Wyatt Sanford’s October in the desert keeps getting louder.
The Pirates’ No. 5 prospect jolted Glendale right away on Oct. 23, ambushing the second pitch he saw and driving it 454 feet to deep center field for a home run. It was the kind of blast that stops a game in its tracks, and it’s become the signature moment of an AFL stretch in which Sanford is batting .275 with an .814 OPS.
Sanford is the highest-ranked Pittsburgh prospect in the Arizona Fall League and one of nine Pirates players on the Glendale Desert Dogs roster. After missing most of June and July with a broken hand, he’s returned to action and looks like he never really lost the momentum from his early power surge. He’s also logging near-daily work at shortstop, the position where he’s continued to shine since going in the second round in 2024.
The Desert Dogs, though, have struggled as a group. Glendale sits at 6-14 through games played on Wednesday, making it the league’s worst club. Sanford’s production has been one of the few bright spots, and a 454-foot homer is the kind of thing nobody ignores for long.
Elsewhere on the roster, catcher Termarr Carmichael has had a quieter start at the plate. He was one of the more productive bats in his first full professional season, pairing offense with solid work behind the plate as he climbed to Double-A Altoona.
Between High-A Greensboro and Altoona, he finished with 20 homers in 111 games. In Glendale, though, he’s still searching for rhythm, going 3-for-30 with eight strikeouts and three walks.
He’s splitting time with Anson Aroz of the Dodgers and Grant Magill of the White Sox, and Luke Scherrer joined the mix Monday as well.
John Severino has shown more punch. The soon-to-be 22-year-old spent all 113 games in 2026 with High-A Greensboro, where he hit .256 with 31 home runs while moving around the diamond between left field, third base and first base.
In the AFL, he’s mostly handled third base and has produced one home run and 10 walks while batting .209 with a .358 on-base percentage. Severino was acquired from the Brewers at the 2023 Trade Deadline in the Carlos Santana deal.
On the mound, RHP Bryan Mena has been the most effective Pirates arm in the desert. He has yet to allow a run across 7 2/3 innings, giving up nine hits and three walks while keeping the opposition off the board.
Mena, who was taken from the Rockies in last offseason’s Rule 5 Draft, spent all season at High-A Greensboro before finishing the year on the injured list. He has worked once out of the bullpen and has also served as an opener twice, throwing 36 pitches in one outing and 41 in another.
Catcher/utility man Jaden Cain has had a tougher go. The nephew of two-time All-Star Lorenzo Cain moved between Single-A Bradenton and High-A Greensboro over 54 innings in 2026, but in Glendale he owns a 7.11 ERA in 6 1/3 innings and has allowed opposing hitters to bat .308 against him. The 22-year-old was drafted in the 19th round out of Oklahoma in 2025 after stops at Coastal Alabama Community College-Monroeville and Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College.
Right-hander John Walsh, who turns 26 in January, has also been trying to close the year on a better note after an injury-filled 2026. In five AFL games and 6 2/3 innings, he has a 6.75 ERA with five walks and four strikeouts. Walsh reached Triple-A Indianapolis for two games in the middle of the summer before another injury intervened, and the 2022 ninth-round pick has pitched mostly out of the bullpen.
Jaden Mueth, meanwhile, still looks like a pitcher with real upside thanks to his 6-foot-6 frame and unusual release point, but the results haven’t followed yet in Arizona. He has allowed nine runs in four innings, with the line inflated by a couple of rough outings.
Even so, he has had three scoreless appearances while working with a “closer’s mentality.” His 10 walks in just four walks haven’t helped.
Scherrer was added to the roster Monday after Carmichael was set to leave at the end of the week. Scherrer played mostly first base during the season, catching only 18 games combined between Bradenton and Greensboro.
In Other News...
Mitch Keller Just Made The Pirates Rotation Decision Even Tougher
Mitch Kellers status has become a bigger part of the Pirates offseason conversation after he acknowledged in an Oct. 23 interview that he was not fully healthy during the 2026 season. He still took the ball for 22 starts, but the year was undercut by inconsistency and a 6-8 record with a 5.29 ERA, leaving Pittsburgh with more questions than clarity about where one of its most established starters fits going forward.
The challenge is not just on the mound, either. Keller is owed $38.8 million over the next two seasons, a number that matters for a club trying to balance payroll while also sorting through a younger wave of rotation options. For the Pirates, the decision on Keller is no longer only about performance, but about how much faith to place in a veteran arm whose value is tied to both his health and the organizations changing pitching picture. [Read more 🡒]
Pirates Offseason Wish List Exposes A Problem Fans Know Too Well
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The bigger issue is less about individual talent than roster construction, and it is one the Pirates know all too well. Their struggles against left-handed pitching have been a season-long problem, and adding more left-handed hitters or pitchers to the mix does not automatically solve that. Lowe and Torres bring value, but if the goal is to stabilize a lineup that has had trouble handling southpaws, the front office will need to be more selective than just chasing recognizable names. [Read more 🡒]
Pirates Face A Costly Roster Dilemma After Breakthrough Season
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Lowe is viewed as the priority because of what he brought offensively, but he is hardly the only player due for a raise. Several arbitration-eligible Pirates are also expected to see their salaries climb, which makes the front offices job more complicated by the day and leaves the club facing a familiar but uncomfortable question: how much of a winner can it afford to keep together? [Read more 🡒]