Los Angeles Angels' 6-foot-11 pitching prospect Peyton Olejnik was named a sleeper to keep an eye on during the upcoming Arizona Fall League season by MLB.com.
If you were to paint a picture of the prototypical prospect who could benefit from participating in MLB's annual Arizona Fall League (AFL), right-handed pitcher Peyton Olejnik might be your subject.
Of course, you'd need a large canvas and a lot of paint to complete the portrait.
Olejnik, who spent the 2026 season pitching for the Los Angeles Angels' High-A affiliate Tri-City Dust Devils in Pasco, WA, stands 6-feet, 11-inches tall. If he were to eventually make it to the majors, he would join fellow right-handed pitchers Jon Rauch, who pitched for seven teams in 12 seasons, and Sean Hjelle, who appeared in 93 games over four seasons from 20022-25 for the San Francisco Giants, as the only 6-foot-11 players in history.
What makes Olejnik such a compelling AFL participant is that he possesses some obvious talent. Until now, though, has been unable to harness his stuff as a professional, making the six weeks or so he will spend pitching for the AFL's Mesa Solar Sox crucial to his future development.
In fact, Olejnik's potential is so tantalizing that MLB.com writers Jonathan Mayo and Sam Dykstra named him the Angels' AFL sleeper prospect to watch in a report they posted on Sept. 30.
"Olejnik has the chance to stand out for the Mesa Solar Sox, and it’s not just because he’s 6-foot-11," the duo wrote. "The right-hander was on the back end of the Angels’ Top 30 at the start of the season, but got nudged off as he posted a 4.47 ERA in 106.2 IP with High-A Tri-City. He still missed bats (9.4 K/9), but as a guy without wow stuff, he needs to cut down on his walks and command his stuff within the zone better so he doesn’t get squared up as much (8.3 BB/9 in 2026)."
While all of those peripheral stats are red flags for Olejnik, there were some undoubted positives for him this season at Tri-City.
The most obvious is that in June he was named the Northwest League's Pitcher of the Month. In four starts that month covering 22.2 innings, he posted a 2-0 record and 1.99 ERA with 24 strikeouts and only 16 hits allowed with seven walks. That equated to a .193 batting average against with a 1.01 WHIP.
Olejnik followed up that stellar stretch by winning the Northwest League's Pitcher of the Week award for the week of July 12. In his start that week against the Hillsboro (OR) Hops, he twirled five innings of three-hit ball with 10 strikeouts and zero walks as the Dust Devils posted an 11-0 victory.
This season was Olejnik's third in the Angels' organization after being drafted in the sixth round of the 2024 MLB Draft out of Miami (OH) University. He totaled a combined record of 6-7 over 29 starts at Single-A Inland Empire in the California League in 2024 and 2025 before advancing to Tri-City this season.
Olejnik is one of eight Angels' prospects who will be competing in the AFL beginning on Oct. 3. Headlining the group is shortstop Arjun Nimmala, the Angels' No. 1 prospect and No. 35 minor-league prospect overall, according to MLB Pipeline. He and third-base prospect Jake Munroe, who will also be playing for Mesa this fall, helped lead the Angels' Rocket City (AL) Double-A team to the 2026 Southern League championship.
