Reds prospect Luke Holman is healthy and thriving in Arizona Fall League

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. -- If things had gone according to plan, Luke Holman would have been in Cincinnati long ago.

He was, after all, a 2024 Competitive Balance Round B pick coming off an outstanding season at Louisiana State, a Top 50 prospect on MLB Pipeline’s Draft rankings that July. There was stuff, projection and feel for pitching, the kind of college arm who gets to the big leagues quickly with a high floor and more ceiling than many.

But instead of being removed from the prospect radar because he had graduated, Holman fell off because of injury. He managed just nine innings at the start of the 2025 season before his elbow required Tommy John surgery, and he threw just 6 2/3 more frames in the Arizona Complex League this summer. He and the Reds erred on the side of caution with a minor groin issue, opting to shut him down rather than push it by sending him to a full-season affiliate to close out the year. So in many ways, this stint in the Arizona Fall League is the start of his career.

“In a way, for sure,” Holman agreed after a strong start for Scottsdale on Tuesday night. “I feel better than I ever have. My weight is up, everything feels good, so I’d say so.”

The Reds had told the righty about a month before the season ended that they wanted to send him to the desert, something that would have happened even if he had made it out of the complex league.

“I was excited to compete against this good talent,” Holman said.

The Reds' No. 23 prospect was of interest back in his high school days in eastern Pennsylvania. He was a top-five-round talent but had a strong commitment to Alabama. He realizes now that his mostly fastball-curveball prep repertoire wasn’t pro-ready, so college ball was the correct route. The Blue Jays took a 20th-round flier on him, but he headed to pitch for the Crimson Tide for two years, the first in relief, the second as an effective starter.​

After looking like Team USA’s best starter the summer after his sophomore season, he transferred to LSU and was even better as a junior, finishing in the top five in the super-competitive Southeastern Conference in a host of pitching categories. But reconstructive elbow surgery kept him from showing off any of that ... until now.

“It was a setback, for sure,” Holman said. “But I think it happened at a good time. My velo was kind of going down. My velo’s back now and I think all of my pitches are better than they were pre-TJ, so I think it was a blessing in disguise to get it done early in my career.”

Holman believes all of his stuff is harder, with his velocity trending in the right direction every time he takes the mound and vastly improved fastball command to boot. His four-seamer sat 91-93 mph and topped out at 95 mph in his Tuesday start, and he used all four of his pitches effectively to spin three hitless innings, walking one while striking out six. Holman got at least one K with each of his four offerings: two with his four-seamer (one swinging, one called), two with his curve (one swinging, one called), one with his slider (swinging) and one with his splitter (swinging). 

“I try to mix around a little bit, make the hitters look for something I’m not going to throw,” Holman said. “I think getting ahead with my fastball really helped me a lot. I was able to put them away with my curveball, slider, splitter whenever I wanted to. But getting ahead was the big thing.”

• Subscribe to the MLB Pipeline Newsletter

The only area in which Holman showed he’s still working through that post-TJ rust was in landing the curve in the strike zone. With so little mound time since his rehab ended, it’s not something he’s too concerned about.

“It took me a while. I still don’t think I got it throughout the whole outing,” Holman said. “In the third, I tried to just land one for a strike and I couldn’t do it. That’s something I’ll work on in my bullpen, but the slider and splitter showed up today, and the fastball as well.”

Whatever the results are during his remaining outings here in the Fall League, Holman knows he’ll be able to use this as a stepping stone to a 2027 season in which he finally can show the Reds what he’s capable of doing in a full injury-free year.

“I’m excited,” Holman said. “Just staying healthy, I’m excited about. Just playing baseball again. I’m happy to be out here and competing.”