The Cincinnati Reds and the Boston Red Sox have completed their trade from earlier in the summer that sent Tommy Pham to Boston at the trade deadline. Cincinnati has acquired corner infielder Nick Northcutt to complete the deal.
The 23-year-old has split his time this season between High-A Greenville (not to be confused with Greeneville, where the Reds used to have a team) and Double-A Portland. The Red Sox selected Northcut out of Mason High School (yes, the one right outside of Cincinnati) in 2018 in the 11th round. He’s worked his way up through their system over the past few seasons , showing a big power breakout in 2021 when he hit 32 doubles and 17 home runs in 96 games.
This season he began the year in Greenville where he played in 77 games in the first half and hit 13 doubles with 26 home runs. The power stayed on the positive side of the ledger. But he struggled to hit for average with a .223 mark, and he also had a low on-base percentage thanks to the low average and having just 21 walks to go against 114 strikeouts.
In late July he was promoted up to join Double-A Portland. He’s now played in 26 games there and it’s been a lot more of a struggle. He’s hitting .208/.245/.376 with five doubles and four home runs. The walk rate is down as he’s had just four of them in 106 plate appearances, and his strikeout rate remains very high as he’s fanned 37 times.
With Northcut, the Reds are certainly adding some premium power to the farm system. He’s got plus power and he can use it. But the rest of his offensive game is going to need to improve. With just 25 walks and 151 strikeouts this season to go along with a .219 average and a .276 on-base percentage things will have to improve – either walking more, or striking out less, or ideally improvements in both areas – if he’s going to continue to climb the ladder and find success at the plate. You can see his career stats here.