Spring training isn’t quite over. Many minor leaguers are still in Arizona, but some of them are finished with their time in Goodyear for now. With big league camp wrapping up on Sunday in Goodyear, they will be traveling back to Ohio. On Tuesday they will be back on the field – this time in Dayton to take on a team of Cincinnati Reds prospects (which has not been announced yet). Louisville will begin their season on Friday, March 28th. Players who will be heading to Louisville after Tuesday’s game aren’t likely going to be heading back to Arizona just to fly back to Kentucky. The other three full-season teams, though, won’t begin their season until April 4th.
With the big league club finished it also means that outside of Tuesday’s game in Dayton, unless you are still in Arizona and going around to the spring training facilities out there, we won’t be seeing or hearing about much from the minor league players until the regular season begins this upcoming Friday and the Friday after that. I thought that now would make a good time, then, to put out some thoughts on what stood out with regards to some minor league related things.
Cincinnati had over 60 players in big league camp when spring began. Once games started they also called up a whole lot of minor league players to participate in games for the day. Noelvi Marte, as a member of the 40-man roster, was in big league camp when spring training began. He struggled early on, going 3-20 (.150) with a double and a triple in 11 games.
The Reds optioned him to minor league camp on March 10th. He never saw action in a big league game the rest of the spring. Assuming that he remained healthy back in minor league camp, that seems quite strange.
Sal Stewart not only hit well when given the opportunity to play in big league games, he got into plenty of games and racked up a good amount of playing time for a player who realistically was never competing for a job on the opening day roster. He hit .292/.393/.500 in 28 plate appearances over 13 games. Despite only playing a half-season in High-A last season, Stewart had four walks with just five strikeouts this spring. He’s known for his plate discipline, but even with is being “just” spring training, that walk and strikeout rate were impressive coming against pitchers who as a whole almost assuredly had far more experience at higher levels than he does.
Dominic Pitelli flashed some real pop. In 2024 he saw time with both Daytona (34 games) and Chattanooga (79 games). He homered three times in Daytona but he had just one home run in Double-A with the Lookouts. His isolated power (SLG – AVG) last season was .099. For context, the average isolated power in Major League Baseball last season was .156. But this spring he went 4-13 and all four of his hits were extra-base hits. He had two doubles and two home runs while hitting .308/.357/.923.
Blake Dunn had a good spring. We don’t know yet if he will make the opening day roster or not, but he did hit .340/.404/.574 in 24 games. While that’s impressive and stood out on it’s own, it was how often it seemed he was hitting the ball hard that jumped out. This spring he had multiple batted balls top his 2024 highest exit velocity of 107.7 MPH.
Speaking of hitting the ball hard, let’s talk about Ruben Ibarra. He only had six at-bats this spring with the Reds. He had four hits. His four batted balls were all over 103 MPH.
On the mound only one guy really stood out in a way that maybe wasn’t expected. That guy was Lenny Torres Jr. He spent 2024 in Double-A Akron while in the Cleveland organization. And he found plenty of success there, too, posting a 2.26 ERA in 51.2 innings with 63 strikeouts and 24 walks. The walks were a little higher than you’d normally like to see, but it a rather big step forward with regards to his control from the rest of his career. This spring he walked two batters in 7.0 innings, allowed one run (1.29 ERA), and had seven strikeouts.
It’s a small sample size, for sure, but Torres Jr. looked good when he was on the mound. His fastball topped out at 98.4 MPH and averaged 96 in his outings. He was also mixing in a slider and a change up. The minor league free agent signing turned some heads and should be in Triple-A and a call away if he starts the season well.