2025 Community Prospect Rankings: Chase Burns is the Reds #2 prospect!

Vote today for which Reds prospect you think deserves spot #3!

By almost every measure, Chase Burns is the pitching prototype. He’s 6’3” with a long stride and fluid arm motion, and he sports a fastball that can run up to 102 mph. He pairs that with a slider that’s as devastating as they come, and his ability to strike out any and all who faced him at Wake Forest last year was simply otherworldly.

This is why he was the #2 overall pick in last summer’s MLB Draft.

This is also why he checks in as the #2 prospect in the 2025 Red Reporter Community Prospect Rankings, per you.

Perhaps the only two things that kept Burns from the top overall spot on this list are his lack of any pro ball experience after having been drafted and the pure talent and performance of one Rhett Lowder last year. Either way, the two are neck and neck for the top overall spot, a good problem to have for the pair of Demon Deacons.

On to the voting for spot #3!

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Edwin Arroyo, SS - 21 years old

2024 at a glance: .253/.309/.333 with 7 SB in 18 G spent exclusively with the Glendale Desert Dogs (Arizona Fall League)

Pros: Prototypical shortstop defense with good arm, range, and glovework; wiry athleticism; line-drive power with potential for more from the switch-hitter

Cons: Major shoulder surgery forced him to miss entire 2024 regular season

Arroyo injured his shoulder on a dive in spring training ‘24, and subsequent surgery and recovery cost him a chance to show his chops at the AA level last year. Fortunately, he was once again ready to roll as the Arizona Fall League began, and that gave him a place to shake off the rust and get 81 quality PA to wrap the year.

It’s hard to read too much into his powerless small sample in AFL play, but that’s all we have to go on from 2024 with Arroyo. His defense still remains among the absolute best in the game, and at 21 years old he’s eight months younger than Burns and just three months older than Sal Stewart. In other words, there’s still plenty of time for him to develop, and he’ll likely do so with AA Chattanooga to begin 2025.

If his gap power returns, he still projects as a viable big league shortstop with plus defense and baserunning, and that’s an incredibly valuable piece of the franchise puzzle.

Chase Petty, RHP - 22 years old

2024 at a glance: 4.20 ERA, 1.34 WHIP, 130/59 K/BB in 137.0 IP split between Chattanooga Lookouts (AA Southern League) and Louisville Bats (AAA International League)

Pros: Athletic build, fastball that can touch 100 mph; plus slider, developing changeup; allowed zero (0) home runs in 68.0 IP in 2023

Cons: Walk-rate spiked in 2024 (3.9 after sitting at 2.0 in 2023)

As Doug Gray noted at RedsMinorLeagues.com, Petty’s stuff looked better than ever in 2024 despite his numbers taking a bit of a step back. He dealt with an elbow injury early in the 2023 campaign that limited his workload and perhaps cost him a bit of velocity, but the power pitcher the Reds thought they’d acquired from Minnesota in the Sonny Gray deal finally looked to be back last year.

Regaining his command of the zone will be the priority for Petty in 2025. He reached AAA at the end of last season, but logged just 10.0 IP there across a pair of starts. Barring a brilliant spring, he’ll return there to begin the upcoming year and the former 1st round draftee will be a call away from his first big league action.

Cam Collier, 3B - 20 years old

2024 at a glance: .248/.355/.433 (129 wRC+) with 20 HR, 2 SB in 507 PA for the Dayton Dragons(A+ Midwest League)

Pros: High contact left-handed bat with excellent strike zone command; power finally emerged at Dayton after escaping the pitcher-friendly Florida State League

Cons: Not the most athletic defender or base runner, who may have to move off 3B; ran both very hot and very cold for long stretches of 2024 season

Only Chris Newell (Los Angeles Dodgers org, 23) socked more Midwest League homers than Collier’s 20 last year, and Collier did all of that damage as a 19 year old. He sported a 13.0% walk-rate and his 66 total walks ranked as the 5th most across the league.

