SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — In a late July at-bat for Single-A Myrtle Beach, Owen Ayers couldn’t shake the feeling something was wrong. He pushed through the plate appearance, but didn’t put his catcher’s gear back on the next inning. It turned out his right hand was broken. And amid the club’s Carolina League playoff push, it looked like his 2025 was over.
Then came the Arizona Fall League.
The premier prospect circuit offered Ayers, 24, a lifeline to end his campaign on a positive note. After enjoying a successful July in which he collected 18 RBIs in 18 games, he brought that hot bat to the Fall League and rode it to the league’s Breakout Player of the Year award after slashing .379/.539/.591 with three homers and 16 RBIs. He walked more times (22) than anyone in the league and ranked in the top six in hits (25) and total bases (39).
“I’m just trying to do my best and trust the preparation these coaches have given me,” said Ayers. “I’ve had a lot of good coaches in my career, so I’m very thankful for what I’ve learned from them and just glad I’m able to put it together on the field.”
The Cubs have an illustrious lineage in the Fall League awards department: their four past winners of the league’s Joe Black MVP Award (Nelson Velazquez, Kris Bryant, Sam Fuld, Jason Dubois) are the most of any club. Ayers becomes the first member of the organization to take home hardware since James Triantos (No. 10 prospect) was named the league’s Offensive Player of the Year in 2023.
Back to full health, it clicked quickly for Ayers in Arizona. He earned the campaign’s first AFL Hitter of the Week honors, and then just kept on hitting. All told, he reached base in 19 of his 20 regular-season games, then hammered a go-ahead three-run homer during Mesa’s opening-round playoff victory.
As difficult as it can be to take on advanced arms from the upper levels in the batter’s box, Ayers also had to learn an entirely new staff of arms from behind the plate in the Fall League. He displayed his versatility by making multiple starts at first base and right field, but his time in the desert enabled him to dive deep on the nuances of catching.
After splitting time between catching and first base during his junior year with Marshall in 2023, Ayers transitioned behind the plate full time the following season. His plus throwing arm works well in neutralizing the run game, and after throwing out 23.8 percent of runners during his brief pro debut in ‘24, he hosed 30 percent of would-be basestealers with Myrtle Beach this season.
A major part of throwing out runners is largely tied to the elite pop times Ayers has displayed in the AFL. The 19th-round selection from the 2024 Draft posted three of the top four — and six of the top nine — pop times to second base across the circuit, all of which clocked in at under 1.8 seconds. (There were just 33 instances during the 2025 MLB season of catchers posting better than a 1.8-second pop time on throws to second.)
“I’m just always looking for someone to run and someone to throw out,” said Ayers. “That’s just what makes the game fun to me. Any chance I get to do that, I’m gonna try to show it off and show people what I’ve got.”
Three years running, the AFL’s Breakout Player of the Year has gone on to make his Major League debut the following season (Caleb Durbin, 2024; Oliver Dunn, 2023; Edouard Julien, 2022). While that’s highly unlikely for Ayers — who is yet to play above Single-A — it’s an indication of how far he’s come in his second professional season, now knocking on the door of the Cubs’ Top 30 Prospects list.
“It’s nice to have a lot of success and everything, but at the end of the day, I realized what I do here doesn’t matter for next year,” said Ayers. “If I do good or do bad, really it’s the preparation in the offseason, what I do in Spring Training that’s gonna determine how well I’m able to do next year. I’m just trying to stay even, not get too high, too low, and just continue to put the work in because I know I have a lot of work left to do. Even though I’ve had some success, it doesn’t end.”
