With the Arizona Complex League coming to an end on Tuesday night as the ACL Reds fell to the ACL Rockies in extra-innings in the Championship, the expectation was that there would be some promotions from that team up to Daytona. And was there ever – Cincinnati promoted nine players from the ACL Reds up to Single-A Daytona to join the Tortugas.
Let’s start with the position players that were promoted on Wednesday. Steele Hall, Jirvin Morillo, and Adolfo Sanchez were all promoted. They were joined by six pitchers. Aaron Watson, Luis Pimentel, Jesus Colina, Iker Redona, Ryjeteri Merite, and Logan Tanner were all moved across the country to join the Florida State League.
Daytona is getting three of the Reds top position player prospects. Hall was the #2 prospect in the organization in my most recent list, while Sanchez checked in at #7, and Morillo came in at #10.
Hall, a shortstop, was the 1st round pick of the club last summer. He hit .288/.387/.518 with 24 steals in his 58 games. Morillo, a catcher, in most year would probably be a runaway MVP, but that probably isn’t in the cards this year despite him hitting .321/.449/.652 with a league best 13 home runs in 54 games. Sanchez, an outfielder, got the top bonus from the Reds in their international signing class two years ago. He played in 50 games and hit .287/.399/.473 with eight home runs.
The pitching promotions saw two of the top pitching prospects in the farm system move up. Aaron Watson is the team’s top ranked pitcher and the #8 overall prospect, while Ryjeteri Merite is the top rated left-handed pitcher and third rated pitcher overall (and #14 in the system as a whole).
Let’s keep in mind that the complex league is very hitter friendly and that the league’s ERA this season was 6.11. Watson posted a 3.58 ERA in 27.2 innings to go with seven walks and 36 strikeouts. He missed about a month earlier in the year. Merite had an ERA of 2.98 and struck out 73 batters with 23 walks in his 42.1 innings pitched. Iker Redona had the lowest ERA among the starters. The 18-year-old had a 2.68 mark in his 47.0 innings where he walked seven batters and had 64 strikeouts.
Jesus Colina served as the closer in Arizona. He had a 2.16 ERA in 25.0 innings and had seven saves while striking out 35 and walking just seven. Logan Tanner transitioned over to the mound after being a catcher for several seasons. He didn’t pitch much, throwing just 4.1 innings in the regular season after returning from injury, but he was up to 98 MPH with his fastball in his limited showings and allowed just one hit and one run. That was more time on the mound than Luis Pimentel threw. Also coming back from injury, Pimentel threw 3.0 perfect innings and struck out five batters in Arizona.
Beyond the promotions, there was some bad news for a few players. Pitchers Nelfri Payano and Mike Villani, as well as shortstop Anthuan Valencia were released. All three had been with Daytona.