Four Wahoos Head To Arizona Fall League

Four members of the 2019 Blue Wahoos squad will continue their baseball seasons in the top prospect-laden Arizona Fall League. Royce Lewis, Ben Rortvedt, Jovani Moran, and Dakota Chalmers will join the Salt River Rafters when the AFL begins their season next week.
Lewis, the #1 overall prospect in the Minnesota Twins system, played 33 games in a Wahoos uniform during the regular season, hitting .231/.291/.358 with a pair of home runs before hitting .400 during the Southern League Playoffs. Ranked as the #7 prospect in the game by MLB Pipeline, Lewis was a Florida State League All-Star and a Futures Game selection in 2019.
Rortvedt will make up for lost time in the AFL after seeing his Wahoos season ended by a knee injury in mid-August. The highly-touted defensive backstop set a career high for home runs in 2019 while slashing .238/.334/.379 and driving in 29 runs. The #30 prospect in the Twins system, Rortvedt is ranked second among Twins catching prospect, behind fellow Wahoo Ryan Jeffers.
Limited to just 37.2 innings in 2019 by an arm injury, Moran will also be playing catchup in the fall league while showing off his prodigious strikeout ability to baseball's top prospects. Limited by injury in the first half, Moran posted a strong 3.26 ERA in the second half, finishing the season with a stellar 2.13 mark in August and an impressive 13.1 K/9 ratio on the year.
Chalmers made just one appearance for Pensacola in 2019, but it was a memorable one, as the 22-year-old debuted in the Southern League Playoffs by throwing 3.1 hitless innings of relief for the Wahoos. Acquired in the 2017 Fernando Rodney trade from Oakland, Chalmers posted a cumulative 3.32 ERA in 10 regular and post-season appearances in 2019 between three levels.
The quartet of Wahoos will be joined by fellow Twins prospects Moises Gomez, Zach Neff, and Luke Raley on the Rafters roster. Comprised of prospects from the Diamondbacks, Rockies, Marlins, Rays, and Twins, the Rafters will feature a slew of top prospects including Arizona's #4 prospect Seth Beer, Colorado's #3 prospect Colton Welker, Marlins #14 Víctor Víctor Mesa, and Rays #6 prospecdt Shane Baz. View the full roster here.
A developmental league designed to offer top prospects additional playing time against high level competition in the off-season, the league has produced 19 MLB Most Valuable Players, six Cy Young winners, and 29 Rookies of the Year while 60% of the league's alumni have gone on to play in the Major Leagues.