Reds Top Prospect Ready to Rebound From Tough Season

After a fantastic season with High-A Dayton last year at just 19 years old, Cam Collier's 2025 season got off to a tough start when he injured his left thumb's ulnar collateral ligament in a spring training game in March. The injury required surgery.

When he finally got his season started with Double-A Chattanooga, which started on June 17 after having a short rehab assignment with the ACL Reds and Dayton, Collier struggled out of the gate.

In his first 44 games, he slashed just .224/.360/.296 with 10 extra-base hits, but no home runs.

"It was very frustrating but it's part of baseball," Collier told MLB.com's Jim Callis. "I also know that every failure eventually ends with a success. The thumb bothered me at the beginning, and it was Double-A and an adjustment period getting used to the older arms. At the end of the day, I got better."

However, in his last 30 games, he started to find his groove at the plate, slashing .313/.394/.420 with eight extra-base hits, including two home runs.

It's always a challenging thing to recover from surgery. Collier is playing in the Arizona Fall League this month to make up for the games missed in the regular season and to continue to get live reps. It's easy to forget he's still just 20 years old.

The Reds believe Collier has a bright future ahead of him.