Last season the Cincinnati Reds had three players participate in the Major League Baseball Futures Game. As the host team, they were allowed to have three players between the USA Team and the World Team. Amir Garrett, Kyle Waldrop and Yorman Rodriguez were the three players that represented the franchise. This season the Reds only had one player named to the team: Amir Garrett.

The left handed pitcher will be returning to the Futures Game, which takes place in San Diego, for the second year in a row. Last year, in front of the home crowd in Cincinnati, Garrett was charged with an unearned run in an inning of work on three hits. He added in a strikeout and picked up the win in the game as the second pitcher to take the mound for Team USA.

The former college basketball player has taken big steps forward since that point in time. He was pitching in Advanced-A Daytona last season, and while he was dominating, he’s now pitching two levels higher and finding success.

Garrett began the season in Double-A Pensacola and in 13 games posted a 1.75 ERA with the Blue Wahoos. In his 77.0 innings he allowed just 51 hits and walked 28 batters to go along with 78 strikeouts. He also didn’t allow a single home run in his time in Double-A.

That performance in the first half earned him a promotion to Triple-A. He’s now made two starts with the Louisville Bats. In his first start things got a bit rough as he walked six batters in 5.2 innings and allowed three runs. Last night he made his second appearance, coming into the game in the 2nd inning after Homer Bailey made a rehab appearance. Things went much better this time around as he tossed 7.0 shutout frames with just two walks and five strikeouts.

It’s a bit of a bummer to see just one Reds prospect on the two rosters – I’m not even sure when the last time the Reds only had one player involved in the game was, but it’s been a while. Garrett has been a big riser this season in terms of prospect status. He entered the season in the Top 100, closer to the 75 range on most lists, but has likely pushed himself into the Top 50 on the lists we are going to see coming out over the next few weeks for the various midseason updates.

Amir Garrett 2016 Stats

Year Lev W L ERA IP H HR BB K 2016 AA 5 3 1.75 77.0 51 0 28 78 2016 AAA 0 1 2.13 12.2 5 0 8 9 2016 Total 5 4 1.81 89.2 56 0 36 87