The Cincinnati Reds have announced six more invitations to big league spring training today. Infielder Cam Collier, catchers Connor Burns, P.J. Higgins, and Michael Trautwein, as well as pitchers Yunior Marte and Anthony Misiewicz were all extended non-roster invitations to join the big league club in Goodyear.
There are two surprises to me on that list. The first is that the club signed left-handed pitcher Anthony Misiewicz. That move is not listed anywhere on the transaction list, so seeing his name there came as a surprise. The other surprise is that while the Reds have plenty of prospects on their 40-man roster, the only guy among the other guys I would personally rank in the top 40 prospects in the farm system that got an invite was Cam Collier. That’s about as light of a “prospect” non-roster invite list as I can ever recall. Nothing is stopping or preventing the Reds from adding other guys to the list, but the team has now handed out 15 non-roster invites and it’s Cam Collier, older veteran minor league type signings, and guys the organization designated for assignment recently in Lyon Richardson and Carson Spiers.
Getting back to Anthony Misiewicz, he was designated for assignment after the 2025 season by the Twins and cleared waivers. He then was outrighted to Triple-A and opted to become a free agent. The 31-year-old has pitched in parts of six big league seasons, making his debut back in 2020 with the Seattle Mariners. Much of his big league time came with them as 104 of his 129 games were with the Mariners between 2020 and 2022.
Over the course of his 120.1 innings in Major League Baseball he’s given up 132 hits, walked 42, given up 17 home runs, and walked 119 batters. That’s worked out for a 4.86 ERA (87 ERA+, meaning his ERA was 13% worse than the league average once we take into account part factors). In 2025 he pitched just 4.2 innings with the Twins. He threw another 33.0 innings in Triple-A with St. Paul where he had a 3.82 ERA. The lefty missed much of the second half with shoulder impingement. He missed two months before returning for two rehab games in late September and then one final game with the Twins on the final day of the year.
Yunior Marte is getting a big league invite. He signed with the Reds just before the new year after pitching in Japan for his 2025 season. With Chunichi he had a 1.95 ERA in 32.1 innings while giving up 21 hits, walking 11, and striking out 25. He also pitched in five games with Licey in the Dominican Winter League, giving up no baserunners in his 5.0 innings.
The three catchers getting invites is not too surprising. Particularly early on in spring training you need a ton of catchers in order to help the 30-ish pitchers you have get their work in. Connor Burns is probably the best defensive catcher in the organization, but he also a career .178/.280/.336 hitter in three minor league seasons. P.J. Higgins last played in the big leagues in 2022. The 32-year-old played in Louisville in each of the last two years and had an OPS of .706 in 2024 and .645 in 2025. Michael Trautwein played in Double-A this past season but he got injured in mid-May and only played in four rehab games in July before heading back to the injured list where he missed the remainder of the year.
Cam Collier, Cincinnati’s 9th rated prospect, is coming off of a year that started out poorly in spring training last year. It wasn’t that his play was poor but that while playing first base early on in the spring he suffered a thumb injury that required surgery, cost him plenty of time on the injured list during the regular season, and likely sapped him of power during the year after he returned. After hitting 20 home runs as a teenager in 2024, he hit just three home runs in 85 games between Dayton and Chattanooga in 2025.
Cincinnati’s non-roster invite list is now at 15 players. Here’s the list:
Catchers
- Will Banfield
- Connor Burns
- P.J. Higgins (also 1B)
- Michael Trautwein
Infielders
- Michael Chavis
- Cam Collier
- Garrett Hampson (also OF)
- Michael Toglia (also OF)
Pitchers
- Tejay Antone (RHP)
- Hagen Danner (RHP)
- Yunior Marte (RHP)
- Anthony Misiewicz (LHP)
- Lyon Richardson (RHP)
- Carson Spiers (RHP)
- Joel Valdez (LHP)
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