Chase Burns named Southern League Pitcher of the Week

Chase Burns has been named as the Southern League Pitcher of the Week. Last week he threw 6.0 shutout innings with two hits allowed, a walk, and he struck out four batters for the Chattanooga Lookouts in their win over the Columbus Clingstones.

For Burns it was just a continuation of what he’s been doing all season long, but taken the next step. He began the season with Dayton in High-A. The right-handed starter only pitched in three games with the Dragons before being promoted to Double-A where he joined the Lookouts rotation.

The first time out he only threw 4.0 innings in a doubleheader against Columbus. He allowed one earned run in that game. The five starts that followed that were all 5-inning outings and they also were outings where he allowed just one earned run. And then there was the start last week against the Clingstones. It was his longest professional start both in terms of innings pitched as well as pitches thrown (82). It was also his first start in Double-A where he didn’t allow a run (his first start in Dayton also saw him keep runs off the board, but it was in 4.0 innings).

When the Reds selected Chase Burns #2 in the draft out of Wake Forest he was expected to be a quick riser through the minor leagues and had the best stuff in the draft. He’s showing every bit of that so far in 2025. Through his 10 starts this season he’s posted a 1.93 ERA while throwing 46.2 innings, has allowed just 28 hits, walked just nine batters, and he’s struck out 69 of the 172 hitters he’s faced. And he’s been better in Double-A than he was in High-A with Dayton, too.

Burns was not the only Reds prospect to be named the player of the week for their league this week. For the 4th time this year Cincinnati doubled up on awards. Catcher Alfredo Duno was named the Florida State League Player of the Week for last week. We’ll write about him tomorrow, but if you can’t wait I covered just how hot he’s been of late in a piece from Sunday night that you can read here.

Here’s the Cincinnati Reds players to win a Player of the Week Award in 2025: