While the Cincinnati Reds have the day off on Thursday it felt like it would be a good chance to look at some of the things going on down on the farm and it’s a perfect time, too, because Wednesday night was full of highlights in the minor leagues.
We can start in Triple-A Louisville where outfielder Hector Rodriguez hit for the cycle in the Bats 20-5 blowout win. Rodriguez, one of the Reds top prospects, is still just 22-years-old but has made his way up the ladder since being acquired from the Mets when he as a teenager in the deal that sent Tyler Naquin to New York at the trade deadline.
Rodriguez has been holding his own in Triple-A this season. His plate discipline has improved quite a bit this season as he’s been more patient, chased pitches out of the zone far less often than he has in the past, walked more, and he’s still hitting for a solid average and plenty of power. On Wednesday night you got a chance to see all of that. He began his day with an opposite field single, then hit a 420-foot home run. An inning later he would double into the right field corner. And he completed his cycle on a triple off of the wall in right-center.
Rodriguez spent the second half with Louisville in 2025. He played in 53 games and had a .709 OPS. He hit .260, but he only drew 12 walks – which gave him a .304 on-base percentage. His power was down a little bit, too, as he slugged just .405. This season he’s hitting for a higher average, posting a .282 mark through 63 games. He’s also walked 30 times to boost his on-base percentage to .359. And after last night’s power barrage, he’s slugging .498 with 11 doubles, four triples, and 12 home runs. That’s good to an .857 OPS from the left-handed hitter outfielder.
A Moon Shot of a Homer
If you want to talk about big time power on the farm system there are a few guys you can point to. But the guy who gets to it more than anyone else is 20-year-old catcher Alfredo Duno. In 2025 he won the Single-A Florida State League’s Most Valuable Player Award. He led the league in nearly every offensive category there is except batting average (he finished 2nd) and triples. He had a league best 18 home runs in his 113 games player for Daytona last year and it was easily the best in the pitcher friendly league.
Last night saw Duno absolutely unload on a baseball in Dayton. In the bottom of the 5th inning he got a 94 MPH fastball up in the zone and he hit it to the moon. Well, almost. The home run cleared the wall and the concourse in left field. Beyond the concourse is a food stand. Above the stand is a large videoboard. Duno’s home run nearly hit the top of the videoboard, clanking off of his last name.
Duno, the Reds top prospect, was their biggest signing in their 2023 international class and he’s done nothing but show that it was the right call to sign him ever since. This season he’s had some ups-and-downs but he’s hitting .266/.388/.526 through 51 games for Dayton. That’s come along with 11 doubles and 13 home runs.
Only three players have more home runs in the league than the 20-year-old Duno does and they are all several years older than he is. Among the players in the league who are 20 or younger with at least 100 plate appearances (just 14 players), Duno leads the group in home runs, RBI, and walks.
Tidbits and Notes
TJ Friedl went 0-8 in his first two games after being optioned to Triple-A. Since then he’s gone 8-17 with three doubles, a walk, and a home run.
Back in Arizona a young catcher is turning heads for what he’s been doing in the batters box. Jirvin Morillo is in his first season in the US after playing two years in the Dominican Summer League. The 19-year-old has played in 24 games for the complex level team in Goodyear and is hitting .341/.455/.598 with 18 walks, eight doubles, two triples, and three home runs. He’s among the top 10 in the league in average, on-base percentage, slugging, hits, doubles, and OPS.
We spoke about Alfredo Duno, the club’s top international signing from 2023 above. This year’s top international signing, Angel Nunez, is just getting his career started. He has played in six games with the Dominican Summer League Rojos this season (their season doesn’t start until June) and he’s come out of the gate raking. He’s hitting .391/.481/.696 with four extra-base hits, three steals, and more walks than strikeouts so far.
Alfredo Duno is a very strong human being.
Glad to see Hector Rodriquez doing well at AAA. I still think he needs to be down in AAA all season. He could probably “compete” in the majors now, but it would be better if he is a more finished hitter.
The way this organization operates does it really matter?
That’s kinda where I am at right now. There is such a big gap between AAA and the majors, it’s hard to get too excited about someone doing well in Louisville let alone Dayton.
Yep . Agree 110% Mark . They will slow walk these guys thru levels and keep them in
minors as long as possible . This front office and ownership collectively have ZERO
vision. Same as it ever was , same as it ever was ….. letting the days go by , water flowing underground ….
I assume then, that you would prefer they rush guys to the big leagues as soon as possible, right? If a guy tears it up in the minors but still has things to work on, who cares? Bring him up and tell him sink or swim, right?
That’s certainly not what they did with Chase Burns.
Nope. Doesn’t matter at all.
Why do you even come here?
I am sure I have been a Reds fan much longer than you Doug so please don’t criticize my frustration or anybody else’s. Just because we are frustrated doesn’t mean we don’t care. At times you are frustrated with some of the things your children do but you still care about them because you love them. I coached High School basketball for over 30 years and some of my teams frustrated he heck out of me but I didn’t give up on them so I won’t give up on the Reds and I will continue to watch every game. End of rant.
Bravo Doug. The same question I have most days
I will criticize anyone who comes to a Reds website and responds to my writing with “does it matter?”. If you don’t think it matters then why are you showing up? Why leave such a comment? It’s ridiculous.
You could have said “oh man, that’s cool, good for Hector! (or Duno, or Nunez, or Morillo, or Friedl)”. You could have said absolutely nothing at all. There were a lot of things you could have chose to do, but instead you chose to do that.
I don’t care much about how long you or anyone else has been a fan. It’s got zero to do with how you chose to react to an article highlighting a handful of players who are performing well.
It is comments like this that make me want to actually turn comments off. Forever. I am once again going to say that just because some users treat the comments section as a message board that it absolutely is not intended to be that. There are actual message boards you can go visit. You can go hang out on social media and scream into the void about how much you hate the Reds not being any good.
Doing that on an article about a few minor leaguers who did awesome things? Nah. I’m gonna criticize it and call it out when it’s presented the way you presented it.
Doug : You act like any of us saying something bad about the organization is a direct attack on the players, it’s not, it’s a knock on an organization that hasn’t won a playoff series since 1995, the longest such slump of the major sports. We all want that slump to end, but with the way things have been run recently it’s hard to see it ending soon, but I hope I am wrong.
Mark…..
That is not how I’m acting.
I’m acting as if I worked at McDonald’s and you walked in and started screaming about how much Ford sucks and how you wish they would make better cars like they used to.
I’m just sitting here asking: Why is he here complaining about this at McDonalds when I just asked him if he wanted a medium fry with his Big Mac.
I can support Doug’s opinion on this. The incessant pounding on the leadership or owners with ‘they suck, they always suck, and because of that, they make my life miserable’ is nothing more than whining without any substance.
There is a reason the owner of the site wants to down-tone the pointless ‘owner cheap-GM stupid’ drumbeat that points out that some people prefer to be victims. If the Reds make your life miserable, root for the Brewers.
Being a routine whiner is not a symbol of frustration.
“Stay away from negative people. They have a problem for every solution.”
– Albert Einstein
Thanks, Doug. It really does get old reading the constant complaining on here.
An article about some minor league guys doing well recently apparently means nothing, because “Who cares”, “The organization sucks”, or “The Reds will screw them up anyway.”
Sigh.
Exactly Doug. We don’t go back time and time to a restaurant we don’t like. Do people really think the players and coaches don’t care, don’t try?!! Of course they do.
Yeah it matters. And it is nice to get some positive reporting amongst all the negativity.
And this is by far the best Reds blog best sports blog I’ve seen and I appreciate the fact that foul language isn’t tolerated I’ve seen some things on other sites that would embarrass a dock workermy grandkids sometimes read redlegnation along with me
Agreed Chris!
Doug, you do a really great job. RLN is a rare combination of useful information and interesting–and generally civil–discussion. I’ve been coming here nearly every day for years. Thanks for making this possible.
@Mark. Time to tap out Mark you kinda lost the argument but we all love the reds like you do
The goal is to find another position for Duno.in the next couple of years. Perhaps 3rd base or left field. He seems to darn big to be a catcher long term.
If you think he’s going to be too big to catch then you have to also think he’s going to be too big to play anywhere else on the field outside of first base or designated hitter.
