Cincinnati Reds rookie pitcher Luis Mey only has pitched 10.0 Major League winnings to date. He is extremely new to high-level baseball.
Despite this, his 11 big league appearances nevertheless make up a decent percentage of the 45.0 innings he has thrown above the High-A level. Mey spent 10 games with Triple-A Louisville Bats to begin this season, after spending a mere 19 games at Chattanooga Lookouts to start the last – and that is it. Mey therefore enters the major leagues in 2025 without the years of seasoning normally expected of a relief pitcher.
However, take a look at his stuff, and try and deny that you are impressed.
The Highest Of High Cheese
Mey’s arsenal is a simple one of two pitches.
His repertoire consists solely of a sinking fastball, which he throws approximately 80% of the time, and a slider for the remainder. There is no change-up, no curve, no two-seamer or anything unconventional. Mey mostly just throws as hard as he can, with one off-speed offering to catch out anyone cheating on the heater.
There is little reason to deviate away from that simple offering. Per Baseball Savant, Mey’s fastball ranks in the 97th percentile in the majors in velocity, with an average speed of 98.7 miles per hour. Opponents are currently hitting .103 off of it. Even when they know it is coming, they cannot get there.
It moves, too. Mey’s average of 7.4 inches of vertical break and 14.8 inches of horizontal break are roughly in line with the league averages on sinkers, but with the added caveat of how much faster they are getting to the plate. His sinkers move like breaking pitches with the speed of two-seamers, with his average sinker speed of 98.7 mph being almost a full six faster than the league average of 93.7 mph. Earlier this year, while still in the minors, he even hit 103.5mph.
In the modern era, with universal velocity improvements, a fastball hitting 100 miles per hour is not without equal. A sinker reaching that speed, however, is. Mey’s pitches get to the plate in a flash and dart off it just as quickly, and his strikeout rate of 32.5% and meagre barrel rate of 4.8% speaks to how hard opponents find it to put bat to Mey’s ball, and particularly his fastball.
Reds Need Him To Harness That Power
A recent outing against the Cleveland Guardians served as the perfect distillation of how Mey plays the game. In recording a 1-2-3 inning, Mey threw 16 pitches – including 12 strikes – with all of them registering between 98.6 and 101 miles per hour. Hit that if you can.
Control is an issue for Mey, and always has been. He has walked five hitters in his 10.0 Major League innings so far, and has been all around the zone with both of his pitches, rarely hitting the catcher’s glove. While it too has some sharp cut to it, Mey’s slider is no better controlled than the sinker.
In the minors, Mey recorded 135 walks in 172.1 innings across all levels, an extremely high walk rate that was not getting better. Last season, in 55.0 innings across the high-A and Double-A levels, he still walked 43 opponents. History has proven that dominant closers can give up walks and still be dominant, if the ball is beating the bat at a high enough rate, but Mey’s walk rate is too high.
That said, the fastball already plays against big league hitters. In a perverse way, maybe the lack of control can help. After all, if neither pitcher nor catcher knows where a pitch is going to end up, how can the hitter?
Right Now, Reds Need A New Closer
Despite his excellent first two seasons in the majors, former Reds closer Alexis Diaz has lost his way over the last couple. Currently, he finds himself at Louisville, getting the AAA opportunities Mey was slated to get. Diaz’s control has deserted him, and his efficacy has been falling away for more than 18 months now. He needs a second wind.
To fill in for Diaz, the Reds have mostly turned to veteran Emilio Pagan, who had a modicum of closer experience from a previous stint with the Tampa Bay Rays. Pagan has 12 saves on the season so far, pitching to a 3.52 Earned Run Average and an excellent 0.83 WHIP. By any measure, he has done a good job.
However, aged 34, Pagan is not the closer option for the future. There is therefore a void that Mey could potentially be the perfect answer to.
The Reds put Mey on their 40-man roster this offseason, even though he was still in High-A ball at the time, because they saw clear and obvious Major League potential in his arm. And although that potential has been called up0n to become reality earlier than they were likely anticipating, Mey’s performanceS have been backing up that decision.
Imperfect as he is at this time, Mey’s pure velocity and movement is clearly already enough to get Major League hitters out. With the sheer disheartening velocity of a dominant closer, the Reds may have found the bullpen anchor they have needed since the end of Alexis Diaz’s prime.
Luis Mey Already Looks Like the Next Reds Closer