This morning the crew at Baseball America released their 2020 Top 100 Prospect list and for the Cincinnati Reds, it wasn’t the best showing. The Reds landed just two players in the Top 100 list, and both were in the bottom fourth of the list. Hunter Greene and Nick Lodolo were rated back-to-back on the list, coming in as the 76th and 77th best prospects in baseball according to the list.
For Hunter Greene, he’s coming off of Tommy John surgery and having missed all of the 2019 season. After a tough start in 2018 with Dayton in the first five weeks of the season, he dominated over the next two months before an injury to his elbow cut his season short. After opting for rehabbing the injury he went into spring training feeling good and was throwing off of the mound, but in what was the final week of the spring he tore his UCL and then decided that Tommy John surgery would be the path to a comeback.
Nick Lodolo was drafted just last season out of TCU. After a dominant junior season with the Horned Frogs, the Reds took Lodolo as the first pitcher of the 2019 draft. They limited his game action following the draft, but in the 18.1 innings he did throw in his eight starts, he was very good. He posted a 2.45 ERA, allowing just five earned runs, and he struck out 30 batters without allowing a single walk.
Neither of those two players making the list was a surprise. They were both on the last list that was released by Baseball America in the second half of 2019. Greene dropped from the 49th spot and Lodolo moved up from the 90th spot. But they weren’t the only Cincinnati prospects that were on that one. Jonathan India was also on that list at #51. But he dropped out of the top 100 in the most recent update. It was noted yesterday that he just missed the cut.
For some background on how the list is made, the editors at Baseball America all create a Top 150 Prospect list, and they then use an AP style point system where #1 is worth 150 points and #150 is worth 1 point. They then tally up the numbers to create a Top 150 list as their starting point of a list before sitting down and discussing, debating, and re-working the list into a final Top 100 list. Among those Top 150 lists, the Reds had three prospects get votes from at least one editor, but didn’t make the final Top 100. Jonathan India, as noted above, just missed the list and had some votes. Catcher Tyler Stephenson and pitcher Tony Santillan both also received votes on Top 150 lists, but were on the outside looking in at the Top 100.