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    Reds’ Tyson Lewis, Arnaldo Lantigua homer in Daytona debut

    Doug Gray 21

    With the Arizona Complex League season ending on Thursday, the Cincinnati Reds promoted several prospects from the ACL Reds up to the Single-A Daytona Tortugas. Three of the four guys played and had two hits in the Tortugas win. Both Tyson Lewis and Arnaldo Lantigua homered and doubled in their debut in the Florida State League.

    Tyson Lewis was among the league leaders in the Arizona Complex League in most offensive categories in 2025. He hit .340/.396/.532 with 19 extra-base hits and 19 stolen bases. He ranked in the top 10 in the league in batting average, home runs, slugging percentage, OPS, hits, triples, total bases, runs, and stolen bases.

    In his first at-bat with Daytona on Friday he struck out. But in his second at-bat he announced his presence with authority as he unloaded on a 437-foot home run to right field.

    The home run came off of his bat at 111 MPH (his double was merely 100 off of the bat). Not his top exit velocity of the year, but among the Reds big leaguers they’ve only managed to hit 26 balls that hard all season long. 20 of those have been by Elly De La Cruz. No other player has done it more than once as a big league Red this season. This is the 5th time we have record of Lewis doing so this season. He’s only played in nine games this year where we have ball tracking data. You can see his career stats here.

    Arnaldo Lantigua hit 21 home runs over the course of his 2024 and 2025 seasons before Friday night, covering 98 games played. He led the league in home runs out in Arizona with 10 of them. Power is a big part of his game and he can get to it often. In the 8th inning he connected for a 408-foot home run into left-center for Daytona to cap off the Tortugas scoring for the night.

    His 11th home run of the year came in his 50th game of the year. You can probably do the math on that to project how many home runs that would be in a season where he played 150 games (I’ll give you a hint: It’s 33 home runs). That’s just all kinds of power for a 19-year-old to show. With his double and home run he is now hitting .271/.346/.537 on the year with 15 doubles, a triple, and those 11 home runs in 2025. You can see his career stats here.

    Doug Gray
    Doug Gray is the owner and operator of this website and has been running it since 2006 in one variation or another.

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    21 Responses

    2. We may start seeing some offense bubble up through the system. I’m already excited about Hector Rodriguez’s first week at Louisville! He seems to be a natural.

      2. The word is around as they intentionally walked him last night in the ninth inning leading to the walk off hit.

    3. I wonder if they felt the transition to a new league would be easier if Lewis played his normal defensive position, as opposed to a new one.

      Anyone who’s watched both Stafura and Lewis field SS, who’s smoother, who looks like a future MLB SS between the two?

      1. Doubt anyone’s seen much of Lewis, professionally at least, given the lack of televised games. Some youtube, or whatever, possibly. But that could change soon. Stafura is pretty nice at short. He glides more than is twitchy or super quick.

        What will be most interesting IMO is whether Stafura lingers in Daytona (they sure got McCrystal outta there and into Dayton’s lineup pretty quickly). Could be nothing.

        1. Stafura is almost at 750 plate appearances in Daytona and has been about 100 points above league average in OPS most of that time, you’d think it was time for the next step.

    4. Finally got a chance to see some of these rookies at Daytona last evening, and it’s my go-to option for non-Reds baseball now.

    6. Crazy that Lewis is that strong with that bat speed at 19, he’s still years away from full physical maturity.

      Lantigua has been an extra base hit machine this year, just needs to raise the average a bit.

      2. Lewis seems pretty legit. Burns will be off of the prospect lists next year, and I’m guessing our #1 prospect on opening day will be Lewis.

        Lantigua has been a huge add/trade for the Reds. I think he’s due to jump up the list quite a bit too.

        1. RH power is a good thing.

          Our current RH home run leaders
          McLain 11
          Steer 11
          Hays 10
          Stephenson 8
          Marte 6
          Elly 5
          Trevino 4
          Hinds 2
          Espinal 0
          Joe 0

          League Leaders
          Judge 37
          Geno 36
          Suzuki 26
          Caminero 26
          Ward 26
          Torkelson 26
          Alonso 22
          Rooker 22
          Arozerena 20
          Machado 20
          48 others with 12 or more

          This is a freakin’ theater of the absurd.

        2. We’ve shifted from acquiring “power guys” to “athletic guys”. I really wouldn’t mind it if our stadium was a place for runners, but really, it’s a place for homerunners .

        3. The athleticism thing makes sense in light of changes in the game aimed at speed. I mean, that is, if we still ran a lot as a club, which we don’t (we are one SB below league average).

          And one point i saw during the draft that I hadn’t seen before, about the benefit of the ‘athletic middle infielders’ in particular, was related to getting rid of The Shift. You need guys who can cover the ground again.

          Still … I guess one way to look at it as there being high importance getting Sal Stewart and his doubles primed and ready to contribute, with a Marte move to RF.

        4. Marte has power, I’m really looking forward to seeing him in 2026. He had such an unusual season last year with the suspension. Then this year he had to earn a spot on the club, and now he’s learning a new position.

          Hopefully 2026 will be a more traditional season for him.

          CES has a lot of potential, but he’s running out of time before Stewart, and Collier arrive.

          I think we need to add 50 – 60 HR’s via trade or free agency in 2026.

    7. Even if just temporarily, there are some high octane middle infields in the system at this moment.

      Elly/McLain
      Arroyo/Balcazar
      Stafura/Lewis
      Lewis/Alcantara

    8. Shaffer signs for 240k. Looks like that’s it for the draft as picks 18,19 and 20 unlikely to sign.

      1. Followed by a 2-run double. I’d like to know the exit velo on that one.

        First look on Alcantara: Very quick bat.

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