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    Elly De La Cruz (Photo: Doug Gray)
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    Cincinnati Reds Farm System Offensive Leaders for 2022

    Doug Gray 23

    The season came to an end a week ago when the Louisville Bats closed out the Triple-A season with a victory in Georgia over Gwinnett. They were the last team on the field due to the fact that teams in Triple-A play more games than the other levels do. Today we’re going to take a look back at the top offensive performers from the farm system, and there are two names that dominate the leaderboards.

    Reds Full-Season Leaders

    There are four full-season teams in the Reds farm system. Single-A Daytona, High-A Dayton, Double-A Chattanooga, and Triple-A Louisville. Daytona and Dayton played 128 games, Chattanooga played 136 games, and Louisville played 150 games. That gave some hitters a few advantages in the counting stats over some others.

    StatPlayerTotalLevel(s)
    RunsElly De La Cruz87A+, AA
    HitsElly De La Cruz143A+, AA
    2BElly De La Cruz31A+, AA
    3BElly De La Cruz9A+, AA
    HRElly De La Cruz28A+, AA
    RBIElly De La Cruz86A+, AA
    SBMichael Siani52AA,AAA
    BB%Allan Cerda16.6%A+/AA
    K%Lorenzo Cedrola16.7%AAA
    AVGElly De La Cruz.304A+, AA
    OBPMatt McLain.363AA
    SLGElly De La Cruz.586A+, AA
    OPSElly De La Cruz.945A+, AA

    Like you, I’m shocked to see Elly De La Cruz all over the leaderboard. Of course that’s sarcasm – De La Cruz was one of the best players in minor league baseball this season and put up numbers in the power and speed categories that have rarely been seen in the last 50 years. There are 14 categories here and De La Cruz is on top of nine of them. He finished second in steals with 47 of them, and was 5th in on-base percentage.

    Now, it is worth noting here that Christian Encarnacion-Strand hit 32 home runs on the season, hit .304/.368/.587, and had 114 RBI. But he also spent most of his season in the Minnesota Twins organization so he didn’t qualify for any of the slash-line leaderboards and his counting stats obviously weren’t there within the Reds organization. But if we are simply looking at the season totals he would have tied for the lead in average and doubles (31), and led in home runs, RBI, on-base percentage, slugging percentage, and OPS.

    Reds Rookie-Level Leaders

    The rookie-level leaderboards aren’t as exciting as they used to be. Two seasons ago there were four rookie-level teams. But beginning in 2021 that number was cut in half and now there are only two rookie-level teams in the Cincinnati farm system. That really limits the number of players that could stand out here. The DSL Reds played in 50 games, while the ACL Reds played in 51. Much like the full-season leaderboard, the rookie-level leaderboard is dominated by one guy.

    StatPlayerTotalLevel
    RunsCarlos Sanchez42DSL
    HitsCarlos Sanchez49DSL
    2BAdrian Reyes12DSL
    3BRicardo Cabrera5DSL
    HRCarlos Jorge7ACL
    RBILeonardo Balcazar/Carlos Sanchez26ACL/DSL
    SBCarlos Jorge27ACL
    BB%Carlos Sanchez22.0%DSL
    K%Carlos Sanchez15.4%DSL
    AVGCarlos Sanchez.355DSL
    OBPCarlos Sanchez.506DSL
    SLGCarlos Jorge.529ACL
    OPSCarlos Sanchez.948DSL

    Of the 14 categories we’re looking at, Carlos Sanchez was on top of eight of them. Carlos Jorge was on top of another three. Maybe name your kid Carlos if you want them to be good at baseball? Last season it was Jorge that was dominating the leaderboard and he didn’t exactly have a let down this year when he moved up to the Arizona Complex League.

    Doug Gray
    Doug Gray is the owner and operator of this website and has been running it since 2006 in one variation or another.

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    23 Responses

    2. Editorial comment here. The rookie league leaders show the down side of the draft being pushed back to the all star break in what is more about marketing the game than anything, akin to the NBA draft production. I get the need to market the draft and the players but it really requires fans to wait to get a decent look at the playersfrom a smattering of games in August to the following spring at the earliest and often until rookie leagues start up again in June. Talk about delayed gratification.

      That said, we are getting a more focused look at the rookie leagues than in the past, with a big lense on the kids who are international signings. That’s a big plus for me, given how many true stars we have these days that were international signings. I’m for anything that can make the complex leagues look less like abstract art.

      1. It’s truly incredible to me that they’ve pushed the draft back. Every single person that actually works in baseball hates it. The only people who “like” it are the marketing people, and even they don’t understand that it will never be an actual event. This isn’t the NFL or NBA – no one is being drafted and stepping into the league on day one and performing. By the time almost any of the drafted players reach the big leagues most die-hard fans couldn’t even tell you when that player was drafted. It’s just the dumbest thing ever.

