2025 Community Prospect Rankings: Chase Petty is the Reds #4 prospect!

Will 2025 be the year he puts it all together?

Chase Petty had quite the interesting 2024. He set a career high in innings pitched (137.0) while finally getting his full velocity back after a forearm issue tempered things in 2023, and even reached AAA for a pair of starts to finish the season.

Despite the uptick in velocity, he also got hit harder in 2024 than he had previously. His ERA jumped from 1.72 to 4.39 year over year, and that came with a significant drop in his groundball rate (42.3%, down from 56.4% in 2023).

Did he alter his pitch mix? Did he try to attack hitters in a fundamentally different way?

The good news is that he seems fully healthy, and 2024 might just have been an example of him working through some things after finally having everything available to him each day. That sets the stage for a 2025 season in which the former 1st round pick of the Minnesota Twins can really, truly emerge as the kind of pitcher the Reds hoped he’d be when they traded away Sonny Gray for him.

He’s the #4 prospect in this year’s Community Prospect Rankings, and the #2 prospect in this year’s rankings of Pitchers in the Reds Organization Named Chase.

On to the voting for the next spot!

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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!

Tyson Lewis, SS - 19 years old

2024 at a glance: Hit .496 with 8 dingers and 14 doubles in 38 games for Millard West High School in Omaha, NE; drafted by the Cincinnati Reds in the 2nd round of the 2024 MLB Draft; signed for an above-slot $3.05 million to turn pro in lieu of attending the University of Arkansas

Pros: Well rounded athlete with 60-grade speed and potential for good power from the left side of the plate

Cons: Defense is solid, yet not spectacular at SS, and it’s likely he ends up moved off the position; not exactly from a baseball hotbed

Tyson Lewis has above-average ability across the board, and if you squint you can see a potential five-tool guy. Right now, it’s more that he’s something of a B+ student in all five tools instead of a guy who’s got two A’s and a trio of Cs.

That can be a good thing! It’s just that we need to see how it translates level by level, since it doesn’t appear he’s shown anything yet that has people already convinced one particular skill is way beyond his level.

He’s just 19, of course, and there’s ample opportunity for that to be shown, he’s just not yet played a professional game since being drafted. So, Lewis gets to play the role of mystery team in this year’s CPR - let’s see who among us is already convinced!