Earlier this week the crew at Baseball America unveiled their Top 100 prospect list in baseball and it only featured three Cincinnati Reds players on the list. All three of the players on the list were pitchers, headlined by back-to-back rankings in the 20’s of Rhett Lowder and Chase Burns. On Friday night, the folks at MLB Pipeline released their Top 100 prospect list and the Reds did quite a bit better. On this list, they had five prospects make it, and three of those guys were not on the list from Baseball America earlier this week.
Chase Burns leads the list at #26 on the list. 2024’s #2 overall pick in the draft, Burns went 10-1 at Wake Forrest with a 2.70 ERA. In his 100.0 innings, he struck out 191 batters and walked just 30. Following the draft, he, like many other pitchers in the draft, did not get back on the mound during the regular season. Earlier this week, he was one of 15 players to receive a non-roster invite to big league camp.
Rhett Lowder was not far behind Burns on the list and came in at #35. After beginning the 2024 season in High-A Dayton, 2023’s 1st round pick moved up to Double-A very quickly but then struggled for nearly two months. Through 10 starts in Chattanooga he had an ERA of 6.85 and gave up 60 hits in 43.1 innings. But almost overnight it was like a switch flipped on for him. He made six more starts for the Lookouts, then moved up to Triple-A Louisville for a start, and then finished the year with six starts for Cincinnati. In those 13 starts, he posted a 1.02 ERA in 70.2 innings and held hitters to a .497 OPS.
Infielder Sal Stewart was quite a bit down the list after Lowder and he came in at the 84th spot on the list. In 2024 his season came to an end earlier than he would have liked after suffering an off-the-field wrist injury that ultimately required surgery. But in his 80 games before that injury he had hit .279/.391/.454 with 50 walks and just 57 strikeouts. The infielder spent more time at second base than at third base, but he was playing both positions with regularity. You can get the full scouting report for Sal Stewart here.
Ranking 91st on the list was another 1st round pick by the Reds – Cam Collier. The top pick by the Reds in 2022, Collier did something that only one other Reds prospect has done since Johnny Bench – hit 20 home runs in a season as a teenager in a minor league season. One of a few every day players who was a teenager in the Midwest League in 2024, Collier hit .248/.355/.443 – easily having the best OPS among his teenage counterparts in the league. You can see the full scouting report for Cam Collier here.
Rounding out the list for Cincinnati, one spot behind Collier was Edwin Arroyo. The 92nd-rated prospect on the list, Arroyo, missed the entire 2024 season after suffering a shoulder injury during spring training and undergoing surgery. Back in 2023, he spent almost his entire season at High-A Dayton, where he hit .248/.321/.427, but that line was much better after an incredibly tough first two months. In his final 87 games of the season—including four with Double-A Chattanooga to end the year—he hit .282/.360/.486. The shortstop was able to return to the field in 2024 in time to play in the Arizona Fall League. In 18 games with Glendale, he hit .253/.309/.333.
This was a better showing for Cincinnati than the one we saw earlier this week from Baseball America. There were five guys here, but on my prospect list for the Reds, two guys were ranked ahead of the final three players from the organization on this list but didn’t make it here. Depending on where you look, there’s a bit more depth at the top of the farm system than other places.
