Reds’ Alfredo Duno gets prepared in Caracas for winter ball

Earlier this month I reported that Alfredo Duno was expected to play winter league baseball this year for Caracas in the Venezuelan Winter League. While their season won’t begin for a little more than two weeks, with the first games in the league scheduled for October 13th, the teams are already bringing in some players to get prepared for the season. Duno, the Cincinnati Reds top prospect, was among the early arrivals.

This will be the first year in which Duno will play winter ball in his home country after signing out of Venezuela in January of 2023. It won’t be the first time that he extends his season with play after the minor league season, though. Last fall he played with Peoria in the Arizona Fall League after spending his entire season in Daytona where he was the Florida State League’s Most Valuable Player after hitting .287/.430/.518 with 52 extra-base hits, 81 RBI, and more walks than strikeouts.

This season wasn’t quite as good, especially when accounting for the minor league baseball (all levels but Triple-A use the minor league baseball, while Triple-A uses the MLB baseball) that was flying further this year than in the past. Still, the 20-year-old Duno hit .281/.395/.504 as he split his season between High-A Dayton and Double-A Chattanooga. Four weeks spent on the injured list in the second half led to just 32 games with the Lookouts.

With his arrival in Caracas training camp Duno spent time talking with the league’s media. On the league’s official website over the weekend the interview was the top story. There’s a lot that was said in the interview worth checking out (note: the site is in Spanish, so if you don’t speak the language you will need to translate it via whichever method you prefer). One thing stood out to me a little more than the rest, though.

“Working with more experienced pitchers will be essential to my career.” Duno said.

Jeremy Farrell, the Reds vice president of player development noted something similar to me when speaking of Duno following the season. “That was a big reason why we wanted to get him to Double-A, so he could work with the older pitchers and what goes into calling a game in Double-A.”

Venezuela has one of the top winter leagues and is very competitive. While we don’t know who all will be pitching this season with Caracas, last season the Lions had eight pitchers with big league experience take the mound for them at some point during the season. Another pitcher with them reached the big leagues this year.

While working with more advanced pitchers is something that will indeed help Alfredo Duno, being around more advanced players and playing in a highly competitive league certainly won’t hurt, either. Last fall and winter Caracas had 12 position players with big league experience come through, and another one made the big leagues in 2026.