The Cincinnati Reds selected the contract of 22-year-old outfielder Carlos Jorge from Triple-A Louisville on Friday, adding another homegrown piece to a roster that has spent September evaluating its younger talent.
The move was revealed on the MLB.com transaction log.
Jorge, who will turn 23 later this month, has been in the organization since January 2021, when Cincinnati signed him out of the Dominican Republic for a $495,000 bonus during the delayed 2020-21 international period.
He arrived as a shortstop. By 2023, he was seeing time in the outfield; the last two seasons he has played there exclusively, using plus speed and a strong arm to become one of the system’s better defensive outfielders.
The promotion is his first major-league opportunity. To open a 40-man roster spot, the Reds transferred first baseman/outfielder Michael Toglia to the 60-day injured list after shoulder surgery. Infielder Ivan Johnson was optioned to Louisville to clear an active roster spot.
Jorge earned the call with a breakout 2026. He split the year between Double-A Chattanooga and Louisville, hitting a combined .308/.376/.427 with eight home runs and 33 stolen bases in 38 attempts over 88 games. He walked at an 8.6 percent clip and struck out 20.1 percent of the time.
Before the late-June promotion to Triple-A, he was batting .330 with an .854 OPS for the Lookouts. Baseball America ranks him the Reds’ No. 12 prospect; he sits 16th on MLB Pipeline and ninth at FanGraphs.
Scouts describe a left-handed hitter with below-average power but plus speed and contact skills. At 5-foot-9 and 160 pounds, he is built more for line drives and extra-base gap power than home-run thump.
That profile, paired with elite range in center field, gives him a relatively high floor as a fourth outfielder or table-setter—and perhaps more if Cincinnati’s outfield remains unsettled. TJ Friedl’s poor season at the plate has already invited speculation about offseason roster decisions.
Jorge’s path was not linear. He struggled offensively at High-A Dayton in 2024 and 2025 before the 2026 bounce-back. The Reds left him unprotected in last year’s Rule 5 Draft; he went unselected.
This season’s contact improvements and continued stolen-base production (he has 187 career minor-league steals) made the September look inevitable.
He is expected to make his big-league debut the first time he takes the field. For a player who has spent more than five years climbing from the Dominican Summer League through every full-season affiliate, the wait is over.
Whether Jorge sticks as a regular or a high-energy reserve will be one of the clearer questions Cincinnati can answer before the offseason.
