Friday links!
If you’re of the mind to plan a February/March 2025 trip to greater Phoenix, you’ve now got the 2025 Cactus League schedule available to aid you in your organizing. All 30 MLB clubs dropped their spring iteneraries on us yesterday, and the Cincinnati Reds will kick off their semi-competitive spring slate on February 22nd with split-squad action against the Milwaukee Brewers in Maryvale and the Cleveland Guardians in Goodyear.
The entire schedule can be found here, and you’ll note when inspecting it that the Reds will have their Spring Breakout game on March 16th – their best and brightest prospects will take on the best and brightest from the Brewers system this time around. MLB.com has more on the overall MLB spring slate as well.
Photo by Ben Jackson/Getty Images
Speaking of the ‘best and brightest’ from the Reds system, ESPN’s Kiley McDaniel released his latest Top 100 overall prospect list earlier this week, and four Reds are featured prominently within it. Chase Burns, the Reds most recent 1st round draftee, leads the way at #30 overall, and he’s joined by fellow Wake Forest pitching product Rhett Lowder (#55) as the Cincinnati pitchers on the list. The surprise here, though, is how highly McDaniel now rates Sal Stewart (#38), a testament to just how much Sal has wrecked his way through the minor leagues since being the #32 overall pick in the 2022 MLB Draft. Despite his lost season to injury, Edwin Arroyo (#85) rounds out the Reds representation.
As for Lowder, the 2023 1st round pick of the Reds has settled in for AA Chattanooga after a bit of a rocky spell post-promotion, and is in the midst of a stellar run of form. He’s allowed just 4 ER over his last 34.0 IP (6 GS), allowing a meager .478 OPS to opposing batters in that time. It’s enough to have a potential big league debut this year in the cards, should the Reds need him, as Gordon Wittenmeyer of The Enquirer caught up with Reds GM Brad Meador to discuss just that. For the record, Lowder’s workload has been deliberately managed to make sure he’d be available late in the year if need be, and he currently sits with 102.1 IP on his right arm so far this year. He threw 120.1 IP for Wake Forest in 2023, so there’s still plenty of work left for him this calendar year should the Reds choose.
Finally, it’s a fun time of a fun year to check the leaderboards, as both Hunter Greene and Elly De La Cruz are lighting them up. Over at Baseball Reference, you’ll see that Hunter’s 5.4 bWAR to date means he a) leads all National League pitchers and b) is behind only Tarik Skubal (5.6) for the MLB lead in bWAR by a pitcher. Meanwhile, FanGraphs has the fWAR tally for Elly De La Cruz at 5.7, to date, tied with Shohei Ohtani for the National League lead (behind the epic AL four-pack of Aaron Judge, Juan Soto, Bobby Witt, Jr., and Gunnar Henderson).