While it isn’t quite as fast as Mike Leake, or even Paul Skenes, Chase Burns is going from being drafted to being in the Major Leagues awfully quick. C. Trent Rosecrans of The Athletic first reported late on Saturday night that the Cincinnati Reds would be calling up Burns to make his Major League Baseball debut on Tuesday against the New York Yankees.
After being selected 2nd overall in the 2024 MLB Draft, the Reds signed Chase Burns to a record setting $9,250,000 bonus. He transferred to Wake Forest for the 2024 college season after spending two seasons at Tennessee. It paid off for him as he went 10-1 with a 2.70 ERA while striking out 191 batters in 100.0 innings pitched. Cincinnati kept him off of the mound after he signed given his workload that season and the nearly 2-months down time between his last game pitched and the draft.
While Burns was invited to big league camp, the Reds #1 prospect only pitched in one game with the team before he was reassigned to minor league camp. When the regular season began there was a surprise in store for most people as the right-handed starter headed to High-A Dayton to join the Dragons rotation. As the top pitcher in the previous year’s draft out of college who had both elite stuff and was considered quite polished, the assignment wasn’t one many foresaw.
For Chase Burns, his stay in the Midwest League didn’t last but three weeks as he made three starts for Dayton. He only threw 11.2 innings as the Reds limited his pitch count early on, but he struck out 20 batters and had five walks for the Dragons before his promotion.
Once he arrived in Chattanooga he was immediately the best pitcher in the league even as he was still having his pitch count limited. In his first five starts he posted a 1.88 ERA for the Lookouts with just three walks and 35 strikeouts while throwing 24.0 innings. He never topped 75 pitches in any of those five starts and three of those starts saw him throw fewer than 70 pitches. But Cincinnati started taking the gloves off after that a bit. In his next and what turned out to be final three starts with the Lookouts he threw 81, 82, and 80 pitches. He also set new career highs in innings pitched in a start in each of his last two games as he tossed six and then seven innings.
When he was through with his eight starts in the Southern League he had a 1.29 ERA with three walks and 55 strikeouts in his 42.0 innings while allowing just 26 hits. That was plenty good enough to have earned a promotion up to Triple-A.
In his first start with Louisville he walked as many batters in 5.1 innings as he had walked in all eight of his starts with Chattanooga – four. But he also allowed just two runs in that 5.1 inning start and had seven strikeouts. On June 18th he would take the mound once again and this time he threw 7.0 innings of 1-run baseball while giving up just three hits, walking no one, and he struck out seven batters.
Through his 13 starts in the minor leagues, Chase Burns held opposing batters to a .167/.211/.263 line. That came along with a 7-3 record and 66.0 innings where he gave up just 38 hits, walked 13 batters, and had 89 strikeouts.
When looking at his splits he was quite good against left-handed hitters as they managed just a .550 OPS against him. But he was other worldly good against right-handed hitters. They managed to hit just .134/.175/.196 against him in 103 plate appearances while striking out 53 times. You see that correctly – Chase Burns struck out 51.5% of the right-handed hitters he faced in the minor leagues this season.
The reward for Chase Burns and his absolute dominance of the minor leagues is that he gets to make his Major League debut and likely face one of the best hitters of the last 25 years in Aaron Judge. I’m sure that he’s unbothered by that fact as he’s just a few days from realizing a dream he’s probably had since childhood of pitching in the big leagues.
You can see the career stats for Chase Burns here.
Chase Burns Scouting Report
We only have two games worth of Triple-A pitch tracking data available for Burns to look at, but here’s what it tells us we are likely to see from him in terms of pitch selection and velocity:
| AvgVelo | MaxVelo | Usage | |
| 4-seam | 97.8 | 100.5 | 47% |
| Slider | 88.8 | 91.5 | 32% |
| Change | 90.1 | 92.7 | 13% |
| Curve | 84.4 | 85.8 | 8% |
While Burns can and does touch 100 MPH somewhat regularly, his fastball is not his best offering. While it’s a 70-rated pitch on the scouting score, the slider grades out a little bit better. It’s a true put-away pitch that looks elite. He will also mix in a change up and a curveball, which are both solid pitches but don’t compare to the other two that he throws.
Chase Burns has good control, but his command is only solid. He throws tons of strikes, but his location within can be hit-or-miss. When he misses with his fastball it will usually be above the zone. His breaking balls, like most pitchers breaking balls, are usually thrown with the idea that hitters will chase them out of the zone as they break away from it.
When pitching in the minor leagues, and even in college, Burns was not afraid to challenge hitters and go after them. He knows his stuff can get the job done. You never know how a guy will pitch in their debut. But if Burns resembles anything like he did in the minor leagues this season, he should find plenty of success – even against an elite offense like the Yankees.