The 2026 Minor League Baseball season came to an end over the weekend as the Triple-A Louisville Bats played their final game on Sunday. The Triple-A regular season was the last to end and now all of the farm teams have packed things up and the players have either gone home or headed out to Arizona for instructional league. With the season now completed we’re going to take a look at the statistical leaders for the Cincinnati Reds farm system’s hitters this year.
An interesting note to start things off with is that the above list of leaders is made up almost entirely of guys who played in the US and spent at least some time in a full-season league in 2026. For the rate stats I set the qualifying number at 300 plate appearances. But for the second year in a row Angel Salio showed up on the leaderboard despite not coming close to 300 plate appearances because he was able to pile up triples in the Dominican Summer League. Least year he had seven of them, which was 2nd most in the system. This year he had six of them, which was tied for 2nd in the system. Shane Sasaki also had six for Chattanooga despite missing more than half of the year due to injury.
The other thing that stands out is that Carter Graham and Jirvin Morillo are all over this leaderboard. And that’s not too surprising as both put up MVP caliber numbers in their respective leagues this season.
Stolen bases were down significantly among the individual players from a year ago. They were down on the farm as a whole, too, but it really shows up on the player side. Carlos Jorge‘s 33 led the organization this season. Last year he stole 40 and that was only good for the 3rd spot in the farm system and it was 17 behind Kyle Henley.
One other thing is that strikeout rates were up a lot among the individual players. In 2025 and 2026 Francisco Urbaez led the way with the lowest strikeout rate on the farm. But last year his rate was 9.7% and this year it was 14.2%. At 18.0% for 2nd place, that’s a large leap from the 13.4% that was 2nd best in 2025.
With the above leaderboard set for 300 plate appearances, it eliminated everyone from the Dominican Summer League and most players who played in the Arizona Complex League from being able to show up. Below we’ve got the leaderboards for the rookie levels. Please note that the numbers below are only for the stats accumulated while in rookie ball and for players who moved up to a full-season team after playing in rookie ball do not include their numbers outside of the complex.
There’s a whole lot of Steele Hall and Jirvin Morillo on this leaderboard. Angel Salio, Eider Gutierrez,, Liberts Aponte, and Isaac Garcia are well represented, too.
Like the full-season list, strikeout rates are up a lot in 2026 compared to 2025. Carlos Hernandez had the best mark in 2026 at 11.8%. Last year the 3rd best mark on the list was 8.2% and Pablo Nunez was at 3.8%.
Jirvin Morillo’s slugging and OPS really stand out. Last year the top marks were .532 for slugging and .978 for OPS. Morillo blew both of those numbers out of the water this season. His 53 RBI were also 13 more than last year’s top mark.
Tomorrow we will take a look at the pitching throughout the system and see how it looked.
Carter Graham in 2026 reminds me a little of Jeff Jones in 1982. Jones had a monster year in Class A in 1982, then made it all the way to the Reds in 1983. He had only a small cup of coffee that year, so I hope for a better outcome for Graham.
Duno is the #1 prospect yet his name does not appear on these lists anywhere whil three other catchers Morillo, McCrystal and Friend do appear. Goon into the off-season catching has changed from a position of little depth last winter to one of strength this one. Would have really liked to see Duno catching every game this weekend in Atlanta, just for the experience.
I think I have to disagree with this. I had Morillo at #17 and McCrystal at #23 in my 2025 YE rankings. I didn’t have friend but I am not sure he is a catcher. I was all in on Morillo saying how good he was going to be and how under rated he was.
This year my only two catchers in my top 30 are Duno and Morillo who are both currently in my top 3.
Starting Duno’s 40 man clock early and preventing him from playing if (when) there is a prolonged lockout doesn’t seem prudent for a few regular season games in a lost season.
I’ve been thinking more about the question with Morillo being whether his defense will improve enough to stay at catcher. The couple games i saw of him with Daytona looked like he has a ways to go defensively. He plays next year at age 20 so he’s got plenty of time, and I can see him spending all year at Daytona for this reason alone. Scouting has him as really motivated and eager to earn his chops.
The other part of the question with Morillo, though, is whether his bat plays at a corner if they have to move him. He’s had the numbers offensively for three seasons now in rookie ball, and he’s had some scouting to lead those numbers, being DSL and ACL. But this year in particular we have more scouting so it’s getting easier to think we might really have something in his bat. But if they have to move him, will he hit enough for a corner? I tend to think he might. But i was also wondering if he had the athleticism to try 2B, a la Biggio, where his bat would really play up. However, his speed isn’t really considered very good, so it’s doubtful he could play second base at higher levels.
I know the Reds will try to keep him catching as long as possible, given the value, etc. But you have to wonder if they will ever just fast track a good bat.
I think all year in Low A at age 20 is perfectly acceptable for a catching prospect, I would say we are at least two years of results away from questioning if we should move him off of catcher or not. Even a full year at each level has him at the majors at a fairly young age for catchers.
20: Low A
21: High A
22: AA
23: AAA
24: MLB
A 24 year old rookie catcher who spent 4 full seasons in full season minor league ball is a valuable asset if he can play.
Doug, have you seen the BA article on the increase in offense/juiced ball in the minors? Holy moly! That alone is probably worth a RML article but the second one they put out on the shrinking strike zone with ABS was really interesting, too.
Links (BA paywall) below.
https://www.baseballamerica.com/stories/just-how-much-did-milb-offense-increase-in-2026/
https://www.baseballamerica.com/stories/the-mlb-strike-zone-got-a-lot-smaller-in-2026/
Yes. And yes. But “we” have been talking about it all since at least mid-May (and when I say we, I just mean the general group of us weirdos who write about minor league baseball for a living or at least for *some* money).
Yes, and thank you for that (I actually thought early on the ball was jumping watching Louisville’s home games, thinking I bet this helps Arroyo). The season’s end information has got to be validating to you and other writers. And your suggestion to look past the numbers to where players stand against others in their league has been really helpful. That said, seeing where the club stands against other clubs offensively (forget pitching — I don’t want to know) should be informative. Mid season, we were ranked near the bottom.
Doug, I can attest to a juiced MiLB ball. The ACL Reds game on June 10 against Dbacks that I attended, Jirvin Morillo’s HR ball rested more towards Clevelands practice fields, a shot. Later inning, Diorland Zambrano hit his 2nd HR of ACL season and Mason Neville hit his 3rd. I went out to get both, Diorland’s I found by S Bullard Ave, in between sidewalk and road. Mason’s I found in the road in the slow lane, southbound lane that is. Using Google Maps measuring, it puts Diorland’s at about 500 ft, Mason’s was definitely over 500 ft. Both massive shots! There was a younger couple there that I seen at a few other games as witness. But that should be a sign the ball was juiced. But still cool to get both balls and Jirvin’s and have them sign them.
Doug, I can attest to a juiced MiLB ball. The ACL Reds game on June 10 against Dbacks that I attended, Jirvin Morillo’s HR ball rested more towards Clevelands practice fields, a shot. Later inning, Diorland Zambrano hit his 2nd HR of ACL season and Mason Neville hit his 3rd. I went out to get both, Diorland’s I found by S Bullard Ave, in between sidewalk and road. Mason’s I found in the road in the slow lane, southbound lane that is. Using Google Maps measuring, it puts Diorland’s at about 500 ft, Mason’s was definitely over 500 ft. Both massive shots! There was a younger couple there that I seen at a few other games as witness. But that should be a sign the ball was juiced. But still cool to get both balls and Jirvin’s and have them sign them.