When it comes to prospect rankings there are six large, mainstream publications with a track record of sorts to pay attention to. Baseball America, Baseball Prospectus, ESPN, Fangraphs, MLB Pipeline, and The Athletic’s Keith Law make up that group. Some have been around longer than others, but it’s generally accepted in the industry that those are the ones of note. Three of those had released their 2026 Top 100 Prospects lists in the last week and today it became four as Kiley McDaniel posted his list to kick off ESPN’s prospect coverage.
Three Cincinnati Reds prospects made the list – Sal Stewart, Alfredo Duno, and Rhett Lowder. For both Stewart and Duno, the ranking given to them by McDaniel and ESPN is the highest that either prospect has ever garnered on a top 100 list by any of the major publications.
Keith Law of The Athletic had Sal Stewart at #19 on his list, which had been the only one with Stewart in the top 20 (he was in the other two at spots #22 and #23). That changed today when the Reds infielder landed at the #17 spot on the ESPN list. On all four of the lists that have been published so far it has been Stewart as the top Reds prospect. Our list here at RedsMinorLeagues.com has him second, with Alfredo Duno at the top.
For Duno his highest ranking before the ESPN list came out was a #38 ranking by MLB Pipeline. He was ranked 77th and 80th on the other two lists. But McDaniel had Duno in the top 30, checking in at the #29 spot on his list.
Both guys showed off plenty of power in 2025 as they had breakout seasons. Stewart hit 20 home runs in 118 minor league games and then added five more in 18 games with Cincinnati to give him 25 on the year. Duno led the Florida State League with 18 home runs in 113 games with Daytona this past season.
As for Rhett Lowder, missing the entire 2025 season outside of two rehab appearances that were both shut down when another issue arose, seems to have cost him a bit in the rankings compared to a year ago. Keith Law left Lowder off of his top 100 list, and in the other three he’s ranked between 72nd and 86th. Before the season began he was ranked anywhere between #26 and #39.