2025 Community Prospect Rankings: Connor Phillips is the Reds #12 prospect!

Will he return to the mound for the big league Reds in 2025?

We saw a cameo with the Cincinnati Reds from Connor Phillips during September of the 2023 season, and both his upside and downside were on full display.

Thorugh his first 4 starts, he struck out 26 big leaguers in just 20.2 IP, often flashing a devastating combination of fastball velocity, spin, and a wipeout breaking ball - precisely the mix that saw him rocket up top prospect charts everywhere. Of course, he also yielded 5 dingers and 10 walks in that time, and his final appearance of the year saw him allow 3 ER on 3 BB without so much as recording an out...all on just 12 pitches.

Phillips fell complete apart from that time forward, and spent a good chunk of the 2024 season back in Goodyear working to simply rediscover his delivery and consistency after being shelled early for AAA Louisville. Fortunately, the way he pitched after returning from two months rediscovering himself looked as good (or better) than he’d looked prior to being promoted in 2023 in the first place.

If the latter is the kind of guy he is in 2025, still just his age 24 season, the Reds have a viable piece of their pitching staff going forward. It simply remains to be seen whether he can harness any consistency at all, and that’s why Phillips is the #12 prospect on this year’s Community Prospect Rankings and not much, much higher.

To the voting for spot #13!

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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.

Ty Floyd, RHP - 23 years old

2024 at a glance: Did not pitch as he recovered from shoulder surgery

Pros: Rising fastball that commands the upper half of the strike zone; potentially above average slider

Cons: The aforementioned shoulder surgery means we’ve not seen him pitch in nearly two years

The Reds selected Floyd at the end of the 1st round of the 2023 MLB Draft (38th overall) out of LSU, doing so after he had joined Paul Skenes and Dylan Crews in leading the Tigers to the College World Series title. Along the way, Floyd fanned 17 Florida Gators in Game 1 of the MCWS, equaling the all-time single game record in the tournament.

When right, he can sit 95-96 mph with his rising fastball, and has a potential four-pitch mix to rely on. However, the shoulder injury and subsequent surgery means he’s still a complete unknown for both the Reds and we voters, and you’ve got to factor that in accordingly.

Hopefully he’ll be right again this spring and we’ll see his full arsenal on display.

Sheng-En Lin, RHP/UT - 19 years old

2024 at a glance: .308/.418/.419 with 1 HR, 12 SB in 215 PA with ACL Reds (Arizona Complex League)

Pros: Mid-90’s fastball that can touch 99, which isn’t a ‘Pro’ you usually see from a guy who only posted offensive stats during the previous season; plus runner, ability to hit to all fields

Cons: 31.6% strikeout rate in the ACL, lack of in-game power, somewhat positionless defensively, and he still hasn’t pitched in a league game as a professional

Signed for $1.3 million by the Reds out of Taiwan during the 2023 international signing window, Sheng-En Lin has the upside of a unicorn - a rare two-way player who has elite ability as a pitcher and skill at the plate (and on the bases) to provide the Reds with endless options.

So far, we’ve seen an unpolished version of him at the plate and nothing of him in-game on the mound, making evaluating him more a project of reading previous reports than witnessing what all the hype is truly about. Rumor has it the Reds have eyes on him more as a pitcher at this point than a hitter, but he showed enough at the plate last year to warrant a chance to display that ability at higher levels and prove any doubters wrong first. He showed out most on the basepaths with plus speed, though he’s bounced around from 3B to SS to the OF (and may end up getting more time as DH as he begins to pitch).

To do what he’s done already is enough to warrant a spot around this ranking on the CPR, but any further development in 2025 will see him rocket up next year’s rankings. The upside here is perhaps more than with any other player the Reds have on their farm.