With the 2026 Major League Baseball trade deadline now behind us there’s a little bit of new stuff going on with regards to the farm system. Cincinnati made three trades on the day with the Reds bringing in two prospects in two different deals with the Cleveland Guardians. In a third trade with St. Louis the Cardinals sent the club international bonus pool space that the Reds can spend (but not actual money is changing hands – just gives Cincinnati the “ability” to spend an extra $250,000). But along with that it was also announced by Nick Krall that they would also be calling up outfielder Hector Rodriguez from Triple-A Louisville.

Starting with Hector Rodriguez, it will be interesting to see where he fits in. Nathaniel Lowe vacates a lot of designated hitter time. Rodriguez is not the best defensive outfielder you’ll ever see. But neither is Noelvi Marte, and he’s played a whole lot of right field for Cincinnati in 2025 and 2026. Marte also hasn’t been doing much hitting in 2026. Maybe he gets moved into a bench role with Rodriguez taking over in the corner. But perhaps Rodriguez just starts taking some of the designated hitter starts and playing some left and right field.

Rodriguez, though, has always been known for his bat. With Louisville this season he’s hit .274/.347/.533 with 16 doubles, four triples, and 27 home runs. He’s already set career highs in walks (42), home runs, and RBI (69). The 22-year-old has more home runs this season than anyone in the organization, including guys in the big leagues (JJ Bleday would be next with 25 between Louisville and Cincinnati).

The left-handed swinging Rodriguez has been in a big slump of late. He hit two home runs in back-to-back games on July 7th and 8th. He then went 10-68 with one walk and 17 strikeouts for the next three weeks. Last night he broke out of that slump, going 4-5 with a double and a home run for the Bats.

There’s a few things that are noteworthy about Rodriguez and what he can and can’t do. Let’s start with some of the positives: He can hit the ball hard. He’s not tall, but he’s strong and his bat is quick. His ability to square up the baseball is quite good. He’s got a good arm in the field when he needs it. He has also made strides in how aggressive he is at the plate this season.

On the other side of that, though, is that he still expands the strikezone a bit more than you would like to see. And defensively he’s a bit of an enigma. No one is likely to ever say he’s a good outfielder, but some days he doesn’t look like a bad one, either. But a few times a month he will make (or not make in this case) a play on a ball that will leave you questioning if he’s ever been in the outfield before. He hasn’t always been an outfielder exclusively, but the last time he played on the infield was in 2022 and every year he’s been a professional he’s spent at least some time in the outfield.

You can see the career stats for Hector Rodriguez here.

Reds add pitcher Alejandro Rivera

In one of the deals made with Cleveland on Monday the Reds acquired right-handed pitching prospect Alejandro Rivera. The 19-year-old from Venezuela threw 48.0 innings for the Arizona Complex League Guardians this summer before being moved up after that season ended to Hill City in Single-A where he made one start before he was traded. He posted a 3.06 ERA between the two stops while walking 17 batters and striking out 70.

We only have one game of publicly available pitch tracking for Rivera. It came against the ACL Reds of all teams. The game was on June 17th when he allowed four runs in 4.0 innings on four hits, three walks, and he had seven strikeouts while facing 19 batters.

In the game he threw his fastball in the 90-92 MPH range and topped out at 93.5 MPH. He also threw a slider in the low 80’s and a change up in the low 80’s.

Baseball America had Rivera as the Guardians 30th rated prospect heading into the trade deadline. They noted he had been up to 95 with his fastball. They also ranked him as the 28th best prospect traded at the deadline this year.

You can see the career stats for Alejandro Rivera here.

Juan Brito acquired after being DFA’d

This afternoon Juan Brito was both designated for assignment and acquired by the Reds in a trade that saw Cincinnati send cash considerations to Cleveland in the deal.

The 24-year-old was a former Top 100 prospect, coming in at exactly #100 on the Baseball Prospectus list prior to the 2024 season. Since then he’s taken a step backwards in each of the years he’s played. He missed most of 2025 with multiple injuries, including requiring hamstring surgery that ended his season.

His return in 2026 did result in him reaching the big leagues where he he played in 15 games. But he only played in 15 games due to the fact that he hit .177/.250/.255 with 17 strikeouts. In Triple-A he did perform a little bit better with Columbus. Still, he wasn’t exactly hitting well as he posted a .237/.351/.394 line in 83 games. Brito walked 56 times with 62 strikeouts, but he didn’t find too many hits and he was only showing so-so power when he did get hits. The switch  hitter was much better against lefties this year where his OPS was .814 and it was just .676 against lefties.

Defensively Brito has seen most of his time at second base in his career, but he has some limited experience at third base, first base, shortstop (last time was in 2024), and right field.

You can see the career stats for Juan Brito here.