The Cincinnati Reds opened up the 2026 international signing period on January 15th with signings of 16 players. Usually the biggest group of signings takes place in the first day or two, but signings trickle in over the rest of the year. This past week the Reds have added two more players to the organization, signing right-handed pitchers Luis Encarnacion and Anderson Venero.

Both of these young men are quite tall. Anderson Venero is listed at 6′ 4″ and 205 lbs. Born on June 12, 2009 in Puerto Ordaz, Venezuela, Venero’s signing has never made me feel older than I do right now. Luis Encarnacion is listed at 6′ 3″ and 185 lbs. He was born on April 10, 2009 in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic.

Update: 12:45pm – Scouting Reports added

Venero is throwing a fastball, slider, and a change up. The fastball currently works 88-91, with the slider in the mid-to-upper 70’s, and a change up in the low 80’s. He throws plenty of strikes and has a chance to be a starter.

Encarnacion is also a 3-pitch guy right now. His fastball is 88-91 with good carry to it. The slider is working in the upper 70’s with some depth to it. His change up is in the low 80’s. There’s a chance all three pitches are average or better down the line. He also has a chance to be a starting pitcher in the long run.

2026 Releases

With new signings, though, there are also going to be some releases. Since the start of 2026 the Reds have released nine players. Pitchers Dennis Boatman, Sebastian Salazar, Carlos Zambrano, Jorge Diaz, and Anderson Perez, as well as position players Peson Revierre, Rey Reyes, Abel Pena, and Eddy Isturiz were all released leading up to spring training.

Coming Soon(ish)

In the comments section this week I noted that I someone had shared with me video from a bunch of bridge league and instructional league games from 2025. Some of those games included Trackman data. Some didn’t. And some of those games don’t include a way to identify players – jerseys don’t contain names, there’s no audio, etc. There were 17 games in total that I was able to get. It’s going to take some time to get through them, but I am hoping that within the next week or two that I will have been able to go through them and put down all of the information, get clips/highlights, and begin to share that with you. Plenty of DSL guys that came over for the bridge league/instructs and some 2025 draft picks are in these games.