The New York Mets sent Connor Grey to the Arizona Fall League on Wednesday. Photo courtesy of Brooklyn Cyclones

Connor Grey is adding another prestigious experience to his resume.

The 2012 Frewsburg graduate was announced Wednesday as one of the New York Mets’ six players assigned to the Arizona Fall League.

The AFL is an offseason baseball league owned and operated by Major League Baseball. Six teams — the Scottsdale Scorpions, Mesa Solar Fox, Salt River Rafters, Glendale Desert Dogs, Peoria Javelinas and Surprise Saguaros — are split into two three-team divisions for a 90-game regular season.

“I’ve always wanted to go to the AFL knowing what it stands for,” Grey said Wednesday evening from the Mets’ Spring Training complex in Port St. Lucie, Florida. “If you do well there, it can speak volumes. I’m just excited to go.”

The Mets’ six prospects — Grey, Brett Baty, Carlos Cortes, Hayden Senger, Colin Holderman and Brian Metoyer– are part of the Rafters along with prospects from the Arizona Diamondbacks, Colorado Rockies, Detroit Tigers and Milwaukee Brewers. The Rafters play in the East Division with the Solar Sox and Scorpions. The West Division is made up of the Desert Dogs, Javelinas and Saguaros. Coincidentally, the Rafters play out of Salt River Fields at Talking Stick — Arizona’s Spring Training complex where Grey spent his first four professional seasons.

“It’ll be kind of weird going back to the place I got drafted,” Grey said. “I’ll be back in the locker room that I know pretty well.”

The AFL will begin play Wednesday, Oct. 13 with the league’s annual Fall Stars Game on Saturday, Nov. 13. The AFL championship game is scheduled for Saturday, Nov. 20.

“They told me I’m going to be starting down there,” Grey said. “I think I’ll throw every five days.”

Seventeen of Major League Baseball’s top 100 prospects are slated to play in the league, including four in the top 10 — Detroit’s Spencer Torkelson and Riley Greene, San Francisco’s Marco Luciano and San Diego’s CJ Abrams.

Wednesday’s assignment continues a rollercoaster ride for Grey, a 2016 St. Bonaventure graduate who was drafted by the Diamondbacks in the 20th round of that summer’s MLB draft.

A casualty of Minor League Baseball’s downsizing and a season lost to the coronavirus pandemic, Grey was cut in June of 2020.

This spring, Grey went a different direction signing with the Chicago Dogs of the American Association of Independent Baseball. In six starts for the Dogs, Grey went 3-2 with a 3.17 earned run average, striking out 37 batters in 34 innings.

“Once I got released, the reason I kept going was because I knew I was still capable of pitching in affiliated ball and getting to the big leagues,” Grey said. “My goal was to be in Chicago for a month and hopefully get out of there by then.”

On June 17, Grey signed with the Mets and was assigned to the Double-A Binghamton Rumble Ponies. After pitching two innings out of the bullpen June 20, Grey moved on to the High-A Booklyn Cyclones where he started four games, going 1-1 with a 3.22 ERA while striking out 25 in 22 1/3 innings and holding opposing hitters to a .182 average.

The Mets then promoted Grey back to the Rumble Ponies where he made five starts and pitched to a 4.55 ERA while striking out 37 in 31 2/3 innings and holding opposing hitters to a .263 average.

“We switched my changeup. I was going from more of a circle changeup to a modified split-change,” said Grey, who still has a full season remaining on his rookie contract. “Other than that, everything is pretty similar to what I have been doing.”

Binghamton’s season was disrupted by a COVID-19 in late August and the Rumble Ponies were sidelined for nearly two weeks. Grey’s last appearance was a 5 2/3-inning start Aug. 24 during which he allowed two runs (one earned) while striking out five in a loss to the New Hampshire Fisher Cats.

“The whole COVID thing was a setback,” Grey said. “The plan was to go to Triple-A after our season and throw live batting practice there, but I missed three weeks with COVID.”

Binghamton returned to action for its final eight games starting Friday, Sept. 10, but Grey did not make another appearance.

“They sent me down to Florida to build back up down there,” said Grey, who will fly from West Palm Beach to Houston before eventually landing in Phoenix later today.

After a few days of workouts, Grey and his Rafters teammates will get underway next Wednesday against Peoria.