Today is a dream day for baseball prospect followers. This afternoon the Futures Game is taking place in Colorado. Later tonight the 1st round of the Major League Baseball draft begins. It’s the Super Bowl of days. And for the Cincinnati Reds and their fans, things got out to a great start. Jose Barrero got the nod as the starting shortstop in the Futures Game and was placed at second in the lineup. After a shutout top half of the inning, the Reds prospect came up to the plate with no one on in the bottom of the 1st inning and after battling with Cole Winn for four pitches that included two foul balls, Winn left an 84 MPH curveball over the middle of the plate and Barrero crushed it 426 feet into the stands in left center field.
Jose Barrero announcing his presence with a 426 foot dinger in the #FuturesGame! pic.twitter.com/olzif5WLOs
— Cincinnati Reds (@Reds) July 11, 2021
The home run was the 9th that Jose Barrero has hit this season, though this one doesn’t quite count since it’s in an exhibition game. He has hit eight this season between his stops in Double-A Chattanooga and Triple-A Louisville.
How about another angle of the home run from the Cincinnati Reds?
Jose Barrero is in the #FuturesGame for a reason. ? pic.twitter.com/15yMZUq8D6
— Cincinnati Reds (@Reds) July 11, 2021
The 426-foot homer hit this afternoon is the second longest of the season for Jose Barrero. On July 1st in Nashville he unloaded on a 428-foot home run in his third game at the Triple-A level for the Bats. His eight homers also match the total that he hit in all of the 2019 season when he played in 104 games for the then Advanced-A Daytona Tortugas (they are now the Low-A affiliate of the Reds). In 2018 he played in 125 games with then Low-A Dayton (now the Dragons are the High-A affiliate) and hit six home runs. He did not homer in his 24 games last season when he was with the Cincinnati Reds.