He seems very athletic to me when I have watched him in Dayton. Just doesn’t seem like being in a crouch is a natural position for him. Maybe I am wrong but he looks uncomfortable back there
Salvador Perez, who Duno is compared to often to and a multiple gold glove winner and all-star, is almost identical in size (but probably outweighs Duno a bit still–don’t believe Duno is 210lbs). I think Duno’s size is just fine and won’t be a problem going forward.
Haven’t watched him because I can’t figure out for the life of me how to get minor league games. I did notice on the box scores about a month ago that he had 5 pass balls. He needs to clean that up. But hitting wise , you aren’t finding many catchers that can hit in majors .
I just want to be more specific with this comment so people aren’t confused – Duno did not have 5 passed balls in a game. He had 5 on the season at the point in which JB saw it. He currently has 7 on the year. For context, there have been 79 passed balls in the Midwest League this year, which has 12 teams. That’s 6.6 passed balls per team on average.
As for not being able to figure out how to watch the minor league games…. they are included with Reds.tv or MLB.tv and can be accessed through the MLBtv app if you use that. Or you can watch them on a computer through MiLB.tv if you have a subscription for those services. They can also be watched for free through MiLB.com if you go to the scoreboard and click “watch” and choose “watch free on Bally Sports Live”.
What was Johnny Bench weight?
Bench weighed around 200lbs.
In dire need of a catcher with a hit tool…. Hopefully he’s the next one on the way .
Absolutely not. You try like heck to keep Duno at catcher for as long as humanly possible. Good catchers with hitting skills are worth their weight in gold right now, both to their team, and the player’s future bank account.
Leave him at catcher until he proves otherwise. He reminds me of Salvador Perez.
I’m a big hector Rodríguez fan. We desperately need a home grown outfielder who can hit for some power and xbh to come up and succeed. I understand he needs to work on his defense but he is young enough where I fully expect him to continue to improve.
Duno is a potential franchise changing player.
Glad to see these 2 having good years. I do agree that Cincinnati moves hitters awfully slow though.
Obviously, Hector’s bat plays well and they will eventually have to make a place for him. However, he is a horrible outfielder, where he is a liability even in LF. He may be better as a trade chip.
Great article, Doug. Videos were fun to watch. Love me a “hit for the cycle”.
Night off to breath, let the frustration wane, and let a little bit of hope return … 😉
H-Rod is starting tonight (Thurs) like a continuation of Wednesday with a 2-run home run in the bottom of the first inning. Bats off to an early 2 nil lead.
Of more possible short-term importance to the Reds, Julian Aguiar is on the mound for the Bats tonight. So far, he has pitched 3 shutout innings, walking ZERO and striking out 3. He has allowed 2 hits, one of them a double.
Aguiar goes 5 innings allowing 1 run (earned) on 3 hits. 6Ks, 1 walk. He threw 73 pitches. 49 were strikes. Let’s hope he can come back on turn and do it again.
Yep, Aguiar’s game wasn’t flashy, but for the big league squad, it was the best possible outcome from last night’s AAA game.
Does this guarantee future success (at least against us) … 😐
https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2026/06/brewers-sign-lyon-richardson-to-minor-league-deal.html
He likely will never again walk another batter or groove a get-ahead fastball, at least not against the Reds 😉
Seen Tyler Callihan went 2 for 2 with 2 walks scored 3 runs with 4 RBIs for the Pirates last night. Tonight he was 1 for 1 with a walk and a run scored.
Ive never seen Alfredo Duno play an entire game but Ive seen his power and looked at his stats that validate his elite hit tool and power and plate discipline. Recently, the Dragons play by play announcer was asked about his defense and said his throws to second are off target and his footwork isnt good and the Reds are on record saying his pitch framing is his number 1 focus right now.
Why?
You have an elite hitter with power off the charts and plate discipline and young and you are holding him back in A ball? Did Joey Votto stay a catcher? Bryce Harper? Kyle Schwarber?
Move Duno to AA and put him at first base 4 days a week and catcher 2 days a week. If he cant catch and throw accurately and poor footwork at 250 pounds who cares? Dragons announcer said hes talked to scouts who said they would him NOW off catcher. What are the Reds doing? Elite hit tool and power??? Get him out of A ball.
Because over the last 10 years or so, the Reds have failed to draft and develop a catching pipeline. You have Ty Steve getting ready to hit free agency and the Reds have no one who can replace him. So they are hoping Duno canlearn the catching position.
