Several AL Central teams saw Minor League affiliates win championships in 2026, a good sign for the future. Plus, some strong performances from AFL-bound players. Here’s a look at our September 2026 farm report for the five clubs in the division.

Guardians

We’ll start with the pitchers, as several Guardians hurlers ranked among their respective league leaders over the final couple of weeks.

Caden Favors led the Eastern League over the last three weeks in strikeouts (28), which put a nice bow on the 25-year-old’s 2026 campaign. Favors finished the year with 140 strikeouts over 128 innings, and while he may not flash the hardest fastball at 92-93, his curveball is very good.

High-A Lake County was home to several high-octane swing-and-miss pitchers, most notable Harrison Bodendorf. Bodendorf finished the year with over 100 strikeouts. Other pitchers, like Nelson Keljo and reliever Melkis Hernandez, had trouble with walks during the course of the last part of 2026.

Ryan Prager, who spent all of 2026 with Low-A Hill City, finished with 93 strikeouts over 71 innings. As noted in our AL West review, Prager was, like he was for most of 2026, one the top pitchers in terms of Whiff% in the Carolina League from 8/20-9/6.

Moving to the hitters, it was a nice end for outfielder Jaison Chourio. Chourio picked up 23 hits, as well as 10 stolen bases, over his final 19 games with Akron.

Anthony Martinez did very well over the last two weeks in High-A Lake County. The former UC Irvine first baseman had five home runs over his last 15 games with the Captains.

Royals

Kansas City can claim that one team in their system won a Minor League title, as High-A Quad Cities captured the 2026 Midwest League crown.

Overall, the River Bandits were a microcosm of what the future could like for the Royals. Particularly, within the rotation. David Shields finished the regular season with 18 strikeouts over his final 15 innings, giving him 139 over 116 innings for Quad Cities. Kendry Chourio, also on that team, limited opposing hitters to a .195 average this season.

Those two have emerged as the best pitching prospects in the system, one that also become deeper in that department via the MLB Draft.

As for the bats, Zion Rose had a good run in the Midwest League before going to the Arizona Fall League. Rose slashed .324/.438/.432 with six stolen bases, plus a tidy Whiff% of 17.9% between August 20 and September 6. For a team that needs impact outfielders, Rose could be someone to join the club as early as 2027.

Moving up to Double-A, Hunter Owen pushed to Triple-A after a fantastic final three games with Northwest Arkansas. Owen struck out 26 and walked four over 18 IP, and didn’t allow a home run during those frames. He finished the year with three relief appearances with Triple-A Omaha.

Spencer Nivens, who repeated Double-A in 2026, racked up 26 hits over his final 21 games of 2026 with Northwest Arkansas.

Lastly, Carson Roccaforte had a strong final month with Triple-A Omaha. Across 25 games, Roccaforte blasted five home runs, 12 extra-base hits, and a Pull FB%, as one would expect with his power-heavy tendency, amongst the tops in Triple-A.

Tigers

Among the 10 hitters with the highest Whiff% in the Midwest League over the final two plus weeks, four were from West Michigan.

One was Jackson Strong, who nearly hit 20 home runs in 2026 but batted .198 with the Whitecaps in 2026. His 43% was up there, as was Beau Ankeney‘s 40.7%. Ankeney had a strong overall 2026 campaign, and some strikeouts don’t negate that.

The same be said for Bryce Rainer, who finished up with 19 home runs and 44 extra-base hits in High-A. However, he struck out over 170 times this year, and a 57.6% Whiff% in that span, despite being a small one, is high.

Moving to Low-A for a second, Cris Rodriguez had a fantastic end to 2026. Rodriguez slashed .344/.364/.813 with three home runs and eight extra-base hits over eight games with Lakeland. He’ll likely start 2027 back with Lakeland, where he will be a name to watch down in the Florida State League.

Michael Oliveto (.815 OPS) also performed well over his final 10 contests. Jordan Yost had 11 hits over his final 10 games with Lakeland and put the ball in play quite a bit. His Whiff% was the lowest in the FSL over the final few days.

And speaking of 2025 draft picks, Ben Jacobs capped off a fantatic 2026 season with 17 strikeouts over his last 10 innings with West Michigan.

Zyhir Hope hit .348 with six extra-base hits (four home runs) over his final 17 games with Double-A Erie.

Twins

It was a good end of the year for Vahn Lackey, the Twins’ top pick from 2026. Lackey was moved to High-A Fort Myers after he got his feet wet in Low-A, and proceeded to have a nice 10-game run with the Kernels. He slashed .316/.500/.500 with Cedar Rapids.

Lackey was a walks machine for High-A, as he racked up 14 while striking out eight times. Just looking at his Take%, which is a circumstantial stat to a certain extent, you can see why Lackey walked so many times.

He played alongside another notable catching prospect in Cedar Rapids, Eduardo Tait. Tait’s final numbers weren’t impressive on paper, as he slashed .226/.288/.396 with five extra-base hits (two home runs) over his last 12 games. But he did take the ball to the pull side a good amount, and also had the lowest Whiff% in the circuit over the last two plus weeks.

Both figures, obviously, are noteworthy.

Marek Houston finished his 2026 season on a high with Double-A Wichita. Houston picked up 20 hits and posted a .373 on-base percentage over his last 16 games. The Twins’ top pick from 2025 didn’t show the kind of pop that showed up with Wake Forest in 2025. Nonetheless, he had over 40 extra-base hits, stole 50 bases, and showcased one of the best hit tools in the system.

Up in Triple-A, the Saints lost two notable prospects to MLB promotions. Kala’i Rosario wound up being the big bat on St. Paul down the stretch, as he led the International League in home runs (8) over the final month.

And finishing up with Low-A, Quentin Young continued a familiar theme and had a Whiff of 47.1% down the stretch. Carson Tinney hit four home runs over his last 10 games of 2026 with Fort Myers. His Barrel% was among the best in the FSL.

White Sox

As we noted in our first-rounder recap from earlier in September, Roch Cholowsky didn’t tear it up in his short stint with High-A Winston-Salem. However, he didn’t play much with the Dash before landing on the injured list.

For many of the well-known names in the White Sox system, it was more of the same. Caleb Bonemer, much like he started the year, ended it with a bang. Bonemer hit six home runs and 11 extra-base hits over his final 21 in Double-A, pushing him to 37 in total this season. He’ll enter 2027 with a lot of focus on him.

High-A Winston-Salem, the 2026 South Atlantic League champions, were well-represented down the stretch on the leaderboard. Ely Brown & Jeral Perez were tied for the league lead in hits (21) over the final two plus weeks. Brown also hit well in his brief playoff stint before landing on the IL during the postseason.

Clay Burdette, taken this past July out of Xavier, had a penchant for swing-and-miss, ranking among the 10 highest in that category for Low-A Kannapolis. But Burdette didn’t take himself out of at-bats that much, despite the high Whiff%. He wound up batting .321 with seven extra-base hits over his last 14 games of 2026.

Check out more of our Minor League coverage.