Rhett Lowder’s injury could have cost the Reds a draft pick – Redleg Nation

Rhett Lowder did not pitch in Major League Baseball until 2025. He was dealing with an elbow injury when spring training started and fell behind a bit and ended up on the injured list. Lowder began rehabbing in the minor leagues the first week of May, making four starts between the complex level, High-A with Dayton and Triple-A with Louisville. But in that fourth start with the Bats, he injured his oblique while warming up in the second inning and then missed the next 16 weeks. He returned for one more start on September 13, pitching two innings for Louisville, but was then shut down again and did not return to the mound until after the season was over.

All of that may have cost the Cincinnati Reds a draft pick. Or at least that could have happened. In the latest collective bargaining agreement, the players’ association pushed for several changes aimed at preventing teams from playing service time games to give a player “an extra year of control” by simply keeping them in the minor leagues for a few weeks in their first season, which would delay their free agency time by a full year.

One of those additions was the Prospect Promotion Incentive (also called PPI). What this does is it potentially rewards a team that has a player all year round who meets certain criteria and performs at an incredibly high level. A player must be a rookie (fewer than 130 career MLB at-bats, fewer than 50 MLB innings pitched, or fewer than 45 days on the MLB roster), be a preseason top 100 prospect on two lists from those published by Baseball America, ESPN, and MLB.com, and the player must win the Rookie of the Year award or finish in the top three for an MVP or Cy Young award before entering arbitration. qualify. If a player does any of these things, his team will receive a draft pick after the first round.

These rules work for most players. But there are a few exceptions and that’s where Lowder’s injury comes into play. Because Lowder was on the MLB roster all year but was injured, he accrued service time. While he is still a rookie by definition, PPI guidelines exclude him from the Rookie of the Year winner portion of earning a draft pick because he now has more than 60 days of major league service time.

Lowder, who heads into spring training competing for a spot in the rotation with Chase Burns and a handful of others, can’t reward the Reds with a draft pick even though he’s the 2026 Rookie of the Year due to the amount of service time he’s accrued while on the injured list. He would still be eligible to earn the Reds a draft pick if he finished in the top three of the Cy Young or MVP voting in the 2026 or 2027 seasons.

Sal Stewart would currently be eligible for PPI for 2026. He would still have to spend almost the entire season in the MLB to maintain that and win the Rookie of the Year award. However, he is not the only player within the organization who is eligible. Catcher Alfredo Duno would also be eligible, but the 2025 Florida State League MVP almost certainly won’t spend the entire season in the major leagues. He’s never a player in High-A, not on the 40-man roster, and right now he’s not even in big league camp.