And it is not like they have first base candidates out the door. 😉
Stewart, Steer, Collier, just to name the first three which popped into my mind.
Agreed. They need to leave him at C. However, the bat tool is so advanced, it would seem to me that he needs to be batting against the best MiLB has to offer. He can continue learning defense in AA or AAA.
Because the value of having a catcher that can hit is a real difference maker.
Elly in Dragons dugout ronite.
I stand corrected i looked at Duno’s bio. He is only 6’2″. I thought he was like 6’5″. Tyler Stephenson is 6′ 3″ in comparison.
Maybe he can be a catcher long term. Just seems like he really has to duck his head to get into his crouch.
If not I don’t necessarily think he has be a 1st basemen/dh. He has some good athleticism to my naked eye. Hey if Kevin Mitchell can play left field so can Duno.
I think Duno is taller than 6’2″, and heavier than 210 lb. He is a very big human being. There was a picture of him a while back, walking next to another player. To me, he is reminiscent of Frank Thomas, the Big Hurt.
Stephenson, by comparison, is not what I would call an elite defensive catcher, by a long shot. So, maybe a poor comparison.
And yes, I have doubts about Duno staying as a catcher. There is another guy at High A Dayton, who was catching at Low A Daytona, and promoted, who was hitting well there. And now he is playing left field for the Dragons, Jacob Friend. He may be catching for the Dragons soon, if they promote Duno to AA Chattanooga.
He is about 6′ 2″. But he’s officially listed at 248 these days – some places just haven’t updated the new information.
Doug, I don’t think Duno is 6’5 or 6’6″ like Frank Thomas, but as you say, he is much heavier than 210 lb. He may be 6’3 or a little bigger.
https://www.milb.com/video/carter-graham-homers-10-on-a-fly-ball-to-center-field-alfredo-duno-scores?t=playerid-807728
Here is a video of Carter Graham hitting a homer for the Dayton Dragons. Kien Vu and Alfredo Duno score ahead of him. Carter Graham is supposed to be 6’1″ and 228. He’s a good sized guy, but Duno is bigger.
As they all come in to score (in the video linked) on Carter Graham’s homer, Yerlin Confidan is standing at home plate waiting to bat.
Yerlin is listed as 6’4″ tall. He and Alfredo Duno look to be about the same height, standing next to each other. Yerlin may be a shade taller, but not much.
Nice article, Doug. I appreciate the info on the young and upcoming players in the minors. I saw Alfredo Duno play a few weeks ago for the Dragons. He is impressive indeed. Please don’t turn off the comments because of the negativity. This isn’t a message board but it sure is nice to chat with you and other fellow Reds’ fans about our team.
man Rodriguez almost got nailed at 3rd base on the triple. Look like he was standing in the batters box for a while admiring his shot.
That is one of my biggest peeves of the modern day game is all the showboating. I know a lot of the younger fans probably like it but I love players that hustle out of the box on contact.
Showboating goes back to Babe Ruth in game 3 of the 1932 World Series at Wrigley Field when he pointed at center field and then he watched it as he put it in the seats against Charley Root, the great Cubs pitcher, from Middletown, Ohio.
HRod has had a really good week. But I agree, less showboating, more Charley Hustle. I see Friedl is also hitting well in Louisville. Send down Benson and give HRod a shot.
It will be interesting to see who gets the first call-up between HRod and Friedl.
For my money, the bar has to be higher for Friedl to return to the Reds than a typical rehab assignment because he had been so dismal for a third of a season at MLB with no identified injury or illness. But, how long is the needed AAA stay, and at what level of AAA performance?
And we know in HRod’s case, the Reds are going to say he needs to remain at AAA playing every day versus being in a part-time or bench role at MLB.
Hector is only 22, and I think it would be good (for the sake of conditioning and stamina) for him to play a whole year at AAA. He could get promoted, and then be a little tired at the end of the season, and his hitting would fall off, and people would think he was a flop or something.
Rodriguez is not going to lift the Reds into contention all by himself. He doesn’t pitch in relief, after all. Or….does he? 🙂
Your last paragraph is so true and it has continued to bother me.I believe once a player does all he can do at a certain level he moves up.I am beginning to understand there is so much more to that then the stat line.So when is a player ready?Is it when he checks all the boxes in the minors knowing the pitching is so much better in the majors or is it a given his punch outs will go up and his walks go down and his chase rate go up.Must be some formula that teams use to figure all of this stuff out.Hitting is hard as Richard says and it is as hitting continues to fall behind pitching.I get it about regular at bats but right now Marte and Arroyo are part time players so where does that fit in and how do they get better watching one day and playing the next.I will shut it down but still at some point doesn’t a team want to really know and should they not try to find out.Especially a team like the Reds who are trying to build a roster from within or is it just about one more win vs a loss and sorting or tryouts goes against that way of thinking.
HRod vs Friedl might come down to the 40 man issue. However they are now facing the same pitchers and HRod is clearly outperforming Friedl and it is not even close.
Rodriguez is on the 40-man.
Both Friedl and HRod are already on the 40-man roster.
Friedl currently has the higher AAA OPS of the two. HRod has a lower K Rate and higher BB rate than Fried, though. However, Friedl’s numbers are for just 30 or so plate appearances, while HRod has been at AAA all year and has nearly 10 times as many PAs.
I don’t anticipate either player getting promoted soon. As you note, Friedl has so few plate appearances with Louisville that it’s difficult to draw any conclusions. HRod has really boosted his numbers in the last two days. Great days, no doubt; but I have to wonder how bad AAA pitching is right now. I know the Reds’ AAA staff has been decimated while trying to backfill the big-league staff. I suspect the Cubs’ AAA has, too.
Though we might have a cycle in Dayton early on last night as in his first two at bats Kien Vu had a triple and home run, the two toughest parts and didn’t get another hiy, but did top off the game with a walk-off straight steal of home.
For those who want to check it out – wrote about it over at RedsMinorLeauges.com – https://www.redsminorleagues.com/2026/06/11/cincinnati-reds-prospect-kien-vu-steals-home-for-a-walk-off-win-in-dayton-dragons/
Vu reminds me a bit of Friedl. He’s just a good, well-rounded baseball player. As a ninth-round pick, he’s a bit of a long shot, but I will continue to monitor his development closely.
Questions about Duno’s catching ability are probably misplaced at the moment. He’s been interviewed and has said he intends to improve his defense and unless he’s not capable of that, “plans” to find a different position for him are largely the product of people who can’t ever have faith in what people claim they want to achieve.
I think so many people either don’t know or didn’t think about it enough to remember that he’s 20-years-old and didn’t catch a single game in his first year as a professional because of an arm issue and then in his second season as a professional he got hurt in May and missed the entire rest of the year. He’s basically caught a season and a half of professional pitching in his entire life. He is going to need time to get where a big league catcher needs to be.
Duno gives the impression that his maturity is at least advancing. He has to know that his immediate future is as a catcher and if he doesn’t get that done, he’s just another “first baseman-DH.”
https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/p/pavledo01.shtml#all_transactions_other Reds signed Pavletich as bonus baby in 1957. He stuck on MLB roster in 1962 as back-up to Johnny Edwards for six years then beat out Johnny Bench for starter at C on OD 1968. Bench soon won the starting job in 1968.
Pavletich with a journeyman C in 1960s. OPS+ was 110 as a Red. Pretty good power. Decent C but not as good as Edwards.
Time travel Pavletich into 2026. Probably a starter or platoon C at worst. As Ted Bench told his son in early 1960s, catcher is the straightest and quickest path to MLB.
I definitely would recommend going to Dayton to check him out if you are able. His power is like nothing I have ever seen at Dayton park. The ball doesn’t exactly carry well at that stadium and he hits balls way farther than I have ever seen in 25 years of going to games there.
I remember watching Billy Hamilton at ss at Dayton and I always felt he looked uncomfortable there. That is the same sense I get with Duno at catcher
I was at the Dayton ballpark many years ago. Quite impressive. I’m glad the great City of Dayton still has organized baseball. Just south where I grew up in Middletown we had a Class D franchise in the Ohio/Indiana League, which I believe was then a Red’s farm team.
Just wanted to say great article Doug and appreciate all you do. I do wish there was a button to click to block the constant negativity from a select few.
I want to be the first person on record as voting NO on calling him ‘HRod.’ We have too many ARods, KRods, JRods, YRods, and BRods, let along Elrods, Hot Rods and Ramrods. If his name was Ramirez, that would be different. Then he could be HRam or JRam or Dodge Ram.
