While the Arizona Fall League came to an end about two weeks ago, there is still a lot of winter league baseball being played around the world – most notably in Puerto Rico, Mexico, Venezuela, the Dominican Republic, and Australia.
Cincinnati currently has 12 players that have been active in those five leagues. They haven’t had anyone from the organization appear in a game in Puerto Rico, just one in Venezuela, and two in Australia. Four guys have played in the Dominican Republic thus far, and five have made an appearance in Mexico. Let’s take a look at how those guys are performing. If you want to see a recap of how everyone did in the Arizona Fall League, that was covered here when the season ended.
The Hitters
Let’s start by looking at the stats for everyone.
Two guys have been getting regular playing time so far – Noelvi Marte and Hector Rodriguez. Neither guy began the Dominican Winter League with their team when the season began, but both joined their respective clubs a few weeks into the season.
Marte has struggled. He’s been making plenty of contact but he’s just not finding many hits. Rodriguez has also been making plenty of contact, but unlike Marte, he’s found tons of hits and has hit .361 in his 40 plate appearances through 10 games. Rodriguez, though, has missed the last three games after he was pinch hit for in his second plate appearance on Friday.
Yael Romero has had 18 plate appearances in the Mexican Winter League. He just turned 19 in October and has only played in the Dominican Summer League, where he has walked 72 times in 301 plate appearances. The pitching in Mexico is much better, where the average age of a pitcher is 28-years-old, but Romero’s still showing a good eye at the plate in his limited time.
The Pitchers
There aren’t many pitchers from the organization out there getting work in games right now. Trevor Kuncl, who has not pitched in the organization or even affiliated ball in his career but signed with the Reds after the season ended, had gotten plenty of time out of the bullpen down in Mexico, but he hasn’t taken the mound in three weeks. He allowed four runs in 0.1 innings in his debut with Mexicali. In the 11.2 innings after that he’s given up just one earned run, five hits, three walks, and he struck out 15.
Gabriel Aguilera (pictured above) has been getting some innings in Venezuela. He’s also the only Reds player to appear in a game so far in the league. The recently turned 24-year-old pitched well in Dayton and Daytona in 2024, throwing 99.0 innings with a 3.55 ERA between the two stops. He pitched twice in mid-October, then didn’t pitch again until November 14th, but he’s pitched in three games since then and now has thrown 15.2 innings in four starts and one relief appearance.