Luis Mey is chasing big names and big goals with his 103 mph fastball

It’s such a formative memory for Cincinnati Reds reliever Luis Mey that he can tell the story like it happened yesterday.

About a decade ago, he was watching baseball on television with his dad (who’s also named Luis Mey). Mey didn’t know much at the time about pitching or about velocity.

“I saw this guy ripping 105 (mph),” Mey said.

That was former Reds closer Aroldis Chapman.

“I didn’t know much,” Mey said.

He asked his dad, “Is that fast?”

His dad told him, “That’s the fastest pitch ever, so nobody can hit it.”

Mey said, “I want to be like him.”

His dad said, “Ok, just try it and see what happens.”

Fast forward to 2025, and Mey just made his MLB debut and threw a scoreless ninth inning in a Reds win over the Cardinals last Thursday. He didn’t feel like he had his best stuff. He “only” hit 101 mph on the radar gun. In the minor leagues, the 23-year-old hit 103 mph, and Mey feels like there’s more untapped potential there.

“I think I’m close enough to get there (to Chapman’s 105 mph),” Mey said. “I’ll keep pushing until I get there or get really, really close.”

Mey, who’s from the Dominican Republic, is the Reds’ best relief pitching prospect of the last few years. He still needs to develop his slider into a pitch that can consistently land in the strike zone. But the velocity is some of the best in the game, and his fastball is a true sinker that has a rare amount of movement for that velocity.

“It’s legit,” Tyler Stephenson said. “It’s a special arm for sure.”

“He’s a massive human being,” Reds closer Emilio Pagán said. “That’s the first thing that I noticed. He seems like a good kid. He has a big smile on his face. He’s blessed with a lightning bolt for a right arm. And he’s confident. He believes in himself. Those attributes are important in this game.”

Mey, who’s 6-foot-5 and 246 pounds, is built like a defensive end. If he continues to progress and develop, he certainly has a chance to be one of the Reds’ most trusted relievers by the end of this season.

“I have so much confidence, but I’m not going to be overconfident,” Mey said. “I’m confident enough to keep working every day. It’s not like I’ve got this or this is easy. No. Never. The game isn’t like that. I have to concentrate and be confident enough to be one of the greatest ever.”

He has some goals in mind.

“My long-term goal is to be the best closer ever,” Mey said. “Be like Mariano Rivera. I’d like to be close to his record or surpass his (all-time saves) record.”

The other name that he’s chasing is Aroldis Chapman.

“He’s the main character of my goals,” Mey said.

Mey used to have the exact same mechanics as Chapman, kicking his leg in the exact same fashion as Chapman does. While Mey has gone away from that kick, “I have the downfall on the back leg like him. Me and him separate the same way.”

Mey is right-handed and Chapman is left-handed, but it looks pretty similar as they both move down the mound.

Mey studied Chapman when he was a minor leaguer. Reds special assistant Mario Soto, the three-time All-Star pitcher who has worked for years with prospects in the organization, has told Mey a lot about Chapman.

Chapman has pitched in 809 games and has 339 saves.

“I want to be the same as him,” Mey said.

The velocity has always been there. In 2018, Mey said that the Reds saw him hit 92 mph on the radar gun and signed him as an international free agent out of the Dominican Republic. At the time, Mey was a skinny 16-year-old.

“I threw one pitch at 92, so they gave me the opportunity,” Mey said. “They liked that (velocity). They had a lot of hope that I was going to develop. Here I am.”

By the end of the 2019 season, he was up to 97 mph. He trained hard. He made a point to eat a lot so he could bulk up. “If I were super skinny and didn’t work out,” Mey says, “I wouldn’t be (here) for long.” Following a professional pitching plan, Mey saw the progress that he was looking for.

He didn’t pitch in 2020 due to the pandemic. In 2021, he missed most of the year with an elbow injury.

“I had a little downfall,” Mey said. “I was working out hard. Preparing myself. I had to come back and be ready. Then, the miles per hour just appeared.”

In spring training of 2022, Mey really was pushing himself to find some more velocity.

“I was going to stop, Mey said. “In the next outing, I was just going to throw strikes. Then suddenly, it appeared.”

Right before he gave up on becoming the next Chapman, he saw something magical.

100 mph on the radar gun.

He kept pushing.

“What I learned was just trust the process,” Mey said. “Don’t close your mind for anything you don’t understand. If you apply what you’ve learned and keep going, it’s ok. You’ve got to trust the process. If I just let it go after my downfalls, I wouldn’t be here. I had to get strong, keep working and get my mindset right because at some point it will click. Thank God, last year everything clicked. Here’s the results.”

In 2022, he struck out 58 batters in 34 innings in Low-A (12.1 strikeouts per nine innings). He was walking guys and wasn’t getting outs consistently yet, but he found ways to improve and also leaned all the way into his sinker instead of his four-seam fastball. He has close to equal velocity between those two pitches, but the movement of the sinker made all of the difference.

2024 was a true breakout year for Mey. He struck out 63 batters in 40 innings (10.3 strikeouts per nine). The 3.44 ERA wasn’t flashy, but he got better as the season went along. The Reds then tested him by sending him to the prestigious Arizona Fall League, where Mey was basically unhittable.

Facing top prospects from other organizations, Mey allowed no runs and just one hit in eight appearances.

Reds manager Terry Francona, who lives in Arizona during the offseason, was at one of those games.

“I think I saw the best inning he’s ever had," Francona said. "I was like, ‘Holy (smokes).’ It was just a wipeout inning.”

Mey continued to progress in Triple-A to start the 2025 season, and now he’s in the Reds’ bullpen.

“He’s confident,” Pagán said. “He has fun. He enjoys the game. He wants to be out here. He has looked great.”