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The Cincinnati Reds have a pretty good third baseman right now in Todd Frazier and he is locked up through the 2017 season. Frazier does have the ability to play left field and first base. That leaves open the third base position if someone were to truly blaze through the system at the position and push for big league time as the flexibility of Frazier could open up the spot for someone.
Louisville saw quite a few guys spend time at third base. Chris Nelson and Neftali Soto were the only players to get over 30 starts though and Nelson is no longer in the organization and Soto was covered at first base.
To start the season the Pensacola third baseman was Juan Silverio. He got out to a good start to the season, hitting .320/.363/.507 in April but struggled to continue his success. He was promoted at the end of the first half to Louisville and struggled in limited action before coming back to Pensacola where he found himself playing behind Seth Mejias-Brean in the second half.
Mejias-Brean began the year in Bakersfield where he .300/.396/.476 in the first half. That got him promoted to Double-A, but he slowed down there as he hit .235/.333/.323. The power dried up in a big way but he was still showing good plate discipline. Defensively he also stood out as a strong defender. If he is able to get back to hitting for some power it should boost his average some and the rest of his game is seemingly in good shape.
Jumping down to Dayton there was really only one guy to get most of the playing time. Tanner Rahier played in 113 games at third for Dayton and some of the time he did miss out on was due to injury. His season was a tale of two halves. Through June he was hitting .287/.338/.430. Over the final two months of the season things fell apart as he hit just .169/.242/.253 while his strikeout rate nearly doubled. He has some good tools to work with and his defense is pretty good, but he has yet to put together a full season where he didn’t have prolonged struggles.
Taylor Sparks manned third for the Billings Mustangs on most nights after signing and joining the team in July. His season was a bit like that of Tanner Rahier in that his first half was much better than the second. In July he would hit .289/.421/.577 in 121 plate appearances. In the final 119 plate appearances of the season he would see him hit .178/.277/.406 as his walk rate dropped and his strikeout rate jumped from an already high 29% to an unsustainable 41%. Sparks oozes tools. He can hit the ball very far, he is very athletic and he has some speed. But his strikeout rate and plate discipline are a big hurdle that he will need to improve upon.
The Arizona League Reds saw fourth rounder Gavin LaValley spend most of his season at third base. Offensively he stood out in the first part of the season as he hit .319/.407/.483 through the first six weeks and 135 plate appearances. The final five weeks were a struggle though for the high schooler as he hit just .223/.302/.362 in 106 plate appearances. His walk rate dropped and the strikeout rate jumped way up down the stretch. He has some big time power to tap into on the offensive side of things. Defensively the year couldn’t have gone much worse as he posted an .854 fielding percentage.
Overall Thoughts
The Reds third base group has a lot of potential to work with from the group of guys in the minor leagues. There are good defenders or potential good defenders all over. The bats all seem to have some real promise in them. Some guys have big power, some show good plate discipline and some are a little more well rounded. No one really put together that complete season though and only Seth Mejias-Brean has a track record of actually doing that in the past. A guy like Neftali Soto should also be viewed as being in this group and maybe down the line Alex Blandino also makes the move to third, which does add a small amount of value here. With a lot of upside and depth of guys at every level who are at least solid prospects, but only a little bit of production to go with plenty of risk, the grade is solid, but with the potential to really jump up.
Grade: C+
Top Third Baseman Tools
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| Tool | Top Player |
| Defense | Seth Mejias-Brean |
| Arm | Juan Silverio |
| Hitting | Seth Mejias-Brean |
| Power | Taylor Sparks |
| Runner | Taylor Sparks |
Most of these categories were pretty close to call. Defensively you could make an argument for Mejias-Brean, Taylor Sparks or Tanner Rahier and have a good case. I went with Mejias-Brean because his current ability is a tad better than the other two with similar tools. The arm could also come down to any of those three guys or Juan Silverio. Silverio has a rocket, but the other three have rather strong arms as well. The power category is basically a toss up between Sparks and LaValley, both who show plus raw-power. In the speed category Sparks takes things a little easier as a guy who has flashed plus speed at times. For the hitting tool I just felt more comfortable with Mejias-Brean as a guy who has a good understanding of the strikezone and uses the entire field over some of the more aggressive hitters.
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