Minor League Baseball has announced the award winners and postseason All-Star teams for the three rookie-level leagues. The Cincinnati Reds have teams in two of the three leagues and had one player selected to each team.
The Dominican Summer League is the only league in minor league baseball that actually still plays an All-Star game. There were three players from the Reds organization that made that All-Star game. Outfielders Adolfo Sanchez and Pablo Nunez were both on the team. They were joined by pitcher Iker Redona. Sanchez would go 1-2, Nunez 0-1, and Redona threw a perfect inning in the game. Less than a week later Sanchez and Nunez would play their final game of the regular season as Sanchez injured his knee and missed a few weeks before joining Nunez in Arizona where the two are now participating in the “bridge league” that is an informal league where most of the teams from the Arizona Complex League continue to play games after the regular season ends (which was in late July).
Unlike the actual All-Star game, though, the Dominican Summer League postseason All-Star team only names one player per position to the team, plus one “utility player”, has four “starting pitchers”, and two relievers. That’s it. The DSL have 52 teams, but the postseason All-Star team only names 16 players to the team.
The Reds lone player on the team was starting pitcher Dony Aguilera. He just completed his second season with the Reds organization in the Dominican Summer League. In 2024 he was a 17-year-old who threw 45.2 innings with a 2.56 ERA, 12 walks, no home runs allowed, and had 31 strikeouts. This season was even better. The right-handed pitcher posted a 1.70 ERA in 58.1 innings, gave up two home runs, walked 17, and he struck out 52.
Among qualified pitchers he had the third best ERA in the league and was just one of three pitchers with an ERA under 2.15 on the season. His 58.1 innings also ranked third in the league. Opponents hit just .194 against him, which was the 6th best in the league and his .534 OPS against was 4th best in the league. His WHIP was 0.98, which was also the 6th best mark in the league.
You can see the career stats for Dony Aguilera here.
The other rookie league that the Reds are in is the Arizona Complex League. It’s a much smaller league by comparison, featuring just 15 teams. Tyson Lewis was named to the team as the shortstop.
Lewis would play in 46 games for the Arizona Complex League Reds – 40 at shortstop and the other six were served as the team’s designated hitter. At the plate he would hit .340/.396/.532 with eight doubles, five triples, six home runs, score 44 runs, drive in 35, and he stole 19 bases.
The 2024 2nd round draft pick finished in the top 10 in the league in batting average, slugging percentage, OPS, hits, triples, home runs, steals, extra-base hits, total bases, and runs scored.
After the league came to an end with a week left in July, Cincinnati moved Lewis up to Daytona where he joined the Tortugas. On Thursday night he went 3-3 with a walk to bump his line in the Florida State League to .271/.349/.448. Known to be the most pitcher friendly of the leagues in minor league baseball, the average hitter this season there is 21-years-old and the league as a whole is hitting .235/.340/.352.
You can see the career stats for Tyson Lewis here.