Louisville lost 2-0 on the final day of the season. While both Double-A and Triple-A have playoffs to complete, the Reds teams at those levels aren’t involved and Cincinnati’s 2026 minor league season is now complete.
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The Louisville Bats lost 2-0. Box Score
- Garrett Hampson went 1-4.
- Michael Chavis went 1-3.
- Leo Balcazar went 1-3.
- Cam Cotter threw 1.1 perfect innings with a strikeout.
- Zach Maxwell threw 2.0 perfect innings with 3 strikeouts.
- Hunter Parks threw a shutout inning with a strikeout.
Game Notes
Garrett Hampson struggled to start the year. He hit .207/.248/.315 in the first 62 games of the season. On July 4th he played in game 63 of the season and went 1-3 with a double. He would hit .474 from that point through July 12th, but he exited that game with an injury and then didn’t return until September. Hampson then hit .310 in September. Over the final 21 games he played going back to July 4th he hit .361/.458/.492.
Leo Balcazar had the furthest hit of the entire game for either team. It was a single that went 262 feet. Only one other hit topped 160 feet on the day.
Hunter Parks really struggled with Louisville from June 16th through August 9th. In 18 games between those dates he posted a 15.35 ERA and gave up 30 hits and 15 walks in just 17.0 innings. Since August 10th, though, he’s pitched in 13 games and allowed two earned runs in 13.1 innings while giving up just five hits. He did hit two batters and walk 10 others, but while the control was still poor he did limit runs and hits.
Top Pitch Velocity: Zach Maxwell – 99.1 MPH (strikeout)
Top Exit Velocity: Michael Chavis – 108.0 MPH (lineout)
Furthest Hit Baseball: Dominic Pitelli – 365 feet (flyout)
Top 25 Prospect Rundown
The 2026 Season is now Complete
| Team | Record | Time (ET) | Probable | Box Score | Listen | Watch |
| Louisville | 65-83 | Season | Complete | Here | Here | Here |
| Chattanooga | 59-79 | Season | Complete | Here | Here | Here |
| Dayton | 67-63 | Season | Complete | Here | Here | Here |
| Daytona | 58-73 | Season | Complete | Here | Here | Here |
| ACL Reds | 35-24 | Season | Complete | Here | N/A | N/A |
| DSL Reds | 36-19 | Season | Complete | Here | N/A | N/A |
| DSL Rojos | 24-31 | Season | Complete | Here | N/A | N/A |
The minors are hard to judge sometimes because of all the player movement. But the Lookouts starting the season 16-4 to finish 20 games under 500 shows how bad the system is.
It sounds like the experts think the minor league organization declined a few spots but with Dragons, Tortugas. ACL Reds, and DSL Reds going to the playoffs it ended up being a more productive season than normal from team competitive succes standpoint. Hopefully that is a change in development theory of individual development over winning, to a more balanced approach.Shouls make a change at MLB level in a few years.
AA Chattanooga might be fun to watch next year for this reason. The Dayton first half core will have players there (Duno, Sanchez, Confidan, Vu) along with some of the Dragons players getting playoff experience in the second half (Lebron, Doucette, McCrystal). Holdovers like Collier and Stovall also had playoff experience in 2024. The pitching is thin, though. Hard to see anyone leading a staff at AA. I wouldn’t be surprised to see them fill the staff with Rule 5 pitchers from the minor league phase.
Great post MK. Feels like the lower levels have a wave of solid prospects working their way up and it is reflecting with those teams.
I can’t remember when but didnt the reds change the milb scouting and development leaders a few years ago?