Dragons 2026 Team Preview, Part 7--The Starting Pitchers

Luke Hayden with the Dayton Dragons in 2025.

By Tom Nichols

March 25, 2026

The Dayton Dragons annual home “Opening Night” game is set for Tuesday, April 7 against the Lake County Captains at 7:05 pm at Day Air Ballpark. The Dragons will officially open their season on the road a few days earlier, on April 2 against the Lansing Lugnuts in Lansing, Michigan.

This is part seven of an eight-part series previewing the 2026 Dragons. Players listed here are candidates for positions on the Dragons season-opening roster.

This preview is an unofficial projection of possible roster candidates. Minor League rosters are not established until March 31. Spring training variables including performance, injuries, trades, and additional player acquisitions will impact the roster accordingly.

For Dragons season ticket, group ticket, or single-game ticket information, go to daytondragons.com/tickets or call (937) 228-2287.

The Starting Pitchers

Click links on each name for career stats and player information.

Candidates: Mason Morris, Luke Hayden, Nestor Lorant, J.P. Ortiz, Reynardo Cruz, Beau Blanchard

The Dayton starting rotation as projected here would feature five hard throwers who will max out at 95 mph and higher with their fastball, with Nestor Lorant being the exception as a hurler who depends on his change-up as his best pitch. Lorant was the Reds Minor League Pitcher of the Year in 2024 but had a tough year with the Dragons in 2025 and hopes to get back on track.

Mason Morris would be the top pitching prospect on the Dragons staff and one of the top five prospects at any position on the team if he breaks camp with the Dayton club. Morris was the Reds third round draft pick last July out of the University of Mississippi. As the 83rd overall pick in the 2025 draft, he signed with the Reds for a reported $897,000.

Morris was a multi-inning reliever at Ole Miss, earning Second Team All-Southeastern Conference honors as a junior in the spring of 2025. He was 5-1 with a 3.29 ERA in 19 games for the Rebels, striking out 78 in 54.2 innings.

Baseball America had this to say about Morris before the draft:

“He’s a physical righthander with a 6-foot-4, 225-pound frame and throws with a hooking arm action from a three-quarters slot. His fastball made a significant jump in 2025. After averaging around 92 mph in 2024, Morris added four ticks of velocity this spring, sat at 96 mph, and topped at 99.”

MLB Pipeline has Morris listed as the Reds #13 prospect while Baseball America has hit at #21.

After signing with the Reds after the 2025 draft in July, Morris made a couple of late-season appearances at Daytona. In a playoff start for the Tortugas, he tossed three no-hit, no-run innings.

If Morris is throwing as hard for the Dragons as he did last spring at Ole Miss, he would join a line of Dayton starters who were near or above 100 mph in Dayton, a list that includes Tony Santillan, Hunter Greene, Connor Phillips, Joe Boyle, and Chase Burns.

JeanPierre (J.P.) Ortiz was the best pitcher on the staff at Daytona last season and had one of the best overall years of any pitcher in the Reds farm system. He made 26 appearances with the Tortugas including 10 starts (almost all of his relief outings were at least three innings). He posted a record of 7-1 with a fine ERA of 2.86. He was one of only two pitchers in the Florida State League to log an ERA of under 3.00 while throwing at least 80 innings.

Ortiz’s fastball was reaching 96 mph in his final starts of the 2025 season. His control was good as he issued only 33 walks in his 91.1 innings. He is currently ranked as the #26 prospect in the Reds organization by MLB Pipeline.

Ortiz, a native of Puerto Rico, played high school baseball at IMG Academy and was a two-way player, known more as a shortstop than as a pitcher. The Reds selected him as a draft-and-follow in the 17th round in 2023, watched him play junior college ball at Chipola College the next spring, and then signed him in May of 2024.

MLB Pipeline had this to say about Ortiz after the 2025 season:

“An athletic six-foot right-hander, Ortiz continues to get better the longer he’s been focused on pitching only…The Reds feel his 84-87 mph changeup is ahead of his 83-86 mph slider but not by much, and there’s conviction he could end up having three above-average pitches down the road.”

Luke Hayden spent the entire 2025 season with the Dragons and then went on to pitch in the Arizona Fall League afterwards. Next to Chase Burns, Hayden was the hardest thrower among Dayton starting pitchers last season, often getting his fastball into the high-90’s. Hayden made 24 starts for the Dragons, going 4-7 with a 4.09 ERA, allowing opposing batters to hit just .228 as he allowed only 82 hits in 101.1 innings. Hayden struggled with command at times, which forced him to throw a lot of pitches and sometimes caused him to reach his pitch limit earlier in his start than he would have liked. He walked 72 in those 101.1 innings.

Hayden played two years at Indiana University and then transferred to Indiana State, where he played one season for the Sycamores before being drafted in the eighth round by the Reds in 2024. For most of last season, he was listed by MLB Pipeline at the tail end of the Reds top-30 prospect list.

Nestor Lorant, as mentioned above, was the Reds Minor League Pitcher of the Year in 2024 when he posted a microscopic 1.44 ERA with Daytona over 87.2 innings and allowed opponents to bat just .180 against him. Lorant struggled mightily with the Dragons in 2025 as he spent the entire season with the team, going 2-10 with a 5.79 ERA. The good news was that Lorant never gave up despite having an 0-10 record with a 7.00 ERA over the first four months of the season. He improved dramatically over his last several starts. He allowed one earned run or less in four of his last five starts, notching two victories. Lorant would hope to pick up where he left off last season and carry that success into 2026. He is a native of Venezuela and is 23 years old.

Reynardo Cruz is power pitcher who bounced back last season after missing two full years due to injury. He threw 40 innings with Daytona in 2022, missed all of ’23 and ’24, and came back in 2025 to make 20 appearances on the mound between the ACL Reds and Daytona. With the Tortugas, Cruz was 3-2 with a 4.66 ERA. For the year between the two clubs combined, he threw 66 innings and notched 67 strikeouts while allowing only 50 hits. Cruz, from the Dominican Republic, throws a fastball that will reach 97 mph and a slider that generates swings and misses. He hopes that in his second season back from his injury, he can take another step forward.

Beau Blanchard is a big 6’5”, 225 lbs. right-hander from the University of Louisiana Monroe was went undrafted in 2024 and signed with the Reds as a free agent. Blanchard opened his pro career with Daytona last season as a reliever, posting a 4.47 ERA in 50.1 innings. He was stretched out as a starter in spring training this year and reportedly enjoyed an excellent month of March to put him in contention for a starting role with the Dragons. Blanchard’s fastball often reached 96 mph last season at Daytona. This Dayton rotation could be interesting with so many pitchers who have velocity that surpasses Major League average.

Additional notes: One of the unfortunate elements of spring training is that with every battle for a roster spot, there is a winner but also a non-winner. The Reds announced late last week that several players had been released including former Dragons pitcher Ryan Cardona, former Dragons third baseman Austin Callahan, and former Dragons outfielder Myles Smith. Third baseman Ricky Cabrera, who was profiled as a potential Dragons 2026 third baseman, was placed on the 60-day injured list as he comes back from a serious knee injury.

Next up: Relief Pitchers

Click below for previous positional previews: