Another Reds prospect is taking home Player of the Week honors, and this one arrived with a bang.
Ben Wereski, a Double-A pitcher for the Chattanooga Lookouts, earned the recognition after making his season debut and his first appearance in the Reds organization on July 9. In that outing, the 28-year-old threw six no-hit innings, issued two walks and struck out eight.
Wereski’s path to Cincinnati’s system has been anything but direct. He signed with the Kansas City Royals in 2022 after going undrafted out of college, then was released in 2024.
After that, he spent the last two seasons pitching in the Atlantic League in independent ball. In 2025, he went 4-4 with a 4.09 ERA and a 1.22 WHIP.
This season, he was 2-1 with a 2.18 ERA while striking out nearly 13 batters per nine and walking fewer than three per nine.
His college track took him from Columbia University from 2017 through 2019, then to Rutgers in 2021 after the 2020 season was wiped out by COVID-19. In his final year at Rutgers, he posted a 6-2 record with a 3.67 ERA in 13 starts, along with 6 1/2 strikeouts per nine and a 0.99 WHIP.
Before that, Wereski closed out his time with High Point by striking out 11 and allowing just two hits in a 5-2 win. He finished that season 6-5 with a 3.17 ERA, 111 strikeouts and 29 walks across 88 innings.
The award also adds another milestone for the Rockers. Wereski became the ninth player from the team to have his contract selected by a Major League organization and the 58th team member to sign all-time since the club formed in 2019. Reds pitcher Ben Leibrandt is one of three players from the group to reach the Major Leagues this season, and he pitched for the Reds on June 1 against the Kansas City Royals.
The Reds’ draft class also stood out for a different reason. This year’s group leaned heavily toward college players, with all but one of their first 11 picks coming from the college ranks.
The lone high school selection in the first 10 rounds was shortstop Dylan Bowen, who is already 19 1/2 years old and had been committed to Oklahoma State University next season. Bowen attended Hanover Central High School in Indiana, about 44 miles outside of Chicago.
“We’re confident we’ll be able to sign him," Joe Katuska told Mark Sheldon. "Very athletic kid, up the middle player.
I watched him all summer on the showcase circuit and he actually played for our scout team in the fall. He’s a kid that we know really well.”
Cincinnati’s top pick was Justin LeBron out of Alabama. The rest of the early college-heavy group included Eric Becker from Virginia, Mulivai Levu from UCLA, Tyner Hord from Nebraska, Ethan Norby from East Carolina, Duncan Marsten from Wake Forest, Sherman Johnson from North Carolina State, Brady Neal, who played with LeBron at Alabama, and Damian Ruiz from Arkansas and Binghamton.
That draft approach may not have been accidental. There have been proposals in recent Collective Bargaining Agreement talks to eliminate high school players from the draft, and an ESPN report by Kiley McDaniel and Jeff Passan said players could eventually be required to be two years removed from graduation to qualify.
With that possibility looming, the Reds’ 2026 draft could already be a step toward that future. For comparison, Cincinnati took Steele Hall with its first pick in the 2025 draft out of high school and selected three high school players in the first 10 picks.
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For Surez, the crossroads is less about nostalgia than about whether there is still enough production left to matter in the stretch run. His offensive numbers have lagged, his defensive value has slipped, and even with Terry Francona publicly showing faith in what Surez can still provide, the bigger question around the veteran is whether Cincinnati can get enough out of him to change the conversation at all. [Read more 🡒]
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