Aristides Aquino

Aristides Aquino Núñez
(The Punisher)

• Bats Right, Throws Right
• Height 6' 4", Weight 220 lb.

• Debut August 19, 2018

• Born April 22, 1994 in Santo Domingo, Distrito Nacional D.R.

BR page

Biographical Information

Outfielder Aristides Aquino was originally signed by the Cincinnati Reds in 2011 and was a veteran of 8 minor league seasons when he finally received the call to The Show in August 2018. In 2016, he was Player of the Year in the Florida State League with the Daytona Tortugas when he hit .273 with 26 doubles, 12 triples and 23 homers and 79 RBI in 125 games. He played just one game on August 19th against the San Francisco Giants. He entered as a pinch-runner for Scooter Gennett in the 6th, then stayed in to play right field and struck out against Ray Black in his lone at-bat.

In 2019, he played in AAA for the first time and had a great year, hitting .299 with 28 homers and 53 RBI in 78 games for the Louisville Bats of the International League. He was called up on August 1st following the trade of Yasiel Puig to the Cleveland Indians, and given a chance to play, he showed a red hot bat after starting 0-for-6 in his first two games. On August 3rd, he had his first two career hits, including a three-run homer off Dallas Keuchel of the Atlanta Braves. On August 10th, he had a three-homer game, hitting all three long balls in the first four innings, to lead the Reds to a 10-1 win over the Chicago Cubs. He tied Trevor Story's record of hitting 7 homers in his first 10 big league games, and joined Bobby Estalella as the only two players to have a three-homer game in their first 10 games in the majors. He was also only the second rookie in Reds history to homer in four straight games, after Eric Davis, who had done so in 1984. Coincidentally, Aquino was wearing the same number as Davis, 44.

With a two-run homer in a 7-6 loss to the Washington Nationals on August 12th, he became the first major leaguer with 8 homers in his first 12 games, then made it 9 in 13 games with another long ball the next day. He needed just 47 plate appearances to reach 9 homers, the fewest ever, beating out Rhys Hoskins who had done it in 65. He was also leading the majors with 17 RBI since the start of August. Home run number 10 came on August 16th, his 16th game, for another record, and home run number 11 the next day, as he was now in completely unprecedented territory. He did not keep up that pace indefinitely, but on August 28th he hit his 13th homer in a 5-0 win over the Miami Marlins in his 100th plate appearance, another unprecedented feat. He also set a new club record for most homers in a month by a rookie, surpassing Adam Dunn and tying the National League record set by Cody Bellinger in June 2017. He promptly broke Bellinger's record with a big fly the next day. He was both National League Player of the Month (an award he shared with Nick Ahmed) and Rookie of the Month for August as he ended the month with a .320 average, 14 homers and 33 RBI. He cooled down in September to finish the year with a .259/.316/.576 line behind 19 home runs and 47 RBI.

He was never able to repeat his rookie season. In the pandemic-shortened 2020 season, he played 23 games and hit just .170 with 2 homers and 8 RBIs. The Reds made the expanded postseason, and he went 2 for 6 in their two-game sweep at the hands of the Atlanta Braves in which they famously failed to score a single run. In 2021 he was given another shot at regular playing time, but his production once again fell flat, with a .190 average in 84 games, 10 homers and 23 RBIs for an OPS+ of 80. He also struck out 75 times in just 174 at-bats. He played only sparingly in the first two months when the Reds' outfield was firing on all cylinders, with Nick Castellanos and Jesse Winker putting up All-Star numbers, but after Winker went down with an injury in July, he was given a chance to play more regularly but responded with a .177 average in the second half. The Reds missed the postseason, but Aquino got another chance to recapture some of the production of 2019 early in the 2022 season, after Castellanos and Winker had left the team and the adoption of the universal DH had created another spot for a hitter in the line-up. In 15 games in April, however, he went just 2 for 41 with 23 strikeouts for a Reds team that was struggling badly. On April 30th, the Reds threw in the towel, having him designated for assignment. He cleared waivers and was outrighted to AAA Louisville.

Notable Achievements

• 2016 Player of the Year Florida State League Daytona Tortugas

Further Reading

• Mark Sheldon: "With 8th HR, Reds' Aquino in category of one", mlb.com, August 13, 2019. [1]
• Mark Sheldon: "Slugger Aquino DFA'd by Reds", mlb.com, April 30, 2022. [2]

Related Sites

• Aristides Aquino on mlb.com