How about “HR” lol
sure … HR (Hector, 49)
HRod is for lazy people like me who don’t want to type out his whole name which I believe we eventually will be doing a lot. To each his own I guess. 🙂
Lineup is out and Steer at second and Arroyo not playing.MMC back in the 9 hole.GO REDS
Arroyo had pretty big splits at AAA, indicating he may struggle against LHP. With McLain on a bit of a hot streak, it’s a pretty easy decision to sit Arroyo tonight. That said, Marte, who also struggles against LHP, is in the lineup in RF.
Just threw that out there and you are 100% correct.Some think he and Marte are the saviors of the offense but of course they are not at all.Both are part time players.Arroyo didn’t play against a righty on Wednesday and as you pointed out the splits for each one plays and the other doesn’t.Both have contributed though when given a chance which is all they can do.
EDLC’s MRI showed good progress today. The Reds will determine a way forward on Sunday after EDLC has worked out more intensely for a couple of days.
https://x.com/CharlieG__/status/2065516189325905932
It’s hard to be optimistic with the number of writers both within the “connected” media and the blogosphere that are talking about the players the Reds should trade. It’s essentially buying into the rebuild mindset. And if the Reds were serious about spending in the offseason, that might be an option. As we know they aren’t. So spend now and win some ball games.
I think (like you) that it is hard for most fans to be able to evaluate the team and players objectively. There is of course all the published “WAR” and bWAR” numbers, which can be off or on.
And worse, it seems like the team itself (the Reds Front office) can’t do this either. That is the real failure.
I realize the Reds are going through a rough patch right now, it is easy to Pile-on and criticize everything they do, but there were some obvious weaknesses that the team had going into the season.
1) Third base (Ke’Bryan Hayes…really?)
2) the outfield (Friedl collapse was not foreseen, but the rest was weak too)
3) and always, the bullpen. Nobody knew how good or bad the bullpen would actually be. It seemed a safe move to resign Emilio Pagan, but that has backfired. A lot of guys hurt in the pen (Ashcraft, Pagan, Johnson), and some over used (Santillian), and some guys very unreliable (scraping it down in AAA, Maxwell, Mey, Phillips, Lyons, Petty).
Some guys have been generally good, but now over – exposed: Ferguson, Antone, Moll, Burke.
Big disappointments the Reds can’t do much about now: Catching, Stephenson
The Reds don’t score enough runs consistently, and their pitching gives up too many runs (starters or bullpen). That’s a fact, not being a whiner or complainer. Look at their run differential versus the rest of the league. This is, objectively (right now) not a very good baseball team. There is still time for some of the players to up their performance.
You can be more optimistic when you realize that the scribes are all in the first round of a feeding frenzy that happens the minute one of them starts the trade rumors yarns. I have learned that the typical deadline deal is Austin Wynns for a couple of Double-A pitchers.
But this happens every year and half the fans get all roiled up because they believe it all and wonder why Cincy didn’t get Soto when they had a chance in February.
I like that Rodriguez has always been an Outfield prospect right? Hinds, Marte converted infielders didn’t quite work out or hasn’t yet at least for both those players in the Majors.
It feels like Rodriguez needs more time in the minors to me from the little I’ve observed of him. Just from those videos it’s hard to tell whether his swing will translate into being able to hit major league pitching. But hard to tell with any players recently it seems if their triple a success will translate.
But he’s young and good overall stats so that is a good thing for the Reds whose current Farm Sytem seems to have gone down a notch compared to previous years.
Well … HRod started was signed by the Mets as an infielder. He primarily played 2B and 3B in 2021. In 2022, he mostly played OF. The Reds acquired him at the 2022 trade deadline, and from 2023 until now, he’s played OF.
BK thank you for correcting me, I had forgotten that he was an infielder. That was a good trade for the Reds to get him for Naquin.
Nice to see Friedl hitting a little. I’m curious to see whether he can make it back to the Majors with the Reds or another team at some point. I could see a good team maybe taking a chance on him as their 4th or 5th outfielder in a trade maybe.
Just a matter of time before HRod makes it to the majors. I don’t know if it will be this year or not but if he continues his hot streak who knows? Not that the Reds offense could use a good hitter. 😉