The Cincinnati Reds made two additions to their roster today, adding right-handed reliever Luis Mey and infielder/outfielder Tyler Callihan to the 40-man. Both players would have been eligible for the Rule 5 draft had they not been added to the roster this afternoon. There was a third roster move made today, but it was one we knew was coming, as Nick Martinez officially accepted the Reds qualifying offer. With the three players added, Cincinnati’s 40-man roster now sits at 39 players.
In 2024 Luis Mey had a breakout season of sorts. The 23-year-old reliever began his season in High-A Dayton with the Dragons and then spent the second half of the year in Double-A with the the Chattanooga Lookouts. Between his two stops he posted a 3.44 ERA in 55.0 innings, had nine saves, gave up no home runs, walked 43, and he struck out 63. Cincinnati then sent Mey to the Arizona Fall League where he was dominant. He went 6-for-6 in saves for the Glendale Desert Dogs, throwing 8.2 innings of no run, 1-hit baseball while striking out eight batters.
When it comes to Mey, the glaring weakness he’s had is his consistency with throwing strikes. If he’s going to become a big league regular he’s going to have to walk fewer batters than he did in 2024. But as glaring as his weakness is, his strength is just as easy to see in the other direction. Very few pitchers throw as hard as he does. This year he topped out at 103.0 MPH – a mark only five minor league pitchers topped in 2024. In the AFL this season he threw 47 of the 50 hardest pitches and all 30 of the 100 MPH+ pitches. His 2-seamer has tons of movement on it and has generated high groundball rates over the last two years.
You can see the career stats for Luis Mey here.
The other addition to the roster was one that didn’t seem as clear as the one of adding Mey. Tyler Callihan felt a little more like a coin flip scenario. In 2024 he spent most of his season in Double-A Chattanooga. He struggled early on and after a month he was hitting just .159/.213/.261. But he picked up nine hits in the next four games and the only thing that slowed him down from there was the fact that he missed 10 weeks from early June through the first week of August with an injury.
From May 7th through the end of the year – including a final week in Triple-A with Louisville – Tyler Callihan hit .335/.426/.514 in 206 plate appearances. Like Mey, the Reds had Callihan go to Arizona to play in the fall league. He was solid for Glendale, hitting .263/.337/.425 in 19 games.
For much of his professional career, Callihan has played second and third base. Over the last two seasons, though, he hasn’t played much third at all and focused more on second base. This season, though, he also started to play some left field and between the regular season and the Arizona Fall League he got in 33 games in the outfield.
You can see the career stats for Tyler Callihan here.
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