The Dominican Summer League Reds have hit their stride at exactly the right moment, and the postseason has only sharpened the edge. After closing the regular season on a 9-1 run, they finished at 36-19, claimed the top-seeded wild card spot, and posted a better record than four of the eight division winners.
That surge has carried straight into October-style baseball. The Reds went 3-0 in the round-robin portion of the playoffs, rolling past the DSL Yankees 7-1, the DSL Tigers 6-3 and the DSL Rockies 8-2.
The win over the Rockies punched their ticket into the semifinals, where they faced the DSL Royals, the West Division winners ahead of the Reds. They handled that series quickly, sweeping a best-of-three matchup to move on.
At the center of it all has been 19-year-old right-hander Ysaias Escalona. He was perfect in the regular season at 10-0 with a 0.99 ERA across 63.1 innings, and he has been even stingier in the playoffs, going 2-0 with a 0.00 ERA and 12 strikeouts in 11 innings. Escalona earned DSL All-Star honors earlier this summer alongside teammates Eider Gutierrez and Angel Nunez Jr.
Nunez has brought plenty of noise of his own. The Reds’ 2026 International Free Agent signing for a record $3 million opened his pro career by going 3-for-4 with a double and a grand slam in his first game.
He then put together an 18-game on-base streak and was named to the DSL All-Star Game in his first professional season. Nunez started the summer with the DSL Rojos before joining the DSL Reds on August 4th, and he has helped fuel the club’s playoff push ever since.
In the postseason, he is 7-for-12 (.412) with seven runs scored, four RBIs and four stolen bases.
Gutierrez has been just as important, even if he entered 2026 with less fanfare. Signed for $150,000 in the 2026 International Free Agent class, he delivered a strong regular season in 48 games, hitting .299 with 8 home runs, 42 RBIs and 17 stolen bases. He, too, earned DSL All-Star recognition and, like Nunez and Escalona, should be in the Arizona Complex League in 2027.
Now the Reds get the biggest test left. They will face Padres Gold in the Dominican Summer League Championship Series, a best-of-three set that begins Thursday, August 27th at 11:00 am Eastern time.
The Padres Gold are the reigning 2025 DSL champions, and the Reds will try to keep this run rolling one more round. As Bob Castilinni said, the Reds Organization is going to compete for championships; the ACL Reds got close; now it's the DSL Reds' chance!
Go Reds!
In Other News...
Reds Suddenly Have A Bigger Concern Than Another Pitcher Nearing Return
Graham Ashcraft took another step toward rejoining the Reds on his rehab assignment, working a scoreless inning in a minor league game as he moves back from the injured list with a UCL strain. For a pitching staff that has had to patch together innings, any progress from Ashcraft matters, especially with the rotation still dealing with the usual wear and tear of a long season.
Brady Singer, though, introduced a more immediate concern when he felt a rib injury during his start and stayed in the game before getting further evaluation. The Reds can only do so much with arms returning if the lineup keeps sputtering, and Terry Francona has already been talking about the clubs approach at the plate as Cincinnati keeps looking for answers on both sides of the ball. [Read more 🡒]
Reds Bullpen Suddenly Has Two High Leverage Arms Back
The Reds have spent enough of this season piecing together late innings to appreciate any sign of stability, and lately the relief group has started to look a lot deeper. Luis Meys call-up from Triple-A has given Cincinnati another live arm to work with after he made some adjustments to his pitching approach, while Tony Santillan is back in the mix after missing time with an oblique injury that had kept him out since June.
Emilio Pagn has handled the ninth, and Tejay Antone and Brock Burke have given the club more credible high-leverage options than it had earlier in the summer. Add Meys progress to Santillans return, and the Reds suddenly have a bullpen that looks less like a nightly scramble and more like a group with real roles taking shape, even if there is still room to see how all the pieces hold up over time. [Read more 🡒]
Reds Suddenly Have A Brady Singer Concern They Can't Ignore
Brady Singer gave the Reds a brief scare after he was hurt while sliding during the game and appeared to come away with a bruise on the right side of his rib cage. He stayed in long enough to keep pitching for a stretch, but Cincinnati eventually had to pull him after two more batters, which at least turned a routine in-game moment into something worth monitoring.
Terry Francona said Singer did not seem worried about the injury, and the plan was for him to be evaluated again the next day. For a Reds club trying to keep its rotation steady, any issue involving a starter who can keep working through contact is the kind of thing that gets checked and rechecked before everyone feels better about it. [Read more 🡒]