On Thursday evening I was able to get my grubby hands on a whole bunch of video clips out of Goodyear from minor league camp. There will be more added to youtube over the next few days, but last night I was able to get videos of Elly De La Cruz, Rece Hinds, and Jay Allen posted.
Last year’s 30th overall pick in the draft, Jay Allen was considered to be a bit raw on the baseball field because unlike most high-end draft prospects these days he wasn’t focused solely on baseball throughout high school. In his limited action after the draft he showed anything but that as he crushed the ball in the Arizona Complex League, hitting .328/.400/.557 with three home runs in 19 games played. While he did rake last year and certainly isn’t off of anyone’s radar, he feels like a guy who could really take that next step in 2022 with a good showing in full season ball.
When early minor league camp started the Reds were going to be trying Rece Hinds in the outfield. After having some struggles in his limited action at third base (sub .900 fielding percentage), the move did make some sense. It seems like that move may be sticking because while some players are listed as IF/OF on the official Reds spring training roster releases, Hinds is simply listed as outfielder.
Just like in 2021, Elly De La Cruz is once again the talk of the farm system in 2022. While full minor league camp only began a week ago, De La Cruz was in early minor league camp and the tools were catching the eyes of everyone. It will probably be tough to make more of a splash than he did in 2021 when he seemingly came out of nowhere to vault himself into the Top 100 prospects in the game. He is going to be more visible, though. Whether he returns to Daytona or moves up to Dayton – he’s going to get to play a full season in 2022 instead of half of one like in 2021. And if he’s going to start the year in Dayton then thanks to MiLB.tv it’ll be easy to watch him on an almost daily basis.
James Marinan was added to the 40-man roster in November in order to protect him from the Rule 5 draft. Of course the Rule 5 draft never happened thanks to the lockout, but also thanks to the lockout, Marinan hasn’t been in Goodyear for camp. But he’s been putting in the work on his own and it appears he was reaching back for 99 MPH this offseason.
— James Marinan? (@marinan_james) March 10, 2022
Raises for 40-man minor leaguers
We are still finding out some of the things that were negotiated in the latest CBA, but one of the things is that players on the 40-man roster who are in the minors are getting a raise. In the last CBA players with no big league time made $46,600 the first year and then $93,000 for the second and third years. That is being bumped up in the latest deal and it grows each year. Here are the new numbers:
| Year | 1st Year | 2nd/3rd Year |
| 2022 | $57,200 | $114,100 |
| 2023 | $58,800 | $117,400 |
| 2024 | $60,300 | $120,600 |
| 2025 | $62,000 | $123,900 |
| 2026 | $63,600 | $127,100 |