The Cincinnati Reds made Rhett Lowder their 1st round pick out of Wake Forest University back in the summer of 2023. He didn’t make his professional debut until the 2024 season, yet by that season’s end he was slicing up eyeballs on the mound in Great American Ball Park.
His meteoric rise, polish, and early successes in the big leagues continue to fuel his hype, as 2025 was another story altogether. A forearm strain early in camp shut him down for months, and when he returned a subsequent oblique
injury meant his 2025 was effectively sent to the woodchipper.
Still, he’s healthy now, and even managed to show the world as much as he returned to the mound for some work with the Peoria Javelinas in Arizona Fall League play. He’s also still so young (and with such little experience) that he still very much qualifies as a prospect! With that in mind – and with what we saw from him in 2024 still fresh enough – Lowder ran away with the voting for the #3 spot in this year’s Community Prospect Rankings, earning some 65% of the tally despite a very crowded ballot.
Lowder will turn just 24 years of age in March, and he’ll enter camp in hot competition for a starting rotation spot at the big league level. If he comes out gassin’, well, he could earn that right out of the gate, but I wouldn’t be at all surprised to see the Reds slow-play him a bit given how few innings he actually tossed last season. A trip to AAA Louisville to build back up to begin the season is the most likely outcome here, barring other outside news, with a return to regularity (and a return to the Reds mid-season whenst needed) absolutely on the docket.
Congrats to Rhett, the 3rd ranked prospect in the Cincinnati Reds system!
