3 Reds players who won't make the 2025 roster thanks to Rhett Lowder's emergence

The Cincinnati Reds top 2023 draft pick, Rhett Lowder, came out of Wake Forest with a ton of hype around him. He's showing now that he's even better than the hype painted him out to be.

Over the last month or two, Lowder dominated the minor leagues, finding himself fast-tracked to the big leagues after making just one Triple-A start because of the Reds' injury issue on the bump.

Lowder was excellent in his first start, and he showed in his second start that his first wasn't a fluke. He currently holds a sub-1.00 ERA in just over 10 innings in the big leagues. Lowder looks like a lock to slot into the 2025 pitching rotation, which could mean bad news for these three pitchers in the Reds system.

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3. RHP Graham Ashcraft

For the last few seasons, Graham Ashcraft has been a staple of the Cincinnati Reds pitching staff. He's been up and down, but when healthy, he's been one of David Bell's guys on the mound.

Unfortunately, due to an injury, other pitchers have gotten their chance to throw, and they have done well. While Ashcraft has sat on the injured list or struggled for all of 2024, players like Rhett Lowder have come up and made a name for themselves.

This is going to leave the Reds with a few options for their young starter, Graham Ashcraft. They could keep him in the minor leagues and let him continue to work on his craft, potentially as a reliever. Or they could opt to trade him elsewhere to give him a chance to restart his career.

Cincinnati could lean either way, but the odds of him starting the season with the big league roster, as a starter, aren't very high. Nick Lodolo, Hunter Greene, Andrew Abbott, Nick Martinez, Lowder and a few other names have all outperformed Ashcraft of late. It's an unfortunate situation for the young righty, but given his 98 MPH cutter, I would venture to say that his big-league career is far from over.

2. RHP Julian Aguiar

Out of all the young Reds pitchers, it's been Julain Aguiar that has been the most surprising. He was once unranked in the Reds system and overlooked until last season. Last year, he burst onto the scene, earning the Reds Minor League Pitcher of the Year honors ahead of some pretty solid minor league arms.

He jumped into the Reds' top 30 prospects, via MLB Pipeline, this season and has continued to be incredible all the way up through Triple-A. He's now with the big league club to end the 2024 season.

Aguiar looked solid over his first start or two, but has since come back down to earth resulting in his ERA sitting close to a 7.00. If the Reds weren't so shallow at pitcher, he would probably have been kicked out of the rotation by now.

There's no doubt that he has the potential and talent to be successful in the big leagues. The young righty has flashed this potential every time out. Unfortunately for him, Cincinnati is just loaded with young pitching talent, including their 2024 top draft pick Chase Burns, who could also find himself in Cincinnati by the end of next year.

1. LHP Brandon Williamson

Out of this list, this was the hardest one to decide on. Last season, Brandon Williamson was very talented and flashed a ton of big-league potential. He offers multiple different off-speed pitches from the left side. But Cincinnati isn't particularly starved for left-handed starters.

Given his injuries this year, Williamson hasn't had the opportunity to really show off how much better he is this year compared to last. Meanwhile, the Reds have seen a ton of different arms get their chance this year.

As of now, Williamson should be seen as the sixth starter in the Reds organization. That could quickly fall to seventh when Chase Burns shows up and starts throwing again.

To start next year, I'd imagine the Reds will use Abbott, Greene, Lodolo and Lowder in their rotation for sure. The fifth spot is a bit in question, but I would give the nod to the veteran Nick Martinez over Williamson. Martinez has looked solid this season and the Reds are paying him a good chunk of money. Expect to see Cincinnati active in the reliever market in order to keep Martinez as a starter to begin next year.

Now, Martinez will lose this spot in the rotation when Burns gets to the Queen City.