The 2017 season was one that Brian O’Grady would like to forget. Splitting his time between Advanced-A and Double-A he hit just .185/.313/.347 in 82 games played. It went about as poorly as possible. The Reds brought the 26-year-old back for 2018 and assigned him to Pensacola to begin the season.
The season began on April 8th with an 0-2 day at the plate with a walk. The next two games saw Brian O’Grady go 1-3 on each day with a walk, and he doubled in one of the games. He would slump the next week in limited action, though. He went 0-11 in four games played. The outfielder didn’t play over the next four days before returning to the lineup. That’s where things picked up as he hit .316 over his final six games with four home runs. The slow start hurt his average – he hit just .211 on the month. But he drew walks, leading to a .348 on-base percentage and he slugged .553 to give him a .900 OPS in 13 games played.
Brian O’Grady got the month of May started out the right way. In the first week he went 6-15 (.400) with five walks and just two strikeouts. That didn’t carry forward into the second week, though. Getting some action at first base now, he went just 1-17 (.059) with that hit being a double. While things picked up from there, the slump did continue the rest of the month as he hit just .250 with a walk and two doubles in the final nine games. May would be his lowest OPS month of the year, hitting just .234/.320/.328. He did walk nine times with just 11 strikeouts, and added six doubles during the month.
The first week of June was limited for Brian O’Grady. He didn’t play the first three days of the month, but made his game action count in the other four, posting an OPS of 1.156 over 14 plate appearances. That didn’t carry over to the next week as the outfielder went 3-20 (.150) with one extra-base hit. O’Grady caught fire in the final two weeks of the month, though. He went 11-21 (.524) with four walks, four strikeouts, and he slugged .952. Over 20 games on the month he hit .327/.422/.615. That came with nine walks and ten strikeouts, and eight extra-base hits.
July didn’t start out nearly as well as June ended for Brian O’Grady. In four games he hit just .182. He picked things up over the next five games, OPS’ing .973 for Pensacola. He was promoted to Triple-A for the final eleven days of the month. O’Grady bookened two cold stretched by going 5-11 through a 3-game stretch. July was his worst month of the season. He walked just three times and hit .236/.271/.382 in 19 games played.
When the calendar flipped to August, so did the production for Brian O’Grady. The outfielder went on an absolute tear in the first two weeks of the month for Louisville. In 13 games he hit .340 with three walks, three home runs, two doubles, and two triples. Things didn’t slow down from there, either. In the final three weeks of the season he went 21-66 (.318) with 10 more extra-base hits. Down the stretch he hit .327/.394/.619 in 128 plate appearances over 32 games with the Bats.
For all 2018 Season Reviews and Scouting Reports – click here (these will come out during the week throughout the offseason).
Brian O’Grady Spray Chart
Brian O’Grady Scouting Report
Position: Outfield, First Base | B/T: L/R
Height: 6′ 2″ | Weight: 215 lbs | Drafted: 8th Round, 2014
Born: 5/17/1992 in Warminster, PA
Hitting | Brian O’Grady’s got a below-average hit tool. 2018 has been the only year in which he’s hit over .257 for a season in his career.
Power | He’s got average to slightly above-average power. He’s strong enough to hit the ball out to all parts of the field.
Speed | He’s a slightly above-average runner who moves better than his size would have you believe.
Defense | He’s a quality defender in the corners, and at first base. He’s stretched in center field.
Arm | He’s got an average arm.
After a terrible season in 2017, Brian O’Grady put together what was easily his best season in 2018. After beginning the year in Double-A and playing well, he went to Triple-A and performed even better.The improvements came from making more contact, particularly at the Double-A level, and taking a big step forward in his power.
There’s still some swing-and-miss to his game, but he has a good understanding of the strikezone. He’s also got some speed that he can use on the bases – at least for a corner guy. And that’s part of the appeal with Brian O’Grady. While he is mostly a corner guy – he could cover you in center field in an absolute pinch – his versatility and ability to play left, center, right, and first base could go a long way. Toss in the ability to be a pinch runner, quality plate approach or even pop off of the bench kind of pinch hitter, and he has the pieces that could make for a very useful bench player. Whether all of that can translate in a not-playing-every-day role is always a big question, but the parts are there to make it work for Brian O’Grady.
Longest Home Run of the Year
443 feet on August 8th.
Interesting Stat on Brian O’Grady
He hit seven home runs against pitchers that were older than he was (102 PA), and seven home runs against pitchers that were younger than he was (274 PA). But all six of his triples came against younger pitchers.