The crew over at MLB Pipeline has updated the Top 100 prospects in baseball and they’ve updated the Cincinnati Reds Top 30 prospect list now that the draft signings and the trade deadline are behind us.
The Reds have graduated from prospect list eligibility this season the following players: Elly De La Cruz, Matt McLain, Spencer Steer, Brandon Williamson, and Andrew Abbott. Even with all of those players no longer being eligible to show up on these lists, Cincinnati has five players rated as Top 100 prospects in all of baseball.
Leading the way is Noelvi Marte. Coming in at #24 on the list, Marte has split his season this year between Double-A Chattanooga and Triple-A Louisville. In 50 games with the Lookouts in Double-A the infielder hit .281/.356/.464. After his promotion at midseason he has hit .274/.358/.479 in 32 games with the Bats in Triple-A. Between his two stops he’s got an OPS of .278/.357/.470 with 19 doubles, 4 triples, 11 home runs, and 16 stolen bases.
2023’s 1st round draft pick Rhett Lowder is the next Red on the list and the right-handed pitcher comes in at #44. In his junior season this year he posted a 1.87 ERA while going 15-0 in 19 starts. In his 120.1 innings he had 24 walks and 143 strikeouts. He has not yet made his professional debut.
Shortstop Edwin Arroyo is the #62 prospect in baseball according to MLB Pipeline. The shortstop has spent the entire season in High-A with the Dayton Dragons. He got off to a slow start in 2023, hitting .182/.234/.311 in the first 36 games of the year. But in the 57 games since then the 19-year-old has turned everything around and has hit .296/.387/.491. Overall this season he’s got a .745 OPS with 21 doubles, 5 triples, 10 home runs, and 25 steals in 93 games.
Christian Encarnacion-Strand comes in at #73. Now in the big leagues, he spent much of the year in Triple-A Louisville. With the Bats he hit .331/.405/.637 with 21 doubles, 2 triples, and 20 home runs. With the Reds he’s played in 22 games since his call up and he’s hitting .270/.317/.419 with 2 more doubles and 3 additional home runs.
Right-handed pitcher Connor Phillips is the final Reds prospect on the Top 100 list and he is right behind Encarnacion-Strand at #74. He made 14 starts in Double-A Chattanooga where he posted a 3.34 ERA in 64.2 innings with 27 walks and 111 strikeouts. Phillips has also made seven with Triple-A Louisville where he’s posted a 3.41 ERA in 29.0 innings with 22 walks and 34 strikeouts. Between the two stops the 22-year-old has a 3.36 ERA in 93.2 innings with 49 walks and 145 strikeouts.
The Top 30 prospects in the organization is also updated now. As you would expect, the top five guys on the list are the same five in the Top 100. But after that there’s still a lot of depth. The Reds biggest international signing ever (non-Cuban division), Alfredo Duno, is ranked 14th on the list. He was considered one of if not the best players in the entire signing class and has an OPS over 1.000 right now. That’s a strong farm system.
I look at Sal Stewart and am so impressed by this kid. He is only 19 and his plate discipline is pretty amazing. What can he blossom into as he gets even more experience and (assumed) power as he ages? I see a 1st baseman/DH type who may be even better then CES in many ways.
Agree, and interesting to see Dunn at #23 on the Reds list. Both with excellent (w/ Stewart – superior) BB/K ratios, and both on pretty consistent tears thru low MiLB. Very different types of players, and a big age gap (Dunn’s college time and subsequent injury time) but these are the sort of numbers that get fast movement thru the system. Hitters gonna hit.
Dunn should compete for an MLB OF spot next spring, and if Stewart persists we could be looking at another 21 year old MLB debut in 2 years.
If my quick math is correct, 13/14 top prospects were acquired by Krall in the last 18 months thru trade, draft, or international signing. Thats quite a run by Krall’s staff in pro scouting, amateur scouting, and international scouting. Been a rough few weeks in Redsland, but the trajectory is still very high for a franchise loaded with young talent.
Pitching help is not far off. The race for a wild card or more can come down to the last days of the regular season. Not the time to give up. A series win of at least 2 of 3 is needed tonight against the Pirates.
Great looking list of prospects. I wish there were a couple more catchers and outfielders sprinkled in at the top.
There’s been a lot of calls to trade Stephenson. Looking at this list, there’s no way I consider that for now.
BA has three catchers in their revised Top 30, Duno, Cade Hunter and Connor Burns.
Given the overall scarcity of catchers, that’s not too bad.
Pretty exciting. Muted a bit by our NLC competitors, as follows:
MIL – 5
STL – 2 (!)
CHI – 5
PIT – 6
But how many of these teams put 5 rookies in the big leagues this year and still have 5 in the Top 100? Hopefully we can continue to grow the pipeline.
I think Chicago pulled up a lot of AAA players to the Big Club this year, and a few of those still might be on their “Top Prospect” list, like CES is with the Reds (still on the prospect list, but now with the Major League team).
Pittsburgh has finished low in the standings for years, and harvests a lot of high draft picks. I don’t know what that really means, either.
Looking at the Reds’ top 30 prospects, I still see some clinkers in there that are never going to amount to much in the Majors. But that’s just my dumb fan opinion.
