2020 1st round pick Austin Hendrick is being promoted from Low-A Daytona to High-A Dayton. The move is not yet official, but I’ve heard it from three different sources.

The timing of the move is certainly interesting. In 2021 Austin Hendrick missed plenty of time during the season, playing in just 63 of the Tortugas 120 games. The outfielder hit just .211/.380/.388 in that span with 51 walks and 100 strikeouts. He walked a ton, 19.2% of the time he stepped to the plate. But he also struck out a ton, fanning in 37.6% of his plate appearances.

The season was a struggle to the point that the Cincinnati Reds decided to have him return to Daytona to begin the 2022 season. In April he hit .258/.370/.436 with a 12.3% walk rate and a 35.6% strikeout rate. Things have gone south in May as he’s hitting .154/.222/.369 with a 6.9% walk rate and a 44.4% strikeout rate. All of that together has led to a .205/.297/.402 line on the season with 14 walks and 58 strikeouts in 145 plate appearances. Compared to last season, his walk rate is down significantly, and his strikeout rate that was astronomically high, is even higher. He has matched last years seven home runs despite have 121 fewer plate appearances, but that seems to be the only place that he’s shown clear improvements over last season.

17 Responses

  1. MK

    Most certainly he will play. Hope this doesn’t mess up Dayton’s good season.

  2. DaveCT

    More riddles. Quinn Cotton was promoted some time ago and Danny Lantigua was released in the last week or so. But there have been several ML rehabbing players in Dayton, so maybe they needed to wait to fill an open roster spot. Cerda, Hinds, and Thompson certainly aren’t hitting like AA is in their immediate future. Perhaps Daytona needed to clear space, too, with somebody getting promoted from AZ.

    But as Joaquin Andujar once stated so well, “It can all be summed in one word, youneverknow.”

    • Bdh

      Doug would this suggest Confidan is close to returning to Daytona?

      Also does this mean Creal or Cerda is moving to AA? Do they really want to have those 2 + Hinds, Thompson, Hendricks on the same squad?

      • Bdh

        Whoops this wasn’t supposed to be a reply to anyone. Just questions for Doug.

      • DaveCT

        Not Doug, but Cerda may be closest, statistically, given his OBP.

        Hendrick did play CF recently …

        Creal may not be in the mix with the higher listed projects.

      • Doug Gray

        I have no idea what any of it means. Tough to make sense of it all.

      • DaveCT

        Perhaps someone in the Reds development arena can enlighten us to the development strategy with hitters. We do know strikeouts are up all over. But …

  3. Bubba Woo

    What a joke of an organization. The kid bats 210 last year, so they keep him in low A, only to promote him 40 games into the regular season when he’s playing WORSE. And just like all the first rounders before him, Robert Stephenson, Erwin, Lodolo (yes, he pitched well last year, but couldn’t get thru 75 innings of AA without getting hurt, and still got bumped up), they’ll keep promoting him, without any notable improvement.

    • Gregory Bott

      Lodolo was ready when he left college, huge difference.

  4. SteveO

    Steiger and O’Guinn should be promoted before Hendrick. Willems and Rogers sent down to Daytona. Steiger should start at 3B and rotate at SS with Torres when DeLaCruz gets a day off or is the DH. McGarry and Phillips are also in line to move to Chattanooga soon.

    • MK

      There are 4.3 million reasons Hendrick gets promoted before the other guys. He is going to be given more advantages than he deserves if he needs them.

      • SteveO

        If that were the case, AlfRod would’ve been the starting SS for the Reds a few years ago. There were $7M reasons for that one. Lol

  5. Doc

    To quote Gomer Pyle, “Surprise, surprise, surprise!”

  6. AMDG

    This year, his rate of hits is lower. His rate of extra base hits is lower. His rate of walks is lower. His rate of strikeouts is higher.

    Apparently Hendrick has nothing left to prove in low A ball ;-)

  7. SteveO

    DH, batting 5th today. Hinds starting in RF. Hendrick not better than Hinds defensively or the need to get Hinds PT in RF?