Reds finally got a glimpse of forgotten prospect they feared was slipping away

It's been a long and bumpy road for Cincinnati Reds pitching prospect Ty Floyd, but he's finally back on the mound and is looking to jumpstart his once-promising professional career. Floyd was recently deployed on a rehab assignment with the ACL Reds, and has been near-flawless in his first two appearances.

Floyd has started two games in the Arizona Complex League this season and logged seven innings of work. He's struck out 12 of the 25 batters he's faced and has yet to issue a walk. Floyd's allowed just four base hits, including a homer, which is the only run he's allowed so far this season.

Floyd was drafted by the Reds in 2023, but didn't throw a single pitch that year. He landed on the 60-day IL during March of 2024 and missed an entire season of development. The right-hander finally made his professional debut last season for the Daytona Tortugas, but after just eight starts, was sidelined once again due to injury.

The Reds need Ty Floyd to develop into a big-league contributor

Floyd isn't the first — and he won't be the last — Reds prospect to endure an injury-riddled beginning to his professional career. Several high draft picks like Nick Howard (2014), Jacob Heatherly (2017), and Jackson Miller (2020) have battle injuries during the early-part of their careers, and sometimes it even defined their career. Miller, a former second-round pick, retired in 2024 after countless setbacks.

The Reds are hopeful that Floyd is able to get back on track and become that middle-of-the-rotation arm the organization assumed he'd be when they selected him with the 38th-overall pick in the 2023 MLB Draft.

Floyd was a standout on that same National Championship-winning LSU team that boasted current Pittsburgh Pirates' star Paul Skenes. The Reds' prospect doesn't have Skenes' elite repertoire of pitches, and some scouts viewed him as a reliever coming out of college.

But whether Floyd becomes a rotation fixture or a bullpen arm, the Reds need him — and top draft picks like him — to become Major League contributors. Several of the organization's top picks in recent years have quickly ascended through the farm system, and given Floyd's advanced age (24 years old), the Reds will likely send him to High-A once he proves he's fully healthy.

Matt McLain, Andrew Abbott, Chase Burns, Rhett Lowder, and Sal Stewart have already made an impact on the big league ball club. The hope for Floyd is that he'll soon make the leap as well.

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