Incredible the farm system of the Reds… Collier and Stewart are out of top 100 prospects but the more remarkable in my opinion is Duno also left out of the better 100. On one hand , Ethan Salas was the #1 ranked in the 2023 International class and he is top 5 prospect of all baseball!! on the other hand Duno was #3 in the same class and his numbers in DSL are elite but MLB pipeline considers him not deserving to be in the top 100…I think is something like underrating him…Beside this, MLB Pipeline have Rhett Lowder highly valued since him even has debuted but is ranked #44… They have Logan Tanner in the Reds top 30 list but don’t have Connor Burns…
BA has Burns at #30, Cade Hunter at #28 and Duno at #12.
If you haven’t seen Tanner Logan throw, dude’s got a railgun for an arm.
On the sleeper watch, Michael Trautwein passed Mat Nelson at Dayton and I suspect will have passed Daniel Vellojin at AA if he hasn’t already before the end of the season. He also plays a very serviceable outfield.
We should keep an eye on Trautwein, he has a pretty good year, I like that player, maybe next season will go to triple-A, idk if Chuckie Robinson and Pereda will continue at Louisville by that time…
Salas signed for a bonus almost twice that of Duno. He is already in High A as a 17 yr old. He is more of a known commodity at this point than Duno is. That said, doesn’t mean Duno won’t be just as great a player. You just won’t see any prospects be rated as a top 100 guy until they move stateside
Well, there are a few drafted prospects yet to debut that got included as 100 top members right now so just I say that if Salas deserves to be the #5 top prospect of baseball, maybe Duno could deserve to have been include in the list too, however it is possible Salas is also far away ahead of Duno right now…
Salad looks like he’s holding his own in High A as a 17 year old. I would assume that’s the biggest difference.
Carlos Jorge is the #8 2b in all of MiLB.
CES #73? BS.
I like it, 4 top 100 prospects, 2 infielders, and 2 starting pitchers. 1 of each are due to arrive in 24, and 25. This team is getting stacked.
Interesting. It’s good to have all of these top prospects. I wouldn’t be surprised if they’re saving them to replace the current roster in a few years when they become expensive.
i think that is the “Rays Way” we are trying to perfect her in Cincinnati.
lineups are out. India not starting.
I do like Elle hiyying third.
hitting. geez, my typo’s.
I’m all for replacing 30 yr olds with prospects.
Glad we didn’t trade anyone except Boyle and I wouldn’t have made that trade.
Too many misses with some of our 1st round picks and I hope Rhett didn’t peak at Wake Forest.
Great trades, some decent international signings will help the Reds overcome Senzel and that OF in A ball that will never see AAA in this organization.
Stephenson, Greene, India, Lodolo, Allen, McLain, Collier, Stewart, Lowder and Floyd might disagree.
Not to mention Trammell, Winker, Rob Stephenson, Lorenzen, Grandal, Leake, Boxburger, Alonso, Ervin, Frazier, Merorsco, Stubbs, Bruce, and Bailey.
Senzel optioned to Louisville:
https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2023/08/reds-option-nick-senzel-select-henry-ramos.html
Wondering if they gave him the choice of DFA or option??? The difference is if DFA and someone claimed him on waivers, he was out of the Cincy org. If he wasn’t claimed, he could have refused outright assignment and become an immediate FA but it would have cost him the balance of his contract salary if he took FA status.
Interesting, and some financial questions – Have to believe someone would claim him, in which case isn’t such claiming team paying his salary for the rest of the season – or just the league minimum fraction? At this point it’s a minimal amount either way, but Reds are the Reds.
Still – a blaring declaration he’s an off season trade candidate. Move on, fresh start, and so forth.
If a person is claimed on waivers their contract in whole belongs goes with them to the claiming team.
If they clear waivers and are released, a subsequent signing team has to pay them only the prorated minimum salary portion of the remaining contract and the releasing team is on the hook for the balance.
A player who clears and rejects assignment for free agency forfeits any remaining salary in the contract.
Cool
Also, Ramos called up.
Lineup-wise, SO GLAD to see EDLC out of the leadoff spot. About time. Let’s see how it goes.
Ramos up is probably an indication the news on Fraley’s injury is not as good as they might have hoped.
I fear you are correct, and we may not be seeing Fraley for quite a while. But it makes sense to have another outfielder on the club — a TRUE outfielder, that is.
News breaking all over the place: John Fay, longtime beat reporter covering the Reds, has died at age 66. May he rest in peace.
The news about Fayman cuts deeply. He had posted some articles on a personal site several months ago and pushed them with tweets and also picked up his tweeting after a break but then went silent a couple of months ago.
For me his signature phrase will always be, “Dusty bristled” (and I believe a time or two he admitted to being the reporter who caused the bristle). 😉
Sorry, meant to include links:
https://www.cincinnati.com/story/news/2023/08/11/obituary-enquirer-reds-beat-writer-john-fay-dies-at-66/70577270007/
https://awfulannouncing.com/mlb/cincinnati-reds-beat-reporter-john-fay-dead-66.html
Thank you for posting. What a wonderful story of love.
John Fay was my favorite beat writer for the Reds. I’ve read hundreds of his articles over the years. They talked about about him during last nights game.