Reds Prospect Opens Up About Walk-Off Steal and Rooming With Alfredo Duno

Cincinnati Reds prospect Kien Vu is having a good season in his first full season as a professional. The 22-year-old was drafted in the ninth round in the 2025 MLB Draft and has already jumped from Low-A to Double-A. We sat down with Vu on the Red Hot Reds Podcast to talk about his success this season as well as how he's adjusting to the grind of a full minor league season.

Walk-Off Steal Of Home

While with the Dayton Dragons of High-A, Vu had one of the more exciting plays you can make in a baseball game. In a 4-4 game with two outs and the bases loaded in the bottom of the ninth, Vu stole home in a walk-off fashion.

“Yeah. I think that's what it was. I'm just going to go for it." Vu said."I think the pitch before it, I had done the fake break to try to get a balk out of him. Julio, our manager, was like, got far, you think he could actually do it? I was like, yeah, maybe.”

The other team had brought in a left-handed pitcher to face the left-handed hitting Peyton Stovall. It was a 2-2 count when Vu made the decision to attempt the play and win the game.

“I saw the way he came set and just looked at the ground," Vu said. "That's probably my opportunity to go. As soon as he did that, I went.”

On the season, he has 12 home runs, 26 stolen bases and is slashing .247/.382/.458.

Life As Alfredo Duno's Roommate

Vu's roommate was Reds' number-one prospect Alfredo Duno while in Dayton, and catcher Ryan McCrystal before he was promoted to Double-A.

“They're both great," Vu said. "McCrystal had a dog, which I thought was really cool. I like dogs and like just having him around. I thought that was really cool. I think some people have an issue with the roommates having dogs. I don't.”

Living with Duno, he learned that he likes to cook and buys a lot of cologne.

“He actually, he does like to cook, which is cool because I don',." Vu said. "He made breakfast a few mornings and he's real like super clean, super tidy, so a great roommate. He has a lot of nice things too, as you can imagine. He's got a lot of cologne, I think a lot of expensive cologne too. So I mean, the place always smelled great.”

Duno is from Venezuela. One week, he had his family out to visit. Vu told us about that experience and how he got to try food from his culture.

“One of the weeks his family actually came out, his mom, dad and little sister were out there visiting and they made repas." Vu said. “That was really good too. I've never had anything like that. Yeah, they're great cooks. I mean, he's huge, so you can imagine he has good taste in food. I mean, just like a burly guy, not like a fat guy. But good taste in food, he eats a lot of food.”

Vu is currently in Double-A with the Chattanooga Lookouts. He, along with Duno, Carlos Sanchez, Carter Graham, Yerlin Confidan, and Jose Montero, were all promoted to Chattanooga after the end of the first half on June 30.

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