A Week of Instructional League Scouting Notes

Now that the lower minor leagues’ regular seasons are over, teams have commenced with instructional league activity in a traditional sense, with a select group of players from several of their affiliates working out and scrimmaging at their spring training complexes. While “Bridge League” (the unofficial period of scrimmage activity that occurs after the late-July conclusion of the Complex Level schedule) frequently includes some newly drafted players, most of the rosters are made up of the guys who have been on the complex all year. But once “instructs” begin, the talent and quality of play of these games ascends to a different level as teams test their most interesting young players or get an intimate look at prospects who might be up for a 40-man roster spot during the winter. The snowbirds haven’t returned in full because the weather here in Arizona is still pretty gross, so driving across the metro is easier now than it will be in a few weeks (and during next year’s spring training). For that reason, I decided to focus my early looks on teams based in the western half of the Phoenix metro, farther from the house.

I returned from a visit home to Pennsylvania late Wednesday night and decided to go to a late-morning Brewers intrasquad game on Thursday when I learned that their second-round pick, lefty J.D. Thompson out of Vanderbilt, would be one of the starters. While most teams here in Arizona are playing a schedule that includes games against other clubs, the Brewers instructs schedule consists entirely of intrasquads (though this may be subject to change). Thompson threw just one inning and looked the same as he did pre-draft, mostly sitting 93-94 with whiff-inducing carry and plus breaking stuff. He’s hitting 93-94 mph for most of the following video, the curveballs 78-80 mph. Thompson also threw some bad changeups, so the Brewers haven’t made any magical headway in that regard just yet. I’ve juiced Thompson’s projected curveball grade a bit based on this look, but his overall grade (45 FV, which was a little bit heavier than his draft position and bonus) remains the same.

Milwaukee 2025 undrafted free agent Jarrette Bonet sat 94-95 with his sinker and flashed a heavy upper-80s splitter capable of getting groundballs. The 230-pound, 20-year-old righty was a two-way high school prospect in Puerto Rico, pitched on their 2023 U-18 World Cup team, spent two seasons at San Jacinto, and then pitched for Trenton in the 2025 MLB Draft League. Bonet (pronounced, a team source told me, like “Lisa Bonet”) was mostly a sinker/slider guy as an amateur, so this split is a new offspeed pitch. He’s nice lower-level relief prospect, the sort who lives toward the bottom of a prospect list, manifested basically out of thin air. Kevin Garcia, a physical 18-year-old Venezuelan catcher with above-average bat speed but poor contact ability, threw the ball really well for me and popped an accurate sub-two seconds multiple times. He’s physical, swings hard, and held his own during a cup of coffee in full-season ball toward the end of the year, but strikeouts are probably going to be an issue here.

There were pockets of rain throughout the Phoenix metro on Thursday, one of which clipped the northwest part of the region and caused the Royals-Padres game (which was to feature several fresh Royals draftees) to be pushed a day. I spent Friday and Saturday at the Royals’ place watching those two clubs. I caught Nestor Cortes and Xander Bogaerts making rehab appearances.

On the prospect side of things, San Diego has rolled out the red carpet for a lot of its more interesting arms. Across two days at camp, I saw several pitchers who I thought exceeded the talent threshold for inclusion on the Padres list. The most significant of these was their 2025 first rounder, enormous lefty Kruz Schoolcraft. Schoolcraft’s velocity has been better than this in a couple of his post-draft outings, but on this day he was 93-96 (mostly 95-96) with a plus-flashing changeup and a below-average 79-80 mph breaking ball. Schoolcraft’s size and athleticism are pretty special and stand apart from most big league athletes, let alone his teenage peers. His natural breaking ball quality is not great (I was glad to at least see him throw a few, because when I saw him before the draft, he threw none), and this will probably limit his bat-missing ceiling to a degree, but so long as Schoolcraft improves as a strike-thrower he could be a meaningfully good starter thanks to his durability and inning-eating efficiency. He enters the offseason on the 45/40+ FV line.

Japanese-born righty Bryan Balzer (up to 98, plus slider) and Miguel Mendez (up to 100, below-average secondary pitches) are established prospects (you can read more about them here) with late-inning relief upside (this was the best I’ve seen Balzer), while Kleiber Olmedo (a 21-year-old A-ball righty sitting 94-95 with a plus changeup and poor control) and Sean Barnett (a two-way player sitting 95 with a hard cutter/slider) put themselves in the discussion for the bottom of the Padres prospect list on next update. Here is Balzer’s inning;

The Royals (whose instructs roster is loaded) threw each of their first three pitcher draft picks from 2025: $1.5 million high school signee Cameron Millar, 71st overall pick Justin Lamkin, and 61st overall pick Michael Lombardi (whose innings I missed to take a call from an executive). But I thought their most impressive arm on this day was ninth rounder Shane Van Dam out of North Carolina State. Van Dam had Tommy John surgery in 2024 and wasn’t back until the very end of the 2025 college season, when he threw just eight innings. This is a 6-foot-5 righty of prototypical pro pitcher build, with a lovely arm action and a plus curveball. Van Dam sat 95-96 during this outing. Context is important: This is a well-rested individual airing it out in short bursts right now, but if this is a thing Van Dam can sustain through the first couple months of the 2026 season, he’s going to be one of the Royals’ better pitching prospects. He had the look of a 40+ FV pitcher on this day, and given how little track record he has due to injury, he’ll enter the offseason on the 40+/40 FV line, which is pretty heavy for a ninth rounder. Here is a sample of his outing:

My next dispatch will include notes from Rockies and Rangers camp, including a look at several of Texas’ recent high school draftees and Ethan Holliday.