It’s been quiet on the baseball front since the World Series began, at least in terms of non Los Angeles Dodgers and New York Yankees talk goes. It felt like a decent time to take a look at how the limited number of Cincinnati Reds players who are currently in fall or winter league baseball were performing with about half of the winter leagues around the world already underway.
The Arizona Fall League
Among the leagues that are active right now, the Arizona Fall League is the one with the most players from the organization. There are eight Reds players currently participating.
Starting with the big leaguers, there’s some good and some not-as-good news here. Matt McLain, who is recovering from shoulder surgery and a rib injury that wound up costing him the entirety of the 2024 regular season, missed more than a week for undisclosed reasons out in Arizona. He’s back on the field, now, but has only played in five games. He’s made that count, though, hitting .333/.524/.667.
Christian Encarnacion-Strand, who missed most of the season with a hand/wrist injury that required surgery, has also obliterated the baseball. He’s hit .500/.579/.643. But he’s also only played in four games and hasn’t played at all since October 16th – and he exited that game in the 8th inning (between innings). There has been no word on why he exited the game or why he hasn’t played since.
Tyler Callihan has played in 10 games. All of his games have come in left field – a position he’s played some of in the minor leagues, but he’s also spent a lot of time as an infielder in his career. The 24-year-old is hitting .359/.468/.487 with five stolen bases, eight walks, and just six strikeouts.
Edwin Arroyo, one of the club’s top prospects, missed all of 2024 after suffering a shoulder injury in spring training that required surgery. He’s played in nine games so far. The 20-year-old switch hitting shortstop has hit .256/.310/.333 so far with three doubles and four stolen bases.
On the mound the Reds have five pitchers in the league. Connor Phillips has thrown the most innings among that group. After spending two months in Arizona during the season where he didn’t pitch in games but needed to rework some things, he returned to Triple-A for the final three weeks of the regular season. In the AFL with Glendale he’s pitched in three games. Two were outstanding – combining for 8.0 shutout innings with one walk and 12 strikeouts. But the game in the middle was a clunker as he allowed seven earned runs in 2.1 innings.
Jose Acuna, who missed much of the first half of the season and was then limited when he returned – making 11 starts and and two relief appearances in Double-A and Triple-A where he threw just 35.0 innings – has pitched in two games. He has allowed just two hits and no runs in his 7.0 innings, but he has walked five batters to go along with nine strikeouts.
Luis Mey has been serving as Glendale’s closer when he’s been on the mound. He’s picked up a save in each of his four outings and thrown 4.2 hitless innings with one walk and five strikeouts.
Carson Rudd, who turned 26 just after the regular season ended, spent his 2024 season with Chattanooga where he had a 3.04 ERA in 77.0 innings that mostly came out of the bullpen. He’s found success in his four games for the Desert Dogs. The right-handed reliever has given up just one run in 8.2 innings while walking five and striking out nine.
Arij Fransen, like Connor Phillips, has had ups-and-downs out in Arizona. His first outing saw him give up four runs in 1.2 innings. But he followed that up with 3.1 innings of 1-hit baseball over his next three outings. Yesterday, though, he allowed three runs in an inning of work as his ERA jumped up to 10.50 through his 6.0 innings of work.
The Dominican Winter League
There are only three players from the Reds organization in this league right now. Rosters change frequently, and the later in the season things get, the more you begin to see higher level big leaguers show up and play. Right now there aren’t many of those guys in the league, and there are not any of them from the Reds.
Erik Gonzalez, who has some big league time in his career, spent his 2024 season with Triple-A Louisville. He is one of two Reds players with Escogido right now and he’s out to a hot start. He’s played in eight games and his 11-30 – that’s a .367 average – with a triple, five runs scored, four runs batted in, a steal, and four walks to go along with just one strikeout.
Also on Escogido is infielder Francisco Urbaez. He split his season in Double-A and Triple-A where he hit .273/.357/.414. The 26-year-old has played in five games, but he’s come off of the bench in four of them and is 0-3 on the season with two walks and an RBI.
There is only one Reds pitcher in the league right now. Patrick Weigel, who has pitched in the big leagues with both Atlanta and Milwaukee, signed with the Reds midseason out of Mexico, served as the closer in Double-A after he signed and picked up 10 saves in 19 games and posted a 0.90 ERA. He’s pitching with Esterllas right now and has picked up a save while throwing four shutout innings across four games.
The Venezuelan Winter League
Gabriel Aguilera has been the only player from the organization that’s made an appearance thus far in this league. The 24-year-old right-handed pitcher split time between Daytona and Dayton in 2024 where he posted a 3.55 ERA in 99.0 innings. While pitching for Caribes he’s made one start and one relief appearance, throwing 8.0 innings and allowed three runs (3.38 ERA) while striking out six batters and walking two.
The Mexican Winter League
There are four minor leaguers from the Reds playing in this league right now. Trevor Kuncl, who signed with the organization following the 2024 season, is playing for Mexicalli. The right-handed pitcher struggled in his first outing, giving up four runs and recording just one out. Since then he’s allowed one earned run in 7.0 innings, but his ERA hasn’t recovered from that first outing and sits at 6.14.
The other three players from the organization have seen very limited playing time. 20-year-old left-handed pitcher Edwin Cervantes has pitched in one game and was only asked to get one out – which he did for Guasave. Also with Gasave, 19-year-old Yael Romero struck out in his only at-bat thus far. 19-year-old infielder Ichiro Cano – yes, that is his real name – has gone 1-5 with a run and an RBI in five games for Culiacan.
Reds scout to be honored in December
The 2024 Scout of the Year recipients were named on Monday morning and among the six awards they give out, there was a Cincinnati Reds scout among the group. Chris Buckley was named as the East Coast Scout of the Year. He’s among six scouts who will be honored at the winter meetings in December.
Buckley, who has been with the organization for 19 years and was hired in February of 2006 after spending time working for the Blue Jays (17 years) and the Cubs (one month before being hired away by the Reds) is listed in the media guide as a Special Assistant to the General Manager. He previously was the Vice President of Player Personnel and had been the amateur scouting director who ran the draft for the club from 2006-2018.
