This Reds pitching prospect is quietly outshining Rhett Lowder and Chase Burns

The competition for the fifth starter job in Cincinnati has been an electric one through the first few weeks of spring training. Rhett Lowder and Chase Burns are the main characters in the battle — and both are putting forth excellent performances in their own right — but Jose Franco has been a man on a mission in camp.

Before digging into the stats, small sample caveats apply in spades here. Lowder leads all Cincinnati Reds pitchers this spring with five innings pitched. But that's the point of spring training. It's a tune-up period where players shake off rust and experiment with whatever changes they made over the offseason into their game plan.

Reds prospect Jose Franco is off to an electric start this spring

Franco has certainly made the most of his limited duty. He's allowed just three hits and one run across two appearances so far this spring, but when you need dig only a little deeper you see the confidence he's been exuding on the mound.

Franco struck out seven of the 13 hitters he's faced (53.8% K-rate). In conjunction, he's also induced so much soft contact and hasn't allowed any free passes, so the 25-year-old is rocking a 0.06 FIP thus far. Anyone feel like rooting for an underdog story?

Franco had his breakout last year, recording a 3.11 ERA over 110 innings split between Double-A and Triple-A. That certainly sets the stage for an encore in 2026, and Franco has more than delivered in his first few trips to the mound. Spring training stats only mean so much, but he's passing the eye test with flying colors.

Franco's competition is steep. Burns and Lowder have some of the most electric stuff in baseball, and both are also striking out reams of hitters. Franco will have to continue his lights-out efforts all month to even have a remote chance of cracking the Reds' Opening Day roster — and even that is unlikely to be enough.

But the Reds already showed their belief in Franco when they protected him from the Rule 5 Draft this past winter. Even if Franco falls short of winning a job on the Reds Opening Day roster, fans should expect to see him to get a legitimate look at some point in 2026.