Which Reds Prospects Made Just Baseball’s New Top 100?
The Reds' farm system is sitting in a good place heading into 2026. Which prospects were featured in our newest top 100 ranking?
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Recently our very own Aram Leighton released his updated Top 100 Prospects List for the beginning of the 2026 season on Wednesday night in a banger of a livestream episode on the Just Baseball Show.
That list featured three Cincinnati Reds prospects, and we’re here to break down the players that made the cut. This group showcases an intriguing blend of ceiling and floor that should be very fun to see shake out at the big league level as soon as the coming season.
Let’s dive right in and take a look at what makes these three prospects worthy of being top 100 guys.
Coming in at number 15 overall in the top 100 list is Sal Stewart; who made his big league debut towards the end of the 2025 season, providing an offensive spark to the team when in the lineup.
Stewart’s defense is not his calling card, it is most certainly his bat. As the man himself even said in an interview last season, he “plays the batters box” when asked about defensive position. For a Reds team that lacks offensive explosiveness, that is a great mentality to have.
Bringing an extremely polished approach to plate for a 22-year-old, Stewart was able to finally begin to tap in to his raw power and start showing it in games as he hit 25 home runs between the minor and major league season.
On the year as a minor leaguer, he split time between Double- and Triple-A, where in 118 games he slashed .309/.383/.524, good for a .907 OPS. In 18 games in the majors, the overall hit totals were not very high for Stewart as he hit under .260, but in just 58 total plate appearances, he hit five long balls.
Beyond his great minor league season and solid major league debut, Stewart already proved to be a big time postseason contributor coming up with multiple clutch hits in the 2-0 series loss to the Los Angeles Dodgers in the 2025 postseason.
Now wearing number 27, Stewart is going to be needed to be a big contributor to this lineup as his low strikeout totals throughout his minor league career will be incredibly important as other top contributors in the lineup like Elly De La Cruz and Eugenio Suárez are going to strikeout a lot.
Whether it is at first, second, third base, or DH, Stewart is going to be a key piece this season. Counting on a guy with prospect eligibility is not ideal, but a top 15 prospect in all of baseball who has already shown success at the big league level? Yeah, Reds fans don’t need to worry about him.
Alfredo Duno was a big time IFA signing back in 2023 and in 2026 we finally got to see what the hype was all about.
Coming out of the 2023 IFA class, Duno was promised to be this athletic catcher who could really pick it behind the dish while being able to hit nukes at the plate. After playing less than 80 games across his first two seasons, Duno broke out in his 113 games in 2025 by hitting .287 with a .948 OPS and 18 home runs.
Duno has some insane pop and an awesome looking home run swing to go with it which makes just about every homer look like a mammoth of a shot (which most are).
He has always had and will probably continue to have hit tool concerns. But, if he can mitigate the swing-and-miss, the above-average approach at the plate and plus pop should be able to outweigh the deficiencies in the bat-to-ball department.
Defensively, there were concerns about the possibility of having to move out from behind the plate the bigger he got. But, at 6-foot-3 and 250 pounds, Duno has maintained his plus athleticism which points to him having every capability of sticking behind the dish and could even be above average.
Going to the Arizona Fall League did not hurt Duno in any way as he moved from 43 in the previous rankings to 42 in the latest update. Although he did not hit for a high average (.213), he got on base at a high rate and added a three-homer game in the AFL playoffs.
Duno figures to be at least a year away from making his big league debut. In fact, having yet to take an at-bat in High-A makes the outlook of him being ready to be in Cincinnati on Opening Day in 2027 a bit unrealistic. However, a midseason call-up in 2027 could certainly be on the table if 2026 is similar to his 2025 season.
Why is his debut so important for the Reds?
Tyler Stephenson will be a free agent after the 2026 season. And for an organization where every dollar matters, having to pay up for a starting catcher when their backup in Jose Trevino is making over $5 million each of the next two seasons with a club option for $6.5 million in 2028.
Paying both is unrealistic for this franchise, and while Trevino is a great backup, but leaves a bit to be desired if counting on him to be your everyday guy. So, there is maybe a bit of pressure for the 20-year-old Duno to get there in ’27 if the Reds want the chance to have a difference maker at the catcher position moving forward.
A solid defensive catcher who can absolutely mash is always going to have hype around him. And Duno deserves that hype. He is certainly a guy that Reds fans should be excited for and watching the box scores all season long.
Rhett Lowder fell from 78 to 89 in the most recent top 100 update. But, after pitching in just five games in 2025 as he tried coming back from a right forearm strain/elbow tightness before suffering an oblique strain, it is a testament to the floor of Lowder for him to still remain in the top 100 overall.
Those five starts were “rough” for Lowder as he posted an ERA over 10.00. Pitching in short spurts as he came back from injury, Lowder allowed four earned runs in two of his five starts with one of those appearances resulting in him only recording one out. The other three starts he allowed two runs or less.
His stint in the AFL was a bit better as he had a 5.00 ERA through four starts. Even in his struggles, Lowder still showcased the plus command that he has boasted his entire young career as he had a walk-rate of just over 6% in 2025.
Lowder’s 2025 is hard to put any weight into as he pitched just 18 innings when you combine the regular season and the AFL. In 2024, he made his debut in Cincinnati and pitched to a 1.17 ERA across six starts.
In 2026, he is in a much better spot to pick up where he left off in 2024 as he is now fully healthy and ready to go. Will he be a sub-2 ERA guy for the Reds this season? Certainly not. In fact, he is currently on the outside looking in for that fifth rotation spot for the Reds this season as Chase Burns would figure to have the upper hand after his impressive rookie campaign in 2026.
For the Reds, and really any rotation, being more than five-deep is going to be incredibly important to success in 2027. With Hunter Greene’s injury history along with Nick Lodolo’s history pre-2025, Lowder will certainly get an opportunity again in the Queen City this season even if he is not in the rotation on Opening Day.
And when his time comes, I expect him to be ready to hit the ground running. Lowder was the seventh overall pick in the 2023 draft for a reason. He is an artist on the mound when everything is right. He can get whiffs, but he is going to beat you with the way he sequences pitches and induces weak contact.
The Reds are in an interesting spot as all three of these top prospects are guys they will either be counting on this season or next. A mix of high-ceiling and high-floor guys offers plenty of intrigue heading into 2026.
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