        1. Here’s another reason for how dumb it is. A solution would be a fall rookie league, right? But that extends the season even farther when you don’t want that for HS and college kids. A true sign of stupidity is when the solution is even more stupid.

        2. Amen Doug. I never got/get the attempt to make the MLB draft a big show. That cut out ballpark having some top picks there to go to a podium was silly/embarrassing.

          As you noted, NFL and NBA have instant-impact players, so the hype is real and can mean a terrible team improves quickly. The NHL much less so, but still a bit more hype than MLB drafts.

          MLB draft is a big nothing burger entertainment-wise (TV/streaming), but is a big deal to scouts, GMs, and die-hard fans, even if we know it may be 3, 4 or 6 years before this 18 year-old or 21 year-old make any real impact at MLB level…if they ever do. At least we can dream.

      1. I don’t know, but you just gave me an idea for an article…. so stay tuned to actually find out.

    4. Been said before, but Carlos Jorge will be fun to watch moving forward. He struck out overall about 26% of the time, but his last 21 games only 21%. He also walked on the season about 16% of the time. And slugged 500+.

      Theoretically, Daytona with all these young guys and Louisville with all these prospects on the cusp of MLB should have solid offenses to look forward to.

      1. I’m leaning towards Hecter Rodriguez starting the year in Daytona, given it’ll be his first year of full season ball and he’s just 18.. And I’ve gotta think Confidan may also be assigned there, at least for the start. Same with Minier. Otherwise, the college guys all go up to Dayton, I’d think. Rogers, Callahan, Faltine, Steiger, Tanner, Hunter, Boyd, and Dunn will make a very nice core group in Dayton.

        1. Now we’re down to 40 man roster cuts, FA’s, and minor league rostering decisions. Those 3 things to me are more exciting than anything that happened on the diamond in the last 2 months.

    6. Adam Dunn, though he did have a few weeks stay in AAA and Reggie Sanders who came directly from AA are the last two Reds impact players to go to the big leagues. Barrero has been such an offensive disappointment I think Elly has a chance to get there out of Spring Training.

      3. De La Cruz is not close to ready to play SS in MLB.

        He will get there, but he needs at least half a season to clean up the footwork and decisions that lead to unnecessary throwing errors. That’s the vast bulk of a sub-.940 fielding percentage. You can’t play SS in the majors with that many mistakes, even if a non-trivial number of them are on out of zone plays. Again, he will get there with time, and not a lot of it – no need to move him to OF – but he ain’t ready now.

        People need to understand this about De La Cruz: if you promote him now, he’s Jason Heyward with some more steals and likely stays that way. Good player in his 20s. But if you wait even a single season you might have a Hall of Fame shortstop.

        The MLB team is awful. It will be awful to middling next year. Don’t turn a potential switch-hitting ARod into Jason Heyward in pursuit of a 75 win season.

    7. Sanchez’ star got eclipsed a bit with the mass influx of prospects. But he’s 17 and you have to think he may grow more from his current listed size of 6’0, 177. Bats left, throws right and plays CF (so far), and had 40 BB’s to go with 28K’s.

      Between Sanchez at AZ next year and Hecter Rodriguez in Daytona, there seems to be some solid hit tool guys in the lower minors’ outfields. And that’s before the power guys such as Almonte, Confidan and Valdez, not to mention the infielders. Hit the deck!

    8. It will be interesting to see how Collier fares next year. DG has him as #2 on the prospect list, if I’m remembering correctly. He hit well out of the gate this year, but it was a really small sample. Even given his youth, it would be nice to see him progress quickly. And next year, we find out if all the prospects acquired this year are what they seemed to be. Right now, the Reds’ minor league teams look to be more interesting in 2023 than the parent club.

      1. Collier is going to mash wherever he starts (reasonably of course). He flat out can hit. Age 17 in JuCo and the Cape Cod League? Gonna enjoy watching Collier and Stewart compete, between themselves as well as the other 17-18 year olds. Hecter Rodrigues. Carlos Sanchez. Braylen Minier, with Cabrera, Balcazar. Jorge. Arroyo. Acosta. Almonte. Valdez. Ascanio. Maybe, Jackson Miller.

      1. McLain. Only one c. But yes, good game for him. It’d be excellent if he could boost the average even a small amount while holding the walk rate and anything close to the power.

        The plate discipline is there, but it was a problem this year of freezing on off speed and swing and miss on the inside black. It’s all fixable, and that’s why extra ABs in the fall sunshine are an excellent opportunity for him.

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