Minor League Baseball and the Southern League had announced that Ruben Ibarra has been named the league’s Player of the Week for September 7th through the 13th.
The final week of the regular season went about as well as one could imagine for Ruben Ibarra. The Chattanooga Lookouts first baseman beat up on Rocket City pitching last week. Ibarra played in all six games of the series and had a hit in five of the six games and had five walks in the series.
Each of the five games he had a hit in he had an extra-base hit in. In fact, of the eight hits he had during the week he only had one single. Ibarra hit five home runs and added in two doubles to go with that single. In the season finale he homered twice and drove in four runs.
Over the course of the series he scored 10 runs and he scored eight runs. He did that while hitting for a .364 batting average, posting a .500 on-base percentage, and he slugged 1.136. That adds up to an OPS of 1.636 for those who were keeping track at home.
The five home runs during the final series of the season helped set a new career high for home runs for Ibarra. In 2025 he hit 21 home runs for the Lookouts. He blew past that thanks to his crushing of the Trash Pandas pitchers this past week.
Here are the Cincinnati Reds players to win a Player of the Week Award in 2026:
| Player | League | Time Frame |
| Rece Hinds | International League | March 31-April 5 |
| Noelvi Marte | International League | April 20-26 |
| Nestor Lorant | Midwest League | May 4-10 |
| Carlos Jorge | Southern League | May 25-31 |
| Hector Rodriguez | International League | June 9-14 |
| Lisnerkin Lantigua | Florida State League | June 9-14 |
| Jose Acuna | Southern League | June 15-21 |
| Ty Doucette | Florida State League | June 29-July 5 |
| Ben Wereski | Southern League | July 6-12 |
| Jirvin Morillo | Arizona Complex | July 6-12 |
| Rafhlmil Torres | Florida State League | August 3-9 |
| Ruben Ibarra | Southern League | September 7-13 |
Ruben Ibarra turns 28 in April, this might be the perfect swansong to end his professional baseball career. I can’t fault a man for continuing to chase his dream if that is what he wants to do though.
Hey Duke,
Are you saying that because of Ruben’s age? Not sure if there is an age threshhold but i am not sure.
MLB Pipeline has an article that announced AFL rosters:
Reds (Peoria):
Carlos Sanchez, 3B/SS/OF (No. 15)
Jay Allen II, OF (No. 22)
Carter Graham, 1B (No. 23)
Luke Holman, RHP (No. 24)
Cody Adcock, RHP
Victor Diaz, RHP
Trent Hodgdon, RHP
Jose Montero, RHP
https://www.mlb.com/milb/news/2026-arizona-fall-league-rosters?t=mlb-pipeline-coverage
If there was going to be one consensus pick this year, it’s Carter Graham. He should get every opportunity to show he can hit higher level pitching that he can.
If Luke Holman is healthy enough to get an AFL spot, that is a bit of good news. And if Montero has a multi-purpose job ahead of him, where his fastball can play up, more reps are good.
I wrote something about Sanchez the other day and wondered if he was going to be getting time at 3B and the OF as well as possibly 2B given the imminent arrival of Lebron at SS in Chattanooga. AZ might offer a clue.
Good for Jay Allen II. Speed. Defense. Arm. And some hitting with more power this year. Being a RH hitting OF sitting at AAA waiting for an opportunity is a plus.
Hodgdon, Diaz and Adcock might have a leg up on some of the other relievers we’ve sent to AZ. Of you watch these guys enough, you can see their ability. They each seem like AA to AAA to who knows what can happen next year.
Yeah, Holman was the one that perked my ears up, it’d be nice if he is healthy enough to pitch.
I think Montero’s future is as a reliever with his fastball/splitter combo.
Graham just needs to keep proving himself at each level. AA second half of this year, AFL this fall, maybe AAA to start next year. Once you are at AAA, you’re just one injury/slump/trade away or a hot streak that can’t be ignored. At 25 next season Graham would be below the median age of the league for the first time in his professional career in AAA.