Former Blue Jays Prospect Helps Aaron Parker Win Arizona Fall League Home Run Derby
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In Saturday night's Arizona Fall League Home Run Derby, Aaron Parker didn't just get by with a little help from a friend.
He won it.
And he wasn't even supposed to be in it.
On Friday night around 10:30, Parker got a text from James McGrady, saying, 'Can I call you?'
McGrady works in operations for the Mesa Solar Sox, the AFL team where the Blue Jays' prospects are this year.
Parker had just gotten back from dinner with his parents, who were in town for the Fall Stars Weekend, and was in bed watching a movie.
Late-night texts with that question are usually bad news, but in this case, McGrady was calling Parker to ask if he wanted to be part of the AFL's Home Run Derby Saturday night as a replacement for Dodgers prospect Chase Harlan.
Umm, yes.
"Any chance I get to play more baseball, I am going to sign myself up for it," Parker told me before Sunday's Fall Stars game, the night after the Derby.
"It's so fun to hit the ball hard. It's almost like a stress release. So getting to do it in a competition is just a bigger plus."
He then started calling friends.
One of those friends was Arjun Nimmala, his former New Hampshire teammate and Toronto's #2-ranked prospect when he was traded to the Angels on August 3rd, the day of the trade deadline. Angels prospects were also assigned to the Solar Sox, so Nimmala is temporarily teammates again with Parker and the other Blue Jays playing in the AFL.
"As soon as I knew that he was in Derby, I said he was going to win it because I've been around Aaron for what 2 or 3 years now, and I've seen him every single day, and I had no doubt in my mind that he was going to win the Derby," Nimmala shared with On SI.
Parker wasn't quite so sure after hitting zero home runs in batting practice on Saturday ahead of the Derby.
He then proceeded to crush twelve home runs in the preliminary round.
Parker struggled in the semifinals before using his timeout. He regrouped with help from Nimmala.
"Arjun Namala is just the best," Parker said. "He comes out and gives me water, and every time he gives me water, he says, 'You're gonna win this thing. This thing is yours.'
"Having somebody to help you in the moment is the best thing you can ask for, especially when you might be down and out on yourself. And it's just like, never give up, and understand that everybody around you believes in you, and that kind of takes the pressure off you."
Down to his final two outs, Parker got rolling, hit three mammoth home runs, and advanced to the finals.
In the final round, Parker faced off against the Cardinals' 17th-ranked prospect Tai Peete.
Peete went first and only hit one home run.
Parker stepped up and quickly tied Peete.
He then ended it with a 477-foot shot to left-center, where the kids and a few adults were scrambling for balls on the berm in the outfield. During the competition, Parker hit 19 home runs, including a 497-foot shot.
Aaron Parker is the 2026 @MLBazFallLeague Home Run Derby champion 🏆
— MLB Pipeline (@MLBPipeline) November 8, 2026
The @BlueJays prospect mashed 19 total dingers and crushed the title clincher 477 feet! pic.twitter.com/AfXXpRwtr6
"I was telling my dad after the rounds that I was the most locked in I've ever been in a box before. Like, obviously it rivals ninth-inning kind of pressure, but at the same time, you know, like you can catch a groove, and he's trying to let you hit a homer, so you can even, like, step on it a little bit more. And so yeah, the eyes were getting pretty much as big as they've ever been up there."
Parker needs a little work on his bat flip to match Jose Bautista, but he is no stranger to crushing baseballs. He hit 19 dingers in just 87 games with Double-A New Hampshire and has added two more with Mesa, where he is triple-slashing .356/.483/.511.
In the Derby, Parker didn't have to worry about swinging and missing, but he will need to cut down on his 32.3 K% to contribute to the Blue Jays.
But when he does make contact, don't be scrolling your phone on the outfield berm, or you might get an unwanted souvenir to the forehead. His 90th-percentile exit velocity of 107.9 mph puts him in the top 1% of Minor Leaguers.
Parker is a catcher by trade, but is less reliable than in-flight WiFi at throwing out baserunners. Opponents stole 96 bases against Parker in 112 attempts, for just a 14% caught-stealing percentage versus the MLB average of around 23%.
So Toronto sent Parker to play in Arizona to learn left field, a position he had never played at any level. Parker has embraced the change of scenery and taken it as a new challenge.
"Wherever you are in your career, there's always another mountain to climb," Parker said. "There's always more work to be done, and I think that's my favorite part about baseball."
In Sunday's Fall Stars game, Parker started at DH, where he might also contribute to the Blue Jays.
Before the Final Round, Peete and Parker were both asked to tell the crowd why they should root for them. Peete went first with a bland and frankly unmemorable statement (if I remembered it, I swear I would tell you).
Parker was up next, and the 5'7" Parker told the crowd to root for him because he was doing it for everyone under six feet. That won over most of the crowd.
Unranked Blue Jays prospect Aaron Parker won the Arizona Fall League Home Run Derby last night on this swing. pic.twitter.com/d7DA5TobiU
— SleeperBlueJays (@SleeperBlueJays) November 8, 2026
"It just seemed like a funny thing to say," Parker explained. " I definitely am under six feet, and I definitely swing pretty hard. So I always think it's fun, and it gets people to rally around you because I think baseball is such a fun sport where every body type gets to play this game, and every kind of athlete gets to play this game, and has an opportunity to play this game, so it's always fun to show life for my style of body type."
As for the six-foot-and-over crowd, he only needed one of them on his side— Arjun Nimmala.
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Adam Steinmetz writes about the Toronto Blue Jays for On SI. Adam is also the editor and publisher of the Boston Sunday Sports Section, a weekly digital publication covering the Patriots, Red Sox, Celtics, and Bruins. A two-time winner of the Best Collegiate Sports Writer award in Philadelphia, he began his career with freelance work for The Philadelphia Daily News and The Palm Beach Post before building a successful career outside of journalism. He returned to sports writing last year, contributing to Pitcher List—including coverage of the Toronto Blue Jays—before launching Authorenticity on Substack, where he explores the human stories within baseball. The Boston Sunday Sports Section is his most ambitious project — the thinking fan’s modern Sunday Sports Section focused on the Patriots, Red Sox, Celtics, and Bruins.