Fangraphs prospect crewmen Kiley McDaniel and Eric Longenhagen have released their 2019 Major League Baseball Mock Draft version 3.0 and it’s got some interesting tidbits related to the Cincinnati Reds.
7. Reds – Alek Manoah, RHP, West Virginia
The next few spots are where it sounds like teams have more heavily considered cutting underslot deals because of perceived talent drop-off after picks five or six. We think the Reds ultimately take whomever they like best among the college arms. TCU LHP Nick Lodolo has been mentioned a lot here, and the club had extra heat at a recent start of Elon RHP George Kirby. This is also the range when consensus top prep arm Quinn Priester’s name starts getting mentioned, which continues with Atlanta and then throughout the teens.
This isn’t the first time that the Reds have been linked to Alex Manoah. But this is the first time that they are being linked to selecting the big right-handed pitcher out of West Virginia. That, however, isn’t really the interesting part. The inclusion of guys like George Kirby and Quinn Priester is. We wrote about George Kirby earlier in May when looking at potential first round options for the Reds, though at the time he was rated as the 20th prospect in the draft. Kirby goes to the Phillies at #14 in the mock draft.
We didn’t cover Quinn Priester, who ranked 24th at the start of May and seemed a bit down the list for the Reds to consider. But, given that he’s being mentioned here as a possibility, let’s take a look at him.
Quinn Priester Scouting Report
The 6′ 3″ and 198-pound right-handed pitcher out of Cary-Grove High School in Illinois has been a fast riser of late. He’s up to the #14 spot on the Fangraphs rankings, though he’s at #19 on the MLB Pipeline list, and #23 on the Baseball America list.
He throws a 2-seamer in the low 90’s that shows very good action on both planes. When he needs it, he can reach back and get 96-97 on his 4-seamer. His go-to secondary offering is a potentially plus curveball. He throws it in the 79-82 MPH range, and while it’s inconsistent at times it’s generally at least an average offering now. There’s also a change up in his repertoire, but he doesn’t use it much and it’s a clear third pitch with a chance to be average in the future.
There’s a lot of athleticism with Quinn Priester. Mix that in with some physical projection left and the upside for the righty could be pretty high. There’s also the fact that he’s a northern state player. The general idea there is that he’s played less and thus hasn’t quite scratched the surface in terms of what he could be with more consistent and regular time on the field.
What the Reds could do….
It still sounds like the Reds would prefer one of the college bats that is projected to go ahead of them. But if none of those guys slide to Cincinnati at #7, it sounds like they are going to be going with a pitcher. There are plenty of options as they’ve been linked to Nick Lodolo, Alek Manoah, Quinn Priester, George Kirby, and Jackson Rutledge as possible picks.