Luke Holman is making noise in the Arizona Fall League, and the Cincinnati Reds right-hander is drawing some serious attention while he’s at it.
With the 2026 AFL underway, Cincinnati has eight players in the league this year. Among them, Fangraphs has singled out Holman as one of the best pitchers in the circuit so far. The 23-year-old has been sharp in a league known for helping hitters stack up numbers, allowing just one run across nine innings with 15 strikeouts and only one walk.
His path back has been anything but smooth. Holman had thrown only 15.2 innings in the Reds organization before this AFL run, and injuries have shaped much of his pro career.
He underwent Tommy John surgery in early 2025, then returned late in 2026 with a season debut in the Arizona Complex League. There, he logged 6.2 innings over four appearances before the Reds kept him in Arizona for fall ball.
That move is paying off. On Tuesday, Holman made his third start of the fall and turned in his cleanest outing yet.
He worked four scoreless innings, gave up two hits, didn’t issue a walk and struck out five. He threw 34 of his 52 pitches for strikes.
Fangraphs’ David Laurila recently asked Holman how his stuff compares to what he had before surgery, and the righty pointed to a few encouraging signs:
"The floor of my fastball velocity has gone up. Hopefully that keeps rising.
And then my curveball feels really good. I don’t know exactly where it is metrics-wise, but I would say it’s back to where it was.
The slider - it’s more of a gyro; my higher arm angle isn’t really conducive to a sweeper - needs a little bit of work, a little better shape. The splitter has also been pretty good."
Holman also discussed his curveball, which he sees as a pitch that can play off his fastball as he’s gotten older.
"I liked to flip it in, trying to get that good shape. Something that helped out a lot is that when I got older, I started getting good ride on my fastball and could play them off of each other. I’ve always thought of the curveball as straight down."
He’s not a power arm in the purest sense, so the quality of his secondary pitches matters, and the curveball looks like the one that can carry him. For now, he’s putting together one strong outing after another in the fall, and that’s a promising sign for 2027.
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