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    Reds MiLB Notebook: The Draft signing deadline passes

    Doug Gray 10

    The deadline to sign 2024 draft picks has come and gone. Cincinnati wound up signing 18 of their 21 draft picks. The only players that they did not sign were 14th round pick Adrian Areizaga, 19th round pick Owen Pote, and 20th round pick Mason Russell.

    Owen Pote, likely winds up as a draft-and-follow, though. To be eligible as a draft-and-follow a player has to be drafted after the 10th round, and they need to attend a junior/community college in both the fall and spring semesters. They are eligible to sign until a week before next year’s draft. And they can also sign for up to $225,000 without any over-slot penalties.

    Earlier this year the Reds were able to take advantage of the draft-and-follow rules by signing JeanPierre Ortiz and Drew Pestka. Ortiz and Pestka were both recently promoted up to Daytona where they are now pitching out of the bullpen.

    Ricardo Cabrera to the injured list

    On Sunday Ricardo Cabrera was pinch hit for after just one at-bat. On Wednesday the team placed him on the injured list, but didn’t specify the injury. He dove for a ball on Sunday and as I was told “banged up his wrist” and that he wouldn’t be missing much time and should be back soon.

    Rece Hinds shows off his arm strength

    The scouting reports on Rece Hinds have long talked about his arm strength. Last season while in Chattanooga he picked up 14 assists. This season he’s had eight of them in Louisville and last night he uncorked a laser to throw out former Reds prospect Taylor Trammell at the plate.

    The broadcaster must not have known about the arm for Hinds because as it turned out, that fly out was not deep enough to get Trammell to the plate in time. Hinds unleashed a laser to the plate at 97.6 MPH according to Hawkeye.

    Particularly in the minor leagues, Hawkeye misses and or loses track of throws. Maybe it’s due to where the cameras are located in comparison to the big leagues (which have more levels to their stadiums and perhaps that comes into play to make it easier to track everything). With that said, the 97.6 MPH assist was the 7th best on an outfield assist this year in Triple-A. If we include big league numbers it falls to 14th.

    If we take off the assist part and limit it to just pure arm strength, then the 97.6 mark for Hinds is only his 4th best of the year. Back on May 18th he unleashed a 103.3 MPH throw to the plate that was just a little bit late on an RBI single. That mark is the 3rd best from Triple-A or MLB this season.

    Doug Gray
    Doug Gray is the owner and operator of this website and has been running it since 2006 in one variation or another.

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    10 Responses

    2. I’m fairly pleased with the draft class. I would have taken Condon over Burns, but I at least see the reasoning and I actually feel better that it had nothing to do with money. They just valued a dominant starting pitcher over a power hitting corner outfielder.

      Tyson Lewis has a lot of upside and you need to go after these types some times. Austin Hendrick flamed out spectacularly, you still need to take these swings from time to time. A big athletic SS with potential 20+ HR power? Yes please.

      Homan is a nice balance to Burns in Burns brings you ace potential and Holman a more reliable back end type.

      Sirota and Stoval they are hoping they took while the stock is low as both had rd 1 hype before having issues their in their junior years and both finished strong. I like the gamble here.

      I liked getting 3 catchers for organizational depth for 2025, although long term I don’t expect much from any of them. If one hits, then huzzah.

      I liked going extra for Colon. 6’4″ kid with projection.

      The rest, who knows. The Reds have had a knack for finding talent in round 11-16 the past couple years so I hope that trend continues.

      Given our depth at SS in the system, i’m not too heartbroken over not signing Areizaga, and realistically, we never really had a shot at Russell. That was just opening a dialogue with a prospect.

      1. I agree. The Reds executed this draft pretty well. Acquiring six players from mlb.com’s top 77 is a good feat. Starting pitching remains the scarcest resource in MLB–a franchise can never have too much.

        2. @Maui, the Reds offense is young. Greene, and Lodolo took time to adjust to the MLB game, and so will the young position players.

          I love the fact that the team can bring it against NYY, and LAD. The fact that they fall flat against COL just shows their inexperience. Hopefully more time, plus another couple veterans should take care of that next year.

    3. Doug,
      Any penalty for the Reds being $773K over the pool? I believe you have previously said there is a tax (penalty) up to a certain point, then if you exceed it, you potentially lose a draft pick.

      1. Essentially, there is only a financial penalty for exceeding their signing pool allotment by five percent–a “tax” of 75 percent on the overage. If a team exceeds their allotment by more than five percent, they begin to forfeit future draft picks on top of the “tax.”

      2. Technically speaking, they could still spend another $18,404 before having to forfeit a future first round pick. At the very least, at least they Reds brass doesn’t cheap out on the draft.

    4. I guess Hinds has a pretty good arm like I thought. I’m thinking he probably doesn’t have enough throws at the ML level to be ranked with the rest of the Reds. If he were on the Reds right now he would be second only to EDLC in sprint speed according to baseballsavant (29.2/30.1). I’m thinking that might be the case in arm strength too.

    5. Any word on when we might see Sirota, Stovall, or any of the other college hitters who were drafted?

      1. I hope we see some before season’s end in A ball, but I won’t hold my breath. With the late draft and ACL ball already done, I suspect the vast majority of the draftees won’t see any real game action beyond inter-squad type stuff at the complex.

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