Alfredo Duno is making noise early in the Venezuelan Winter League, and the 20-year-old Cincinnati Reds prospect just checked off another milestone in the process.
On Friday night, Duno stretched his hitting streak to four games after opening the season 0-for-11 in his first three contests with two walks and a strikeout. Since then, he has gone 5-for-15 with a walk.
His first extra-base hit came Sunday, when he doubled and drove in two runs. Then last night, he got his first homer for Caracas, sending a line drive over the left-field wall.
That blast was his only hit of the night, as Duno finished 1-for-2 with a walk. It also put him in rare territory in the league.
At 20, he is the youngest player to homer in the Venezuelan Winter League this season. A year ago, only one player 20 or younger went deep in the league: Jaison Chourio, who homered twice in 45 games for Zulia.
Two years ago, Diamondbacks prospect Jose Fernandez was the lone 20-and-under player to homer, finishing with two long balls in 42 games for Caribes.
That kind of production is notable in a league where young players rarely get steady run. The average age of a position player in the league this season is 28.4, and Margarita has the oldest group at 31.0. Caracas has one of the youngest position-player groups in the league at 27.3, and Duno has been right in the middle of it.
The Lions have played eight games so far, and Duno has been in seven of them. In each appearance, he has been behind the plate.
Cincinnati signed Duno out of Venezuela in January of 2023, making him its top international signing that year. His bat stood out right away. An injury kept him out of the field that first season, but he still served as the designated hitter for the Dominican Summer League Reds and hit .303/.451/.493.
His offense has kept moving forward since then, with the main interruption coming in 2024, when a rib injury cost him much of the season. The next year, he won the Florida State League’s Most Valuable Player award while leading the league in just about every offensive category except batting average, triples, and stolen bases. This past season, he split time between High-A Dayton and Double-A Chattanooga and hit .281/.395/.504 with 19 home runs in 97 games.
Defensively, there is still work to do. That is part of the deal with young catchers, and it matters even more with Duno because injuries limited him to only 21 games in the field across the first two years of his pro career.
He has caught 160 games over the last two regular seasons, plus a few more in the Arizona Fall League last year. The reps are coming now, and he is getting them in his home country.
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