Baseball America List of Reds Top-10 Prospects for 2025 Includes Five Former Dragons, Five More on the Way

DAYTON, OHIO—Baseball America, the trade publication for Minor League Baseball, has announced its annual list of top-10 prospects in the Cincinnati Reds organization. Selection to the top-10 prospect list is a notable achievement for any player among the approximately 175 minor leaguers in the Reds system.

Rhett Lowder, who in 2024 became the first player in Dayton Dragons history to begin a season with the Dragons and play for the Reds later in the same season, was selected by Baseball America as the Reds #1 prospect. Lowder is still considered for the top prospect list because his accumulation of Major League service time still classifies him as an MLB rookie. All players who would still be classified as an MLB rookie at the start of the 2025 season are considered for the prospect list.

Lowder is one of three players on the list of top-10 prospects who played for the Dragons in 2024. The others are third baseman Cam Collier (Reds #5 prospect), and third baseman Sal Stewart (Reds #7 prospect). Two additional players on the list played for the Dragons in 2023 including pitcher Chase Petty (Reds #3 prospect) and shortstop Edwin Arroyo (Reds #6 prospect).

The other five players on the list would be expected to play for the Dragons in 2025 or beyond. Among the five, pitcher Chase Burns, the Reds first round draft pick in 2024 out of Wake Forest, could follow the path of Lowder and begin the 2025 season with the Dragons. Burns, ranked right behind Lowder as the Reds #2 prospect, is listed by Baseball America on the Reds “Best Tools” list as having the “Best Fastball” and “Best Slider” among all Reds minor leaguers.

Two position players on the Reds top-10 list are likely candidates to be in the Dragons opening night lineup in 2025. Shortstop Sammy Stafura (Reds #8 prospect) and third baseman Ricardo Cabrera (Reds #10 prospect) both spent most of the 2024 season with Single-A Daytona and would be expected to move up the ladder to the Dragons in 2025. Stafura, who turns 20 years old on Friday, was the Reds second round draft pick in 2023 out of Panas High School in Cortlandt Manor, New York, where he was named New York Gatorade Baseball Player of the Year as a high school senior in 2023. Cabrera, 20, was the Reds top international signing in 2022 out of Venezuela, and was ranked as the #3 prospect among all international free agent players in the world at the time he was signed by the Reds.

Catcher Alfredo Duno (Reds #4 prospect) will turn 19 years old prior to the start of the 2025 season and is a strong candidate to play for the Dragons at some point in 2025. But Duno has just 77 games of professional experience and Baseball America projects him to begin the ’25 season at Daytona. Shortstop Tyson Lewis (Reds #9 prospect) was the Reds second round draft pick in 2024 out of Millard West High School in Omaha, Nebraska. His path to Dayton would project to be one year behind Stafura, with an ETA with the Dragons of 2026.

Here is the Reds Top-10 prospect list from Baseball America:

1) Rhett Lowder, pitcher

2) Chase Burns, pitcher

3) Chase Petty, pitcher

4) Alfredo Duno, catcher

5) Cam Collier, third baseman

6) Edwin Arroyo, shortstop

7) Sal Stewart, third baseman

8) Sammy Stafura, shortstop

9) Tyson Lewis, shortstop

10) Ricardo Cabrera, third baseman

The selection of Lowder marks the sixth time in Dragons history that a player was ranked as the Reds #1 prospect after spending all or part of the previous season with the Dragons. The others included Austin Kearns, Homer Bailey, Robert Stephenson, Nick Senzel, and Elly De La Cruz.

Go to this link for the Baseball America article: https://www.baseballamerica.com/stories/cincinnati-reds-2025-top-mlb-prospects/

Reds # 1 Prospects by season from Baseball America since 2000 (listed with the upcoming season):

2025: Rhett Lowder, right-handed pitcher

2024: Noelvi Marte, third baseman

2023: Elly De La Cruz, shortstop

2022: Jose Barrero, shortstop

2021: Jose Barrero, shortstop

2020: Hunter Greene, right-handed pitcher

2019: Nick Senzel, third baseman

2018: Nick Senzel, third baseman

2017: Nick Senzel, third baseman

2016: Robert Stephenson, right-handed pitcher

2015: Robert Stephenson, right-handed pitcher

2014: Robert Stephenson, right-handed pitcher

2013: Billy Hamilton, shortstop/center fielder

2012: Devin Mesoraco, catcher

2011: Aroldis Chapman, left-handed pitcher

2010: Todd Frazier, third baseman/outfielder

2009: Yonder Alonso, first baseman

2008: Jay Bruce, outfielder

2007: Homer Bailey, right-handed pitcher

2006: Homer Bailey, right-handed pitcher

2005: Homer Bailey, right-handed pitcher

2004: Ryan Wagner, right-handed pitcher

2003: Chris Gruler, right-handed pitcher

2002: Austin Kearns, outfielder

2001: Austin Kearns, outfielder

2000: Gookie Dawkins, shortstop

Players in bold had spent all or part of the previous season with the Dragons.