a link right here<\/a> included during open voting that will take you to your ballot. Once voting closes, they\u2019ll disappear into the ether and you\u2019ll never see them again (until voting for the next spot begins the next day).<\/p>\nOn to the voting for the prospect deserving of spot #4!<\/p>\n
Cam Collier, 3B\/1B (21 years old)<\/p>\n
2025 at a glance: .279\/.391\/.384 with 4 HR, 21 2B in 396 PA split between ACL Reds (Arizona Complex League), A+ Dayton Dragons (Midwest League), and AA Chattanooga Lookouts (Southern League); .221\/.368\/.325 with 1 HR in 95 PA with Peoria Javelinas (Arizona Fall League)<\/p>\n
Pros: Plus hit tool and his plate discipline is rapidly moving into plus category as well; plenty of power that we\u2019re still hoping can return in-game after his thumb injury<\/p>\n
Cons: Defense leaves a lot to be desired, and he\u2019s likely already a 1B-only at this point<\/p>\n
Collier busted his thumb in spring training in 2025, and the break (and recovery) caused him to miss the first two months of the season. A rehab stint came in Arizona next, and he eventually worked his way all the way up to AA Chattanooga\u2026albeit with a shocking lack of power from the guy who swatted 20 homers for A+ Dayton in 2024, a mark that tied him for the Midwest League lead.<\/p>\n
What Collier did do in 2025, though, is begin to show some pretty elite OBP skills, and if he can maintain that and get the power back a year removed from the broken thumb, well, the Reds have the guy they gave an overslot bonus to in the 1st round back in 2022 who repeatedly made Top 100 overall prospect lists in his first years as a pro. And even if that all only comes as a 1B who\u2019s not the world\u2019s greatest defender that\u2019s an incredibly valuable thing, especially with the dearth of offense the franchise owns right now.<\/p>\n
Chase Petty, RHP (23 years old)<\/p>\n
2025 at a glance: 6.39 ERA, 1.61 WHIP, 102\/58 K\/BB in 112.2 IP with AAA Louisville Bats (International League); 13 ER in 6.0 IP with Cincinnati Reds<\/p>\n
Pros: Three plus pitches, including a fastball that flirts with 100 mph and 60-grade slider and cutter<\/p>\n
Cons: Lit up in first cups of MLB coffee, and struggled in AAA after being sent back down<\/p>\n
Petty has long been on the radar of every scout in the game, a former 1st round pick of the Minnesota Twins out of high school (whom the Reds had eyes on drafting back then, too). He was the centerpiece of the deal that sent Sonny Gray the other way, and he\u2019s pitched his way onto multiple Top 100 overall prospect lists since.<\/p>\n
Of course, he\u2019s also pitched his way back off those same lists, with much of his work in 2025 doing just that. He was shelled at the big league level, though that\u2019s with the caveat that he\u2019d just turned 22 years old when that went down. The stuff\u2019s still there, he\u2019s just struggled to blend it all together for long enough stretches to show he can be an effective big league starter. The hope is that the lumps he took in 2025 paired with a mostly healthy offseason for the first time in a while will send him into 2026 both ready and with something to prove.<\/p>\n
Edwin Arroyo, SS (22 years old)<\/p>\n
2025 at a glance: .284\/.345\/.371 with 3 HR, 12 SB in 521 PA with AA Chattanooga Lookouts (Southern League)<\/p>\n
Pros: High contact, low-K approach at the plate (just 16.9% K% in \u201825); elite defensive shortstop with plus arm who can switch-hit with success from both sides of the plate; always young at every level he\u2019s played<\/p>\n
Cons: Power has dried up since his lost 2024 due to shoulder surgery – will it ever return?<\/p>\n
We\u2019ll forgive you if it seems as if we\u2019ve been waiting on Edwin Arroyo forever. After all, it\u2019s now 2026 and the Luis Castillo deal with Seattle was all the way back in 2022. Still, Arroyo played the first 84 games of his 2025 season as a 21 year old in the AA Southern League, and by season\u2019s end he finished tied for 4th in the league in hits (with 132).<\/p>\n
By most all accounts, he could step in defensively as Cincinnati\u2019s everyday shortstop today and be pretty dang good at it. Imagine that paired with even a .320 OBP from a switch-hitter! That\u2019s not at all out of the realm of expectations for what he\u2019d be right this very minute!<\/p>\n
There\u2019s the shoulder issue we must address, of course. The injury and surgery cost him pretty much all of a lost 2024, and the power he showed in the lower minors simply wasn\u2019t there with Chattanooga in 2025. Maybe that was a bit of rust, a bit of ebb and flow as he cut his strikeout rate significantly from where it was before, a bit of simply working his way all the way back – and, if so, there\u2019ll be more of it in 2026 than in 2025. If it sapped a good bit of his swing for good, though, than he\u2019ll have to reinvent himself.<\/p>\n
Editor\u2019s note: I\u2019m still irrationally high on Arroyo, and think he rockets back up prospect lists with a really impressive 2026 with AAA Louisville (and will be in the Reds infield mix by season\u2019s end). But don\u2019t let that sway your vote as the farther down the list he falls this year the more smug I get to be when he\u2019s atop the list next year!<\/p>\n
