He’s healthy and heading back to the mound.
Rhett Lowder’s 2024 season couldn’t have been much more storybook. The 1st round pick of the Cincinnati Reds in the 2023 MLB Draft sat out the remainder of his draft year, but plowed through the entirety of the minor leagues in his first season as a professional only to make an instant splash with the big league club across 6 games (30.2 IP) before season’s end.
That put him squarely in the mix to be one of the team’s rotation members on Opening Day 2025, especially with the injuries to Andrew Abbott, Brandon Williamson, & Co. around him. Sadly, though, the injury bug bit him badly, too, with a forearm issue setting him back early on and later an oblique problem that effectively ended his 2025 season altogether.
All told, Lowder threw just 9.1 IP across three non-majors stops in 2025, though the word on the street is that he’s healthy enough to enter this postseason in build-up, not rehab mode. Word also confirms that will begin in Arizona Fall League play, as the Cincinnati Reds will send him to the AFL to shake off some rust as part of the Peoria Javelinas.
The Louisville Bats and MLB’s official Arizona Fall League twitter account confirmed the news on Friday.
While the AFL is absolutely a showcase for top prospects – Cam Collier and Alfredo Duno will be playing there this year, too – it’s also become a place where clubs send young players who’ve lost tons of time to injuries and rehab to get in lost reps before the new season. Each of Matt McLain, Christian Encarnacion-Strand, and Edwin Arroyo played their last fall after lost regular seasons, for instance, though it’s hard to say their 2025 production shows it’s an obvious path to get right back on track.
Here’s hoping Rhett can get in just enough work to enter spring camp as ready to roll for 2026 as possible as the Reds, on paper at least, look to have a bonkers-good set of rotation options beside him.
Category: General Sports
