Reds first base prospect Ruben Ibarra made an eye-opening entrance in the Mexican Winter League, and he did it with power in every direction.
Added to the Naranjeros de Hermosillo roster on Sunday, Ibarra was in the lineup the very next night, and the 6-foot-5, 307-pound slugger wasted no time making his mark. In his second at-bat, with a runner on, he doubled in the go-ahead run.
The big swing came later. In the seventh inning, Ibarra stepped in with the bases loaded and his team leading by one, then turned a 1-0 pitch into a grand slam. The ball cleared the bullpen in center and hit the back wall, with an estimated distance of 440 feet using Google Maps measurements.
He still wasn’t done. In the top of the ninth, with Hermosillo ahead by two and a runner aboard, Ibarra got a 94 MPH fastball on the outer third and drove it the other way for another home run. By the time the night was over, Hermosillo had beaten Navojoa 10-6, and Ibarra had put together a monster line: 3-for-5 with a double, two home runs and seven RBIs.
Ibarra, Cincinnati’s fourth-round pick out of San Jose State in 2021, had already turned in a strong 2026 regular season at Double-A Chattanooga. His year started slowly; through 29 games on May 14, he was hitting .221/.331/.327 with just two home runs.
Then the power arrived in a rush. He homered in three of the next four games and over his final 84 games hit .243/.339/.524 with 23 home runs.
His 25 homers were third in the Reds’ farm system, behind only Carter Graham’s 29 and Hector Rodriguez’s 27. It was also a new career high, topping the 21 home runs he hit in 2025 with Chattanooga.
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