The month of May is in the rearview mirror, and a handful of select Cincinnati Reds farmhands are going to look back on it fondly for quite some time.
Here are four minor leaguers who absolutely smashed the ball during the most recent month:
Carlos Jorge, OF (AA Chattanooga Lookouts)
We’ve seen decent power from Jorge before, as he swatted 9 homers in 86 games with Daytona of the Florida State League as a 19 year old, slugging .483 in a league where power goes to die. We’ve seen ample speed with him, too – he’s swiped 169 bags in 439 minor
league games across his career. We’ve also seen pretty elite control of the strike zone, as he reached base at a .400 clip in that Daytona stint and owns a .361 OBP for his minor league career.
This year, we’re seeing all of that – and some very well regarded defense in CF, where he’s finally found a home after playing all over early in his career. He also escaped Dayton for the first time in years, and is showing out at the AA level down in Southern League play.
Jorge poured in a rock-solid May hitting .337/.416/.483 (.899) with 11 walks, 10 steals, and 4 homers in 23 games played. The 22 year old is doing very little to suggest he’s anything other than Cincinnati’s CF of the future right now.
Jay Allen, OF (AA Chattanooga Lookouts)
The Reds once used a 1st round pick to pluck Allen out of high school, drafting him 30th overall out of high school in Florida. But while he’s shown, at times, an ability to take walks and control the zone, he’s never really hit much (.231 average in 1694 MiLB PA) or for much power (.351 SLG in those PA). He’s still just 23, though, and is finally putting together a more complete run for AA Chattanooga.
May saw Allen hit .309/.398/.519 (.916 OPS) with 4 dingers of his own in 23 games, a blistering run of form that helped pick up the slack from Austin Hendrick’s promotion to AAA and Cam Collier’s relative struggles from the left side of the plate.
Alfredo Duno, C (A+ Dayton Dragons)
If this entire blurb reads as if I were chuckling to myself while writing it, well, that’s because I was chuckling to myself while writing it. And, as it turns out, I was chuckling to myself while writing it because I had to make sure I didn’t accidentally put too many numbers in when listing what Alfredo Duno has been up to of late.
Duno, who’s still just 20 years old, is mauling the Midwest League in even more devastating fashion than he mauled the FSL last year. He’s one of the most elite hitting prospects on the planet, plays catcher, and I can’t imagine the Reds really wanting anyone else to be their top overall prospect right now than him.
In May, he did things only Duno does. He hit .338/.475/.713 (1.188 OPS) with 8 homers and nearly as many walks (20) as Ks (22). That even includes an 0 for 4 game on the first day of the month, but it also includes a ridiculous seven game stretch in which he homered in six games (and seven times overall), spreading that damage across games against the West Michigan Whitecaps, Lake County Captains, and Fort Wayne TinCaps.
Duno’s damage plays no favorites. I think he’ll be destroying Southern League pitching staffs very, very soon.
Steele Hall, SS (Arizona Complex League)
Steele Hall’s pro career finally got going in the month of May, and he promptly went 0 for 7 across his first two games played. That said, he homered in the third game he played and hasn’t blinked since.
In 20 games in May, he hit .297/.436/.608 (1.044 OPS) with 4 homers, 9 doubles, and 9 steals already under his belt. Cincinnati’s most recent 1st round pick is doing all this still at the fresh age of 18, and his 9 doubles currently sit tied for the most in all of Arizona Complex League play.
