There were several relievers who stood out among the crowd on the Cincinnati Reds farm system in 2025. Some were typical relievers who only threw one or two innings at a time and some were relievers in the sense that they didn’t start games but worked three to five innings at a time in a piggyback kind of role. At the end of the day, though, the 2025 RedsMinorLeagues.com Reds Minor League Reliever of the Year award is going to Trevor Kuncl.
Two years ago the Texas Rangers signed Kuncl to a minor league contract right before the start of spring training. That came after he went undrafted and pitched two years in the Frontier League. He didn’t make it through spring training before he was released and he returned to pitch independent league baseball, pitching for Lake Erie in the Frontier League and then Lancaster in the Atlantic League in 2024. Following the regular season he headed to Mexico to pitch in the Mexican Winter League and shortly after the start of that season the Reds swooped in and signed him. He headed to spring training on his minor league deal in 2025 and impressed enough that Cincinnati sent him to join Double-A Chattanooga to begin the year.
After going undrafted in 2022 but sticking with baseball as a dream, Trevor Kuncl took the mound on opening night in the 9th inning and fired a perfect frame with two strikeouts in his first affiliate minor league game. It took nearly three years after he left George Washington University, but there he was finishing the game off in a Lookouts win.
The 26-year-old thrived out of the back of the bullpen for Chattanooga. For the first two months of the season Trevor Kuncl allowed just one earned run. When June rolled around he struggled by comparison as he gave up three runs in 10.1 innings (2.61 ERA for the month). July saw him give up two earned runs – both in the final game of the month.
Over the final two months there was one week in there where Trevor Kuncl had some struggles. He would give up two runs in an inning of work against Montgomery (but still picked up the save) and then six days later allowed three runs in an inning against Biloxi (in a Lookouts win). In the other 16.0 innings he threw in August and September he gave up just three earned runs.
When his first season in affiliated baseball ended, Trevor Kuncl had gone 4-0 and saved an organizational best 20 games. In 47 appearances with Chattanooga he posted a 2.34 ERA in 50.0 innings, allowed just 37 hits, walked 17 batters, and racked up 51 strikeouts.
Cincinnati decided to extend his year, sending him to the Arizona Fall League. He’s struck out 12 of the 25 hitters he’s faced while pitching for Peoria, but has also walked five batters and given up five hits in his 4.2 innings pitched as of the publishing of this article.
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