The Athletic’s Keith Law released his midseason Top 60 prospects list today. It featured one Cincinnati Reds prospect, and one former Cincinnati Reds prospect. There are some caveats here, though, as Law only included players on the list who are currently in the minor leagues. That means players like Chase Burns aren’t here even though they technically are still prospects by eligibility definitions. Signed draft picks are also included here.
With all of that said, the lone Reds prospect on the list was also the last prospect on the list. Shortstop Tyson Lewis rounded out things at the #60 spot. Lewis was Cincinnati’s 2nd round draft pick in 2024 and didn’t play in official games after the draft last season – the complex league now ends less than two weeks after the draft happens, making it nearly impossible to get draftees into that league and most high school players just aren’t ready to jump to full-season baseball after not having played in competitive games for 2+ months.
Lewis may have made the jump to Daytona this season (he still may) if he weren’t blocked by all of the other shortstop prospects in the system. Edwin Arroyo was assigned to Double-A Chattanooga, Leo Balcazar was in High-A Dayton, and Sammy Stafura was in Single-A Daytona. All are viewed as quality shortstop prospects and are guys who the organization wants playing every day. Without upward movement of someone(s) from that group there just wasn’t room for Lewis in Daytona, so he remained in Arizona.
Out of the gate this season the 19-year-old hit. And he has not stopped. He hit .357 in May with an OPS of .952. In June he hit .338 with an OPS of .911. And as he enters today – the last game of the Arizona Complex League season – he’s hitting .333 in July with a .916 OPS.
On the year he’s played in 45 games and is hitting .341/.394/.530 with seven doubles, five triples, and six home runs. He’s also stolen 19 bases in 23 attempts. Lewis has crushed the ball in the stat line, but he’s also been a standout in the league with how hard he’s been hitting the ball as his exit velocities not only stand out among his peers at the level he’s at, they stand out among just about all minor league players.
Leo Balcazar was promoted to Double-A right before the All-Star break and has been playing second base in most of the games with Chattanooga in the second half thus far. That may open things up to move Sammy Stafura up to Dayton and clear a spot for Lewis in Daytona in the near future that would allow Cincinnati to keep Lewis playing in games that count rather than informal games in Arizona for the remainder of the summer. We’ll have to wait and see if that happens, though.
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