The Cincinnati Reds didn’t come out of the Arizona Complex League season with a title - they fell to the Colorado Rockies in three games in the Complex League World Series - but they did leave with a monthly award attached to one of their most encouraging young arms.
Left-hander Merite was named Arizona Complex League Pitcher of the Month for July after carving through the league with a 1-0 record and a 0.64 ERA across three starts. Over 14 innings, he gave up just three hits and four walks.
His month included a dominant July 4 outing, when he worked five innings and allowed one hit and one walk while striking out 11. He followed that with four hitless innings, two walks and 10 strikeouts, then closed July with five more innings, one hit, one walk and three strikeouts.
Merite’s stuff has the kind of shape that gets attention fast. He works with a slider, sinker, fastball and changeup, and the fastball has real juice - it averages 95 miles per hour and has touched near triple digits. His slider has a 62.5 percent whiff percentage and an xwOBA of .205.
The 20-year-old also logged a notable summer outside the organization, pitching for the Netherlands in the World Baseball Classic this year. After the ACL season wrapped, he was promoted to Low-A Daytona.
There’s even a bit of backstory with the name: Merite was named after his father’s favorite baseball player, Derek Jeter. He is not currently in the Reds’ top 30, but that could change later this year or next season.
Merite is now the second Reds prospect to win Pitcher of the Month in the ACL, though the path to that distinction gets a little complicated. Alejandro Rivera won the award while with the Cleveland Guardians before the Reds acquired him in the Nathaniel Lowe trade.
Rivera was named to the Dominican Summer League All-Star team in 2025 with the Guardians, and three Reds prospects - Iker Redona, Adolfo Sanchez and Pablo Nunez - were named to that team last season. In the ACL this season, the 19-year-old led the league with a 2.44 ERA and a 1.04 WHIP.
Redona had a case for the honor too. The 18-year-old has been impressive in both of his first two seasons in the Reds organization.
This year, he went 2-2 with a 2.68 ERA, 64 strikeouts and a 1.06 WHIP. One outing stood out in particular: he struck out 11 in four innings, with all but one of his outs coming by strikeout.
He was promoted to Low-A on July 29 and has not yet made his affiliate debut.
Another arm moving quickly is Aaron Watson, the Reds’ second-round pick in 2025. Watson turned in a solid first pro season, going 3-2 with a 3.58 ERA and 36 strikeouts in 27 2/3 innings.
He throws a sinker, slider, cutter and fastball, and his heater averages 93 miles per hour. According to TJStats, all four of his pitches grade above average in chase percentage, Whiff percentage, xwOBA and xwOBACON.
He’s the Reds’ fifth-ranked prospect and was recently promoted to Low-A.
There were other arms worth noting, too. Kyle McCoy, Deivi Villafana, Edgar Colon and Stharlin Torres all had strong stretches this season, while Sheng-En Lin showed flashes before an injury ended his year and sent him to the 60-day IL.
Colon, in particular, stands out for pure velocity. His fastball averages more than 96 miles per hour and has reached triple digits.
Still only 20, he’s a name to watch as he climbs the system. McCoy, a 2025 eighth-round pick out of Maryland, was the Midwest League Pitcher of the Month in June but had a rough July, posting an 8.82 ERA in four starts.
The broader picture for the Reds’ pitching pipeline remains the same: plenty of intriguing arms, but most of them are still lottery tickets and a few seasons from being major league ready.
In Other News...
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For a farm system always looking for the next everyday option in the middle of the diamond, the assignment says plenty about how the Reds view his timeline. The move also came as the organization elevated top-30 pitching prospect Edgar Colon to High-A Dayton, another sign that the club is sorting through some intriguing young talent while it waits to see which arms and bats can handle the next test. [Read more 🡒]
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Brandon Williamson Just Raised A Tough Reds Rotation Question
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The bigger issue is no longer just whether Williamson is healthy enough to help, but how the Reds fit him in if he is. Cincinnati has enough moving parts in the rotation that Williamsons next stop could depend as much on roster math as on his arm, and that makes his comeback an uneasy one to sort out. The club also has some recent momentum at the plate, with four top hitters, including JJ Bleday, going deep in a recent game, but the pitching side now has a decision that could shape the next stretch of the season. [Read more 🡒]