the 21-year-old.
Barriera and Rojas’ seasons were better, but still not particularly good. The former, drafted 23rd overall by the Blue Jays in 2022, finished the AFL season with a 4.91 ERA in seven and one-third innings of work, with 10 walks and just eight strikeouts, a 26.3 BB% and 18.4 K%.
Rojas finished with a slightly better 4.66 ERA across nine and two-thirds innings of work, with seven walks and 10 strikeouts, picking up a save in the process. Of the four prospects not named “Jake Bloss”, Rojas was the lone Blue Jays’ pitcher with a higher K% (20.8%) than BB% (14.6 BB%). The walk rate was still far too high.
As for Bloss, he had a weird AFL season. His 8.44 ERA was the second-worst among the five Blue Jays’ pitchers, but that’s thanks to just one start where he gave up seven of his 10 earned runs in an inning + of work. The other four starts were solid, hence his inclusion in the Fall-Stars game. Bloss finished with a 24.4 K% and 4.4 BB%.
Cynthia Ryley Delaney is a Nation Network writer for Blue Jays Nation, DFOEdmonton, and DFOCalgary. She can be followed on Twitter @CynthiaRDelaney.
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