The Arizona Complex League season came to an end in late July. The Reds team lost in the league championship series to the Rockies, with the final two games of the series being decided in the 11th inning and the other game also being a 1-run game. Today the various leagues around Minor League Baseball announced their Players of the Month for the leagues down on the farm. Taking home the Pitcher of the Month for July in the Arizona Complex League was left-handed starter Ryjeteri Merite for his time with the ACL Reds.
The 20-year-old from the Netherlands was promoted to join Single-A Daytona after the ACL season came to an end, but he’s yet to take the mound for the Tortugas. During July in his time out in Arizona he made four starts for the ACL Reds, but one of those was in the playoffs. He threw 19.0 innings and allowed two earned runs in that time. That’s a 0.95 ERA. Merite allowed just eight hits and he walked just four batters in that time. The lefty also struck out 27 of the 67 hitters he faced. Opposing batters managed a .131 batting average, a .182 on-base percentage, and a .230 slugging percentage on the month when facing him.
July capped off a strong season for Ryjeteri Merite with the ACL Reds. In total he threw 42.1 innings with a 2.98 ERA, 23 walks, and 73 strikeouts. He finished second in the league in strikeouts and the guy who led the league topped him by nine and also threw 11.2 more innings. Interestingly enough, the Reds organization had three of the top five strikeout leaders in the league. Sort of. Mertie was 2nd and Iker REdona was 5th, and they both pitched with the ACL Reds. Alejandro Rivera was 3rd in the league and Cincinnati just acquired him from the Cleveland Guardians in a trade on Monday. Rivera, like Merite, has been assigned for Daytona but has yet to pitch in a game with them.
You can see the career stats for Ryjeteri Merite here.