The Cincinnati Reds drafted Blake Trahan in the 3rd round of the 2015 draft. Many considered it a steal as he was projected by some as a potential late 1st round pick. After signing the Reds sent the infielder to Billings and the early returns were strong.
In 47 games with the Billings Mustangs, Blake Trahan went out and hit .312/.400/.403. In his 216 plate appearances he walked more times, 25, than he struck out, 19. His plate discipline and his approach were very advanced and it helped him go through the Pioneer League with plenty of success. After Calten Daal was hit in the face by a pitch late in August, the Reds sent Trahan up to Daytona for the final two weeks of the season to fill in at shortstop. He struggled, hitting just .114 with no walks and five strikeouts in 36 plate appearances.
To begin the 2016 season the organization was aggressive with his promotion, sending him back to Daytona and skipping him over Dayton. This year, the early returns weren’t so good. Over the first 14 games of the season for the Tortugas, Trahan went just 5-54 (.093) with four walks in 61 plate appearances. To say it was a struggle would be an understatement. But with just eight strikeouts in that time, the signs were there that he was going to turn around as he wasn’t entirely overmatched, the ball simply was finding the fielders gloves instead of the grass.
In the final week and a day of April things started to improve, as he would hit .188/.270/.250 in 37 plate appearances. You’d still like to see more, but those eight games all saw him reach base and the numbers across the board began to improve.
May began with an 0-3 effort, but it came along with two walks and two runs as he extended his on-base streak to nine games. In the next 11 games he ran off a hit streak that saw him go 16-43 (.372) with five walks and six strikeouts. On the 14th he went 0-3, but drew a walk to keep his on-base streak alive before going 5-10 in the next three games to bring us through last night.
After a terrible start to the season that saw the shortstop hit .128/.198/.186 in April, he’s really flipped the script in May. In 16 games he’s hitting .356/.426/.492 with as many walks, eight, as strikeouts. He’s currently riding a 24-game on-base streak that stretched into April and is still going on. In total his season numbers still look bad, but he’s been on fire for the last three weeks and has recovered very well from a slow start.