The Cincinnati Reds farm system is an interesting one. Depending on who you ask and where you look the farm system is rated anywhere between the 8th best and the 18th best in baseball. That’s a pretty big gap. The biggest example of the wide array of thoughts is with prospect Chase Petty. Baseball Prospectus had him rated as the 9th best prospect in the farm system. Today he was named as #42 prospect in all of baseball by Eric Longenhagen on their release of Fangraphs 2025 Top 100 Prospects list.
One would certainly think if one publication has Chase Petty ranked 9th in the organization and others had him in their Top 100 lists (Petty has made multiple Top 100 lists this offseason) and is inside of the top 50 in all of baseball that Cincinnati’s farm system would be very, very well regarded. But it’s not. While most places think that it’s a good to solid farm system, no one is suggesting it’s a great one or anywhere near the best around. It’s kind of weird to take a step back and look at it all.
Today Cincinnati saw four of their prospects wind up on Fangraphs list. And all four of those players were among the top 51 players. 2024’s 2nd overall pick, Chase Burns, was the highest rated Reds prospect and he came in at #28. He is coming off of a 2024 season with Wake Forest where he went 10-1 with a 2.70 ERA in 100.0 innings with 191 strikeouts and 30 walks. He did not pitch after the draft. Burns is currently in Goodyear as a part of big league spring training as a non-roster invitee.
You don’t have to go far down the list to find the next Reds prospect. In fact the very next player on the list is Cincinnati’s top 2023 international signing – catcher Alfredo Duno. The 19-year-old has only played in 77 games in his two seasons since signing but he’s showed off big time power potential and impressive athleticism for a catcher despite his size. Injuries have limited what he’s been able to do on the field in both 2023 and 2024, but he’s hit .287/.416/.463 to this point in his career.
Behind Duno is going to be Chase Petty, who as noted above comes in at the #42 spot on the list. The 21-year-old pitcher led the farm system in innings pitched in 2024 with 137.0 innings while seeing action in Double-A Chattanooga and a late season call up to Triple-A. Last year saw him take big steps in both his workload and in his repertoire as he moved to using more 4-seamers (that also helped increase his velocity) and adding in more cutters to go along with a good slider and change up. Like Burns, he’s also in big league camp as a non-roster invitee.
Rounding out the list for Cincinnati at #51 is Rhett Lowder. After a hiccup in the early part of the 2024 season after a promotion to Double-A, Lowder turned things around in the middle of the summer with Chattanooga and skyrocketed through the minor leagues and made six starts in the majors to finish out his season where he posted a 1.17 ERA for the Reds. Unfortunately Lowder currently finds himself behind schedule in spring training after dealing with some elbow issues last month while beginning his throwing program. There’s no structural damage according to the MRI he had, but he’s on an undefined timeline to return at this point as the team is going to see how he’s feeling once he gets back on the mound and begins throwing again (which is supposed to happen this week).
The post Reds have a strong showing on the latest Top 100 prospect list appeared first on Redleg Nation.