The crew at MLB Pipeline, MLB.com’s official prospect portal, released their Top 100 Prospect List on Thursday night. The Cincinnati Reds had four prospects make their list – the organization’s best showing thus far among the various prospect lists.
Left-handed pitcher and 2019 1st round pick Nick Lodolo was the highest rated prospect among the Cincinnati organization. On this list he came in at 59th overall. While there wasn’t a minor league season to be had, Lodolo spent July with the big league club in the second installment of spring training before joining the alternate site at Prasco Park in Mason where he pitched for the remainder of the baseball year.
Hunter Greene, the Reds 2017 1st round pick, came up on the list next. The right-handed starter was the 71st best prospect in baseball according to MLB Pipeline. Greene joined the Cincinnati 60-man player pool right before the regular season began, arriving on July 22nd. Coming off of Tommy John surgery, Greene showed that his velocity was back, reaching 102 MPH and sitting in the upper 90’s with his fastball. He’ll be back on the mound in the 2021 season at 21-years-old.
2020’s 1st round pick for the Reds, Austin Hendrick, comes in on the list at #86. The left-handed hitting outfielder also saw action at the alternate site, though he was there just for the final week before heading out to Arizona where he took part in instructional league. The 12th overall pick stands out for his raw power, which was arguably the tops in the entire draft this past year.
Rounding out the Cincinnati representation is catcher Tyler Stephenson. Coming in at #95 on the list, Stephenson saw action at both the alternate site as well as the big league stage in 2020. He hit .294/.400/.647 in 17 at-bats with the Reds during the regular season. Between his limited action in the majors, as well as what he showed at Prasco Park as a part of the alternate roster, it gave the organization confidence that he could step into the big leagues in 2021 to share catching duties with Tucker Barnhart – leading to the team non-tendering Curt Casali to clear room for Stephenson.
The Reds farm system continues to be a bit all over the place when it comes to national rankings. On this list, for example, Nick Lodolo is the top rated prospect in the organization at #59 overall in baseball. At Baseball America, Lodolo went unranked in their top 100 and was Cincinnati’s #7 overall prospect. The Reds are deep in that “good but not elite” prospect range. That continues to show up in these rankings.
Passed on Kelenic and Gore. Ouch.
Let me be the first to say it.
??????
I figured it out. I would have taken Greene over Gore every day. All the services had him rated as the best prospect.
As for India. I was never a fan. Kelenic was obviously a better choice at this point.
Agree on both takes. I would have taken Greene over anyone in that draft, and still would. Didn’t love the India pick at the time, but I understood it. I think I was hoping for one of the HS pitchers, Carter Stewart, coming out and not sure that would have been better.
I do remember preferring Kyle Lewis to Senzel at the time, but also liking Senzel, just saw more upside with Lewis.
Did Garcia exhaust his eligibility for this list, or is he eligible and simply wasn’t selected?
Eligible and not selected.
Any idea when Reds affiliate staffs will be announced? I’ve noticed a lot of other teams announcing their staffs in the last couple weeks.
Double-A Chattanooga had theirs announced already. There has not been any other announcements, which is a little surprising.
Are Greene and Lodolo both going to start in AA this year? It would be nice to see them feed off each other in their development.
That would be my guess, but we shall see.