He’s got a strong arm, per scouting reports, but he’s not the most agile defender at 3B. There remain questions as to whether he’d be a better fit at 1B (or DH altogether), but at least the bat is beginning to make enough noise to make that less of a long-term concern. Keep in mind that just three hitters who logged at least 300 PA in the Midwest League last year were younger than Cam, who’ll ply his trade for AA Chattanooga to begin 2025.

Sal Stewart, 3B/2B - 21 years old

2024 at a glance: .279/.391/.454 with 8 HR, 10 SB in 338 PA split with the Dayton Dragons (High-A Midwest League)

Pros: As many walks (138) as strikeouts (139) so far as a professional, advanced strike zone command; raw power

Cons: In-game power still developing; still a defensive nomad despite reasonable showing at 2B; wrist injury ended season early (and required surgery)

The Reds selected Sal Stewart out of high school in Florida with the 32nd overall pick in the 2022 MLB Draft, doing so despite knowing he was committed to baseball powerhouse Vanderbilt University. Perhaps they knew something, or had some inside info from former Vandy pitching coach Derek Johnson, since they managed to get Stewart signed for just the 40th highest bonus of the draft class despite that strong commitment.

He’s done nothing but be an offensive machine in his pro career, sporting one of the best K/BB ratios of any minor leaguer while pairing it with emerging power that’s playing up as he advanced out of the hitter hell that is the Florida State League. His 144 wRC+ with Dayton ranked as the 5th best among the 87 hitters who logged at least 300 PA there.

Unfortunately, an off the field wrist injury in July ended his season and required surgery, though as of October he was reportedly swinging a bat again and is on-track to face AA pitching for the first time in 2025.

Alfredo Duno, C/DH - 19 years old

2024 at a glance: .267/.367/.422 with 3 HR, 2 SB in 139 PA with Daytona Tortugas (Class A Florida State League)

Pros: Plus arm and agility at the catching position paired with plus raw power and elite bat speed

Cons: We’ve still barely seen him play, let alone catch (just 21 G as a C in his pair of pro seasons within the Reds organization)

A rib issue cut short Duno’s first full season of pro ball in 2024, though he flashed precisely what the scouting report suggested in his limited time with the Tortugas: an advanced offensive approach, some big projectible pop, and athleticism behind the dish.

I’d like to think that over 100 or so games with Dayton in 2025, the world would see enough of that to be convinced he’s the heir apparent to the Cincinnati catching position, and a clear-cut Top 100 overall prospect. Of course, he’s so far 0 for 2 in staying healthy enough to show that to the world, so we’ll have to hope he bats .333 in that category by season’s end.

Sammy Stafura, SS - 20 years old

2024 at a glance: .270/.387/.412 with 8 HR, 31 SB in 421 PA split between ACL Reds (Arizona Complex League) and Daytona Tortugas (Class A Florida State League); named Reds Minor League Hitter of the Year

Pros: 65 grade speed and plus baserunning acumen; 15.2% walk rate evidence of great patience and eye at the plate; plus defender who profiles as capable of sticking at short

Cons: In-game power hasn’t showed up just yet, though he spent the bulk of his year in the pitcher-friendly Florida State League (where he had a .124 ISO and .379 SLG)

You don’t have to squint too hard to see in Stafura a guy who hits leadoff for the Cincinnati Reds for a long time. He gets on base, he swipes bases, and so far looks very much the part of an up-the-middle piece that was well worth the ~$2.5 million signing bonus he got to skip Clemson University and sign with the Reds as a 2nd round pick in 2023.

There’s truly a chance we’ve not even scratched the surface with him yet, either. Drafted out of New York, he’s one of those classic ‘high schoolers from cold weather’ whose stats before being drafted don’t typically show what he’s truly capable of doing, and his lone ‘full’ season in 2024 featured the suppressive offensive environment that is the FSL. If he gets to Dayton and the power emerges, we’re looking at a guy with a Sal Stewart-esque approach at the plate who can also be a plus shortstop.

And he just turned 20!