One more dispatch from the back fields of Arizona, with reports from the Dodgers, Guardians and Brewers camps...

Lefty Jackson Ferris was, at the time of the trade, the better prospect the Dodgers received in the deal that sent Michael Busch to the Cubs. While he's been lapped by outfielder Zyhir Hope, Ferris, 23, has also continued to progress and could be a mid-rotation starter or better if he can just improve his control and command.

Ferris threw two innings on the Cactus League back fields on Saturday and was absolutely electric. He was 94-97 with big life up on the four-seamer, and he threw four pitches, with tight spin on both the curve and slider and good feel for the changeup, although it was a little close to the fastball at 89-90.

I've heard concerns about his arm swing, including the length his arm travels from glove separation to release, but in this brief look I didn't see anything I'd call "long" in his arm action, and he repeated it well, getting to a consistent three-quarters slot and releasing every pitch from roughly the same position. A two-inning look is obviously not the same thing as a full look at a starter over five-to-six innings, but this was impressive across the board, from stuff to strikes to delivery. (Hope homered in the same game, but I was watching the A-ball games and wasn't over at the Double-A game yet.)

Right-hander Patrick Copen's 2024 season ended with a gruesome injury, as he was hit in the face by a line drive that threatened the vision in one of his eyes. The Dodgers' prospect was on the mound on Tuesday and as good as ever, working 94-96 with his four-seamer, 93-94 with the two-seamer, and he had a cutter at 91 and slider at 84-85 that had some real tilt to it. It's a high three-quarters slot and there's some effort to the delivery, leading to high walk rates in the past, but the 23-year-old was mostly attacking hitters in or near the zone in this look. It is beyond great to see him pitching at all, and amazing that he seems like he might even be better than he was before the injury.

I'd been dying to get a look at Emil Morales, an 18-year-old infielder who trained in the Dominican Republic but originally hails from the Canary Islands (part of Spain), and who signed with the Dodgers for nearly $2 million last spring. I try not to get too giddy just over a guy with a great swing ... but man, Morales has a great swing. He's super balanced, he stays back extremely well on offspeed stuff, and he gets a ton of leverage from his lower half. He's got strong hands and controls the barrel extremely well through contact, with enough loft at least for line-drive power now.

He's a shortstop for now, but I'd guess he ends up at third or at least somewhere else, not that it'll matter if my gut reaction on the swing is right. I'll freely admit to being fooled by great swings before -- longtime readers know how much I liked Josh Vitters as an amateur and early in his prospect career, and I'm still waiting on Tirso Ornelas -- but it is hard to ignore a swing like this when it's attached to a good body like Morales has (listed at 6-foot-3, 191 pounds).

I also wanted to get a look at Ching-Hsien Ko, the 6-3, 18-year-old outfielder the Dodgers signed out of Taiwan last January who played just nine games in the DSL last summer. He's very physical for a Taiwanese kid; the majority of prospects we've seen from Taiwan have been smaller in stature and build, but Ko is tall and already well put-together. I got two plate appearances from him and didn't see a good swing, with just adequate bat speed in the brief look. I'm not making any judgments on such a small sample other than noting that he's bigger and stronger than I anticipated.

I only saw Welbyn Francisca hit left-handed in an afternoon over at the Guardians' complex, which is his worse side for contact; there's a lot of extraneous movement in the swing, but he swings very hard, and I can see how he's already posted strong exit velocities at age 18. He's sub-six foot (listed at 5-8) but strong like bull, and I can live with the extra movement if he shows he can get to fastballs on time. He fell behind 1-2 in his first at-bat and then stayed back well on a changeup and blooped a double down the right field line, then struck out on a changeup in his next at-bat.

Jaison Chourio, 19, isn't his brother, Jackson, but he might be a different kind of star. His two-strike approach is incredible, but it almost doesn't look like he's trying to do anything different when he gets to two strikes. I've heard references to hitters with "low heartbeats" or something similar to indicate that they don't panic or press with two strikes, but Chourio is as unfazed by two-strike counts as any hitter his age I've seen in ... a decade? I got three plate appearances from him on Monday and he went to two strikes in all three, 0-2 in two of them, and ended up hitting singles the other way every time, all batting left-handed. He's not shortening up to go the other way, or widening his stance like so many hitters do. He's just hitting the ball where it is and driving it hard enough to get it to the outfield. There's something delightfully old-school about his approach that makes me a fan.

Ralphy Velazquez, 19, hit behind Francisca and Chourio and walked, homered, and flew out to left in the three PA I saw, with the homer coming on a hanging slider and the flyout on one of those pitches where he just missed squaring it up and sending it to the wall or over it. I may be tilting at windmills here but I'd like to see him catch 10-20 games this year just to keep it alive as a possibility -- he's going to be a very good hitter, but isn't he even more valuable if he's a viable third catcher, too?

The Guardians had a group of very young hitters they'd brought over from the DSL, with two who stood out. Shortstop Gabriel Rodriguez, 17, has what I think of as the "classic" shortstop look -- moderately tall, very lean, smooth and fluid on defense, with a good swing that just needs his strength to catch up to him. He made several strong plays on defense and ran well on his one hit, a double the other way. (The Guardians have two minor leaguers named Gabriel Rodriguez; I'm talking about the 17-year-old who was born in Florida but signed as an international free agent from Venezuela in 2024.)

Outfielder Juneiker Caceres, 17, is the opposite sort of player from Rodriguez; he's listed at 5-10 and is already strong, almost stocky, with a really good swing and approach, and made much harder contact during the game.

I did see some more of Brewers prospect Jesus Made, my third look at him in three days, and got pretty much the same look: he's twitchy and has great bat speed, with good actions at short, but even Low-A pitching overmatched him a little bit. I was thrilled to finally see a right-handed plate appearance from him ... and he walked on five pitches. Hi ho.