Reds MiLB Notebook: Blake Dunn’s big turn around

Blake Dunn made the 2025 Cincinnati Reds out of spring training. He struggled to find hits or hit for any power. He would get his walks and he was hit by some pitches, so despite hitting just .150 in the first six weeks of the season he had a .320 on-base percentage to give at least something to his team from an offensive perspective. But there just wasn’t enough of anything else going on and on May 9th he was optioned to Triple-A where he joined the Louisville Bats.

Things didn’t get much better in the minor leagues for a while. In the first 34 games with Louisville in 2025 Dunn hit just .179/.304/.231. He had struck out 41 times in 140 plate appearances (29% strikeout rate).

On June 28th the Bats played a doubleheader in St. Paul and Dunn went 1-3 in each game, homering in the first game and then picking up a double in the next one. He never stopped hitting after that. He would have 14 multi-hit games in the following 27 games, and one of those games saw him come off of the bench and only have one at-bat.

Things weren’t exactly slowing down after that, either. In total, Dunn racked up 282 plate appearances from the start of that doubleheader on June 28th through the end of the year with Louisville and he was just a completely different hitter than he had been in the first half of the season. This year he’s picked up where he left off in Louisville. We are only six games into the season he’s he’s already had 11 hits, five walks, and he’s been hit by three pitches. That’s 19 times on base in six games. If we go back to that doubleheader and run the numbers for Blake Dunn to today, he’s hit .356 with a .458 on-base percentage, a .494 slugging percentage, and he’s had 41 walks with 66 strikeouts in 314 trips to the plate.

Watch 15 Dayton Dragons games locally

If you happen to live in or around the Dayton, Ohio area then you will likely be able to watch 15 Dayton Dragons games this season for free. All you need is a television that picks up WDTN 2, the NBC affiliate in Dayton. They will be broadcasting 15 Dragons home games this season. It’s going to be six more weeks until the first one, though. Still, I wanted to publish it while it was on my mind and that way you can put it on your calendars if that’s the sort of thing you do to help keep track of everything.

Here’s the broadcast schedule: