2025 Community Prospect Rankings: Tyson Lewis is the Reds #11 prospect!

Will he stick at short long-term? We’ll find out!

We did it, Red Reporter!

It took us until the #11 ranked prospect - Tyson Lewis - in this year’s Community Prospect Rankings, but we finally got to a player who has zero pictures in SBN’s photo cache!

Lewis, who was drafted out of high school in Omaha, has a lot going for him on paper. We’ve just not yet seen him ply his trade as a pro, something we’ll finally get the chance to do this spring when he most likely suits up for the Daytona Tortugas.

Will he stick at shortstop? Will he move to 2B or 3B? Will he eschew the moniker of ‘player who didn’t play high school ball in a hypercompetitive state’ and show us all that, yes, his talent really is off the charts?

That’s all within the realm of expectation and anticipation for Lewis, Cincinnati’s 2nd round pick from the 2024 MLB Draft.

On to the voting for spot #12!

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Connor Phillips, RHP - 24 years old

2024 at a glance:

Pros: Fastball that can touch 100 mph; potential plus curveball and slider

Cons: Finding the strikezone has been, at times, impossible for Phillips

Phillips was shelled for 15 dingers and 64 ER across 57.0 IP for AAA Louisville to begin the 2024 season, a 14 game stretch that produced numbers as bad as I’ve seen for any pitcher at any level in a long, long time.

Frankly, that’s because pitchers performing that poorly don’t usually keep getting that many opportunities. In Connor Phillips, though, the Reds know there’s something better in there somewhere, and they’re going to exhaust every last way of allowing him to rediscover that. They shipped him to their complex in Arizona to do side work for some two months after that disastrous start, and when he returned to the Bats he pitched to a tidy 2.49 ERA with a 24/10 K/BB in 21.1 IP across 5 games. He backed that up with a solid, if unspectacular 19.1 IP in Arizona Fall League work, and mostly looked more like the guy who cracked Top 100 overall lists before the season began.

Look, there’s ample evidence out there for you to believe he’ll never cut it as a big league starter and that his inability to throw strikes will continue to plague him. There’s also enough talent (and spurty performance) to allow you to think he’s the best pitcher in the entire system if you catch him on the right day. So, I’ve added him to the mix here earlier than you might have expected to see just how many of you are still on the optimistic side with him.

Julian Aguiar, RHP - 24 years old

2024 at a glance: 6.25 ERA, 6.86 FIP, 1.33 WHIP in 31.2 IP for the Cincinnati Reds; 3.79 ERA, 1.21 WHIP in 116.1 IP split between Louisville Bats (AAA International League) and Chattanooga Lookouts (AA Southern League)

Pros: Strike-thrower who uses a sinker/slider mix; fastball that sits around 95 mph and a potential plus changeup

Cons: Will miss the 2025 season after undergoing Tommy John surgery in late 2024

Aguiar was drafted in the 12th round of the 2021 MLB Draft by the Reds out of Cypress College (CA), a JUCO program that hasn’t exactly produced a ton of big league talent before (Rowan Wick, who caught for the Cubs for a time, and former outfielder Brandon Barnes are their best known products). He signed for just $125,000, never really sat on any top prospect lists prior to 2023, at which point he fired 125.0 IP of 2.95 ERA/1.10 WHIP work between Dayton and Daytona and firmly worked his way into the Reds pitching depth chart.

Solid enough work again in 2024 put him in line for a call-up in August when the Reds rotation was in tatters. While his numbers certainly were nothing to write home about there, he did flash some stuff that looked like it could get big league hitters out more often than not.

Problem is, it’s hard to discern just how much his stumbles before his season ended were due to the elbow troubles that eventually led him to Tommy John surgery. If he’s more effective at throwing strikes when his elbow’s in better shape, perhaps he’d have shown even more than we saw last. Unfortunately, we’ll have to wait another year to find out, as he’s likely in recovery-only mode for the entirety of 2025.

Carlos Jorge, 2B/OF - 21 years old

2024 at a glance: Hit .220/.292/.394 with 12 HR and 28 SB in 402 for the Dayton Dragons (High-A Midwest League)

Pros: Plus runner with more pop for his size than you’d expect; former full-time infielder has taken to OF (including CF) quite well in short order

Cons: K-rate has spiked since moving up from A to A+ ball while walk rate has plummeted

At his best, Carlos Jorge has shown a borderline five-tool potential. He slugged .483 across 86 games (355 PA) in the extreme pitcher-friendly confines of the Florida State League for Class A Daytona in 2023 while sporting an excellent 13.2% walk rate and .400 OBP. He swiped 28 bags while only being caught 4 times during his 2024 campaign with High-A Dayton. He came up as a shortstop, has ample experience and skill at 2B, and has adapted to CF with plus ability, too.

If he’d been able to put all of that together in one fell swoop, he’d have already cracked this list. Instead, he’s shown flashes of brilliance with each tool while also having serious issues maintaining it all at once. His most recent body of work in 2024 showed a brutal spike in his strikeouts (K% up to 31.1%) while his walk rate evaporated (down to just 7.7%), and his overall numbers fell dramatically, too.

He only turned 21 in September, however, and there’s ample time for him to turn things around once again. The upside here, though, is still pretty tremendous.

Luke Holman, RHP - 22 years old

2024 at a glance: 2.75 ERA, 0.98 WHIP, 127/33 K/BB in 91.2 IP for Louisiana State University; drafted in the 2nd round by the Reds in the 2024 MLB Draft

Pros: Strike-thrower with a plus slider and the ability to locate multiple pitches; 6’4” frame suggests he still has some development left

Cons: We haven’t seen him yet!

Holman starred for LSU in 2024 after a pair of seasons with the University of Alabama, and he’s made a name for himself as a guy who can control all parts of the zone despite a fastball that only sits 92-94 mph.

Thing is, we just haven’t seen anything from him yet as a pro despite the fact the Reds used their Competitive Balance Round B pick on him just last summer. He’s a guy who gets easily labeled as a back-end of the rotation guy, but there’s still very much a chance he’s got more to him than that.

Yerlin Confidan, OF - 22 years old

2024 at a glance: .249/.343/.419 with 9 HR, 16 SB in 400 PA with Daytona Tortugas (Class-A Florida State League

Pros: Plenty of pop from the left-hand side of the plate, with plus speed and developing plate approach

Cons: Vulnerable vs. LHP, repeated at Daytona after struggling there (.612 OPS) in 2023

Confidan flashes the kind of power from the left side that few others can replicate within the Reds farm system, and at times has put it together in-game. During the 2021 season he raked for the ACL Reds, but struggled to replicate that during most of the 2022 and 2023 seasons - seasons that saw him reach Daytona and stall somewhat.

2024 was different, fortunately, and the in-game pop began to show up (28 doubles) despite being mired in the pitcher-friendly Florida State League.

It was a performance good enough to finally earn him a likely start with High-A Dayton to begin 2025, something that’s still right on-par with his age 22 season. If his bat speed and raw power continue to develop, he’s precisely the kind of toolsy corner OF prospect the Reds desperately need in their system.