Padres’ Alex McCoy posts 118.5 mph blast in Arizona Fall League

The No. 26 Padres prospect hit one of the hardest balls measured in Arizona Fall League Statcast history, driving a 435-foot homer in Peoria’s loss to Scottsdale.

By The Apex Times Newsroom2 min readAI-assisted Apex article

Alex McCoy, the San Diego Padres’ No. 26 prospect, turned in a towering power moment in the Arizona Fall League on Thursday at the Peoria Sports Complex. McCoy slugged a 118.5 mph, 435-foot home run during the fourth inning of Peoria’s 8-5 loss to Scottsdale.

MLB’s Statcast tracking placed McCoy’s ball among the hardest-hit in Arizona Fall League play since Statcast data began in 2015. The report lists only Tony Blanco Jr. (120.4 mph, 2025), Kemp Alderman (119.5 mph, 2024) and Eloy Jiménez (119.4 mph, 2016) as higher marks in that AFL Statcast era.

The swing came early in the at-bat sequence, as the homer followed a first-pitch sinker thrown by Rays right-hander Marcus Johnson. McCoy caught an 89.3 mph pitch over the heart of the plate and pulled it for his extra-base hit.

The hit also aligned with the kind of exit-velocity production McCoy has shown throughout his development. The release notes he recorded an exit velocity as high as 119.5 mph on a groundout for High-A Fort Wayne on April 12, and he hit 118 mph at Single-A Lake Elsinore in 2025.

Despite the loud contact, McCoy’s overall start to the fall schedule came with swings and misses. The report says he struck out in all three of his other at-bats Thursday, and he entered the rest of his AFL run 6-for-25 (.240) with two home runs and 11 strikeouts through his first action. The club frames the assignment as continued exposure to top-end talent, not a recovery stint.

Why It Matters

In the Arizona Fall League, standout measurable power can quickly separate prospects when everyone is facing similar top-end competition.
McCoy’s 118.5 mph mark places his ceiling within the AFL’s best recorded exit-velocity tier, a useful indicator as the Padres evaluate how his power plays against elite arms.
The swing-and-miss note matters too, because it flags a development area while the AFL provides additional reps before the next evaluation cycle.
For Padres fans, the homer is a tangible snapshot of why the organization invested in McCoy’s bat after his July 2024 signing as an undrafted free agent out of Hofstra.

Sources

Key Facts

Alex McCoy, the Padres’ No. 26 prospect, hit an 118.5 mph, 435-foot home run in the fourth inning for Peoria on Thursday.
Peoria lost 8-5 to Scottsdale in the Arizona Fall League game at the Peoria Sports Complex.
MLB reported McCoy’s homer is the fourth-hardest ball hit in AFL Statcast history since 2015.
The homer came off a first-pitch sinker by Rays right-hander Marcus Johnson, and the release says McCoy swung at an 89.3 mph pitch.
In the same game, McCoy struck out in all three of his other at-bats, and the story places him at 6-for-25 (.240) with two homers and 11 strikeouts to begin his AFL time.