Luis Mey’s name has been on the Cincinnati Reds’ radar for years, and now the club may finally be seeing the version it has been waiting on. Since his latest return to the 26-man roster this month, the right-hander has looked far more settled, and if this stretch holds, he could force his way into a real bullpen role heading into next season.
That’s a long way from where things stood last year. Mey was added to the 40-man roster during the 2024-25 offseason after a strong run in the minors, with Cincinnati moving to keep him out of the Rule 5 Draft.
He then made his big-league debut against the St. Louis Cardinals on May 1 - May Day, fittingly enough - and immediately flashed the stuff that made him so intriguing, firing his 100-plus mph sinker and rolling through the Cardinals’ lineup in order.
The early returns were promising. Mey gave up just one run across his next eight outings and looked like he might have given Terry Francona and the Reds a new weapon out of the bullpen.
Then the control problems that had always followed him around started to surface. After a short appearance against the Cleveland Guardians on May 18, the outing turned into a rough patch: over a five-game span, he walked four batters, struck out only two, and eventually found himself back in Triple-A Louisville.
Even when Mey made two more trips to the active roster in the second half, the inconsistency never fully went away. He finished his final nine relief appearances of the 2025 season with a solid 2.25 ERA, but the underlying numbers told the fuller story - 10 walks and just seven strikeouts.
This season has started to look different. Mey has bounced between Louisville and Cincinnati again, and the strikeout rate has remained loud at 30.4%, but the 21.7% walk rate was too much to live with. After another demotion to Triple-A in June, though, he began to straighten things out.
Over nearly two months and 22⅓ innings, Mey put together a 3.63 ERA with 32 strikeouts. The walks were still there at 18.9%, but he did a better job limiting the damage. In his final six minor league games before this latest call-up, he turned in a 1.80 ERA, a 3.74 FIP, and held opponents to a .121 average.
At 25, Mey still has minor league options left and remains pre-arbitration eligible, which keeps him squarely in the Reds’ long-term bullpen conversation. And since coming back up, he has given the club something it badly needed from him: no walks, and the ability to work more than one inning at a time.
That combination matters. If Mey can keep throwing strikes and give Francona length out of the bullpen, he could go from intriguing arm to essential piece before long.
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