Hector Rodriguez, OF (22 years old)<\/p>\n
2025 at a glance: .298\/.357\/.481 with 12 HR, 6 SB in 345 PA with AA Chattanooga Lookouts (Southern League); .260\/.304\/.405 with 7 HR, 9 SB in 230 PA with AAA Louisville Bats (International League)<\/p>\n
Pros: Plus hit tool featuring low strikeout rates (15.0% last year); potential plus power that\u2019s emerging more in-games<\/p>\n
Cons: Aggression at the plate sometimes leads to high chase rates; likely more a corner OF than a CF<\/p>\n
Like Arroyo, Rodriguez has continued to be much younger than average at every level, and he technically won\u2019t even turn 22 years old until March. So, we\u2019re talking a 21 year old who spent a third of 2025 at the AAA level and held his own against much older competition here.<\/p>\n
He had typically been a gap to gap hitter from the left side, though his power began to show through more in 2025. He does have a tendency to swing at just about everything, though his low K-rate shows just how well he is at actually making contact with even the bad pitches (though that often results in bad contact, too). If he refines that as he moves up – and as the pitchers get better and around the zone more – there\u2019s a chance he\u2019ll keep showing better results, too.<\/p>\n
He still needs to show more at the AAA level, but if he does he\u2019ll be in the Reds OF mix as soon as it happens.<\/p>\n
Tyson Lewis, SS (20 years old)<\/p>\n
2025 at a glance: .340\/.396\/.532 (.928 OPS) in 207 PA with ACL Reds (Arizona Complex League); .268\/.347\/.417 (.765 OPS) in 144 PA with Class-A Daytona Tortugas (Florida State League)<\/p>\n
Pros: Statcast darling with elite exit velocity and power with his left-handed swing; elite athleticism and plus speed gives him a chance to stick at SS long term, though a move off the position seems likely<\/p>\n
Cons: Struck out at an alarming 35.4% rate with Daytona (and at an alarming 29.1% rate overall last year); .432 BABIP across all leagues last year screams \u2018regression\u2019<\/p>\n
Tools. Tyson Lewis has just about every tool there is. He hit a ball over 119 mph<\/a> in his pro debut, was the Gatorade Player of the Year in Nebraska prior to being a 2nd round pick (with an overslot bonus) by the Reds, and was originally committed to the University of Arkansas.<\/p>\nThe upside here is obvious, as he\u2019s got one of the loudest bats at any level. The swing and miss stuff, though, is something he\u2019ll have to completely overhaul as he moves up the ladder, though getting out of the extremely pitcher-friendly confines of the FSL will perhaps help that some.<\/p>\n
Steele Hall, SS (18 years old)<\/p>\n
2025 at a glance: Drafted 9th overall in the 1st round of the 2025 MLB Draft by the Cincinnati Reds out of Hewitt-Trussville HS (AL); 2025 Mr. Baseball in the state of Alabama, once committed to powerhouse University of Tennessee before signing with the Reds for $5.75 million<\/p>\n
Pros: Speed, and plenty of it; projectable power and potential five-tool player whose defense and arm look like they\u2019ll play plenty well at short; just 17 years old when drafted after reclassifying a year early<\/p>\n
Cons: It\u2019s all still \u2018projectable\u2019 as, again, he just turned 18 after the draft and has zero professional PA to show for it<\/p>\n
Hall reclassified to the class of 2025 despite originally being part of the class of 2026, and the Reds – who\u2019d been scouting him already – thought he had the talent to eventually mature into a player who\u2019d be in the mix for the #1 overall pick in 2026. So, when he was there at pick #9 in 2025, they jumped at the chance to sign him, knowing full well there was no rush for his development.<\/p>\n
He\u2019s drawn comparisons to the likes of Trea Turner and Dansby Swanson, which is pretty damn lofty. Despite not having played a pro game and still being just 18, he\u2019s ranked 79th in MLB Pipeline\u2019s list of the Top 100 overall prospects in the game. How quickly he can physically mature and adapt to breaking balls at the top levels remains to be seen, but the speed, glove, and arm all look like they\u2019ll be big-league caliber in very short order.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Rhett Lowder took home the #3 spot in this year\u2019s Community Prospect Rankings, doing so in a pretty…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":407237,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[65],"tags":[189200,363,99],"class_list":{"0":"post-407236","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mlb","8":"tag-community-prospect-rankings","9":"tag-mlb","10":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/407236","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=407236"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/407236\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/407237"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=407236"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=407236"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=407236"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}