Michael Siani was dealing with an injury all spring training. And that carried over into the first few weeks of the regular season, too. The injury kept him from playing in the field, but wasn’t enough to keep him from swinging the bat, so he spent much of the first month of the season as the designated hitter in High-A Dayton. While he was healthy enough to swing, he struggled in May, hitting just .177/.293/.190 with 30 strikeouts in 92 plate appearances.
When June rolled around things changed for the outfielder. Siani got back into center field for 16 of the 17 games he played in and the bat came around, too. While he did miss nearly a week of playing time in the first half of the month, once he got back onto the field the hits started falling in as he hit .273/.375/.509 with his first three homers of the season.
Just as quickly as things turned around for the better in June, they went the other way in July. From the 1st of the month through August 10th, Siani hit just .168/.280/.221 in 30 games played. Things picked up on the 11th when he went 2-4 with a home run. He also homered the next day while picking up three more hits. From the 11th through the end of the season, spanning 28 games, he hit .267/.358/.448 and lowered his strikeout rate with just 24 strikeouts in 120 plate appearances.
Following the regular season the Reds sent Michael Siani to the Arizona Fall League. He played in 14 games there and hit .300/.451/.450 with more walks than strikeouts (10-to-9).
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Michael Siani Scouting Report
Position: Outfield | B/T: L/L
Height: 6′ 1″ | Weight: 188 lbs | Acquired: 4th Round (2018 Draft)
Born: July 16, 1999
Hitting | He has a below-average hit tool.
Power | He has below-average power.
Speed | He shows plus speed.
Defense | He has plus-plus defense.
Arm | He has a plus arm.
Speed and defense are what stick out for Michael Siani. He stole 30 bases during the regular season with Dayton and then went 10-for-11 in 14 games in the Arizona Fall League. While he sticks out on the basepaths, he’s even better in center where he has range that can match just about anyone and a strong arm that really sticks out at the position.
The questions around Siani come at the plate. There have always been some questions about his bat. Coming out of high school there were concerns about his swing needing to be re-worked, but he hit .288 with Greeneville following the draft. But he struggled in the follow up season with then Low-A Dayton, and this past season he hit just .216 with what is now High-A Dayton and saw his strikeout rate jump from 20% to 25%.
There’s more raw power to be tapped into than he has shown in games to this point in his career, but he’s likely to fall into that 10-15 home run range if things work out at the plate in the long run. His speed may allow his hit tool to play up a tad given that he’s going to likely run into plenty of infield hits – he had 16 of them in 97 games in 2021.
Still, there’s a lot of work to do at the plate. The speed and defense give him a higher floor because they will both play well in the big leagues, but he’s got to improve at the plate moving forward if he’s going to compete for any sort of regular role in the big leagues.
Michael Siani Spray Chart
Interesting Stat on Michael Siani
He hit .328 in the 1st inning, but hit just .193 in the other innings combined.
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Never really been a Siani fan. Seems like a guy that would make Cesar Geronimo look like Mike Trout.
Doug, Could Siani be another Billy Hamilton ?
He’s not as fast, and he’s probably not quite as good of a defender. The bat…. TBD. Hamilton hit better in the minors, without question, to this point.
Doug, you have his birthday wrong; he would have just turned 19 as you have it. Baseball Reference has it as July 16, 1999.
I am encouraged that his strikeout rate went down considerably in the last few weeks and in the Fall League. His injury was to his elbow (I suppose his left, throwing elbow), so he did have a bit of an excuse for a slow start.
If I recall correctly, Siani in his senior year in high school pulled a Senzel and changed his hitting style for no apparent reason (like Adam Dunn wearing a glove in left field for no apparent reason), purportedly to find more power. If he contents himself to being a line-drive hitter with about 12 HRs and a decent OBP, then he can play in CF.
Siani is gonna take the jump to AA this year, which can often separate the men from the boys. This is the big year for him.
Thanks for the correction. It’s now fixed.
After watching him play two seasons I have always thought he was over rated. He has seemed to get more prospect respect than Jose Siri who was much better offensively and defensively.
Siani always seemed streaky as a hitter to me, just enough to get believers excited. He’ll be very hard pressed to match Cedrola’s offense at AA, and Cedrola’s likely a 4/5 outfielder.
for me, the ship has sailed on Siani. Way too little power and he doesn’t seem all that athletic and to play center field in the major leagues you have to be an uber-athletic unless your hit tool is fantastic. Cedrola, Cerda and even Brian Rey look far better than him at this point.
I believe he can develop some power he has a frame that can add some muscle. The shoulder injury certainly sidetracked his year, similar to what has happened to Suarez. He should probably repeat High A but I doubt they do it.