Photo: Doug Gray
April is over and the Cincinnati Reds are all alone in 1st place in the National League Central with a 20-11 record. With that month behind them, the farm system has taken a hit in a sense, but not because of poor performance necessarily. Sal Stewart and Rhett Lowder, two key contributors to the big league team’s success so far, are now no longer considered prospects as they’ve accumulated too much time on the active roster, have graduated and that’s resulted in new players climbing up the list.
Over at ESPN this morning they updated their rankings for each club’s Top 10 list. Kiley McDaniel has Sal Stewart in the #1 spot and Rhett Lowder in the #3 spot when the year began but they’re now out. Most guys just moved up to fill those spots, but not everyone. At the top, though, is Alfredo Duno. The catcher was slotted between Stewart and Lowder on the previous rankings and is now at the top spot. He’s currently playing with the High-A Dayton Dragons and is fresh off of a 2025 season where he was the Florida State League’s Most Valuable Player while leading the league in nearly all offensive categories for the Single-A Daytona Tortugas.
Chase Petty leapfrogged over both infielder Tyson Lewis and outfielder Hector Rodriguez. The two new additions to the list are Jose Franco, who is currently with the Reds in the bullpen and has pitched 10.2 innings over five outings for Cincinnati, and outfielder Carlos Jorge.
Jorge has spent this season with Double-A Chattanooga. He missed a week-and-a-half in April after he was hit in the head with a fastball. But in his 13 games he had played for the Lookouts he’s hit well, posting a .333/.429/.479 line with two triples, a home run, five stolen bases, six walks, 12 runs scored, and nine strikeouts. He’s also one of the best defensive players in the farm system.