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    Cincinnati Reds #15 Prospect: Sheng-En Lin – Pitcher/Infielder

    Doug Gray 13

    In the summer of 2023, long after the signing period began for amateur free agents on the international market, the Cincinnati Reds swooped in and signed Sheng-En Lin out of Taiwan. He had just graduated high school and was valued as a high-end prospect as both a pitcher and a position player. At the time of his signing he was still just 17-years-old and he only got on the field in nine games for the ACL Reds – seeing action at shortstop and center field in his brief amount of playing time.

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    When the 2024 season began for Sheng-En Lin he was back in Goodyear with the Arizona Complex League Reds. This time he was mostly playing third base, but did see some action at shortstop as well.

    As the plate he got off to a hot start, running off a 5-game hitting streak with more walks than strikeouts in early May. After going 0-6 in the two games that followed, he went 9-24 (.375) to finish out the month. His hot hitting carried over into June as he hit .318 with 12 walks to go along with 24 strikeouts in 19 games. He only slugged .429, but did pick up his only home run of the season on the 26th.

    Things went well in the first part of July, too. In the first eight games he played in he hit .345. But in the final eight games of the month (and the regular season) he went 6-31 (.194) and had 17 strikeouts.

    In most cases this is where we would end the “season review” part of the write up. But not in this one. While the regular season was only spent as a position player, when that season ended the teams in Arizona played a “bridge league” that continued on in a bit more of a controlled environment that at times was treated a bit more like spring training games are. In that part of the year, Sheng-En Lin headed to the mound where he pitched in preparation for the 2025 season where he’s expected to pitch and then serve as a designated hitter on days when he doesn’t pitch.

    For all 2024 Season Reviews and Scouting Reports – click here (these will come out during the week throughout the offseason).

    Sheng-En Lin Scouting Report

    Position: Infield/Pitcher | B/T: L/R

    Height: 5′ 11″ | Weight: 185 lbs. | Acquired: International FA (2023) | Born: September 1, 2005

    As a non-pitcher, Sheng-En Lin is still positionless in a sense. He’s spent time in center, shortstop, and at third base in his career. Much of that was at third base in 2024, but two years into his career he’s only played 32 games at the position and has a .905 fielding percentage there – which is the best of any of the three spots he’s played. And in 2025 he’s not expected to play in the field as he will be moving to the mound and serving as a designated hitter when he’s not pitching.

    At the plate he hit .308 with a .418 on-base percentage and a .419 slugging percentage this past season. On the surface that’s a good average and on-base percentage. The slugging percentage is low and even more so when you consider both the league itself being very hitter friendly and the fact that he also hit .308.

    He can use the entire field, and he already does. He’s still young – he just turned 19 in the offseason – but right now his power is to the pull side and if he’s going to get more out of his fringe-average raw power then he’s going to need to pull the ball more than he currently is.

    What he’s also going to have to do is make more contact. While he had a good average and he walked plenty, he struck out 32% of the time he came to the plate. That’s a whole lot of striking out. While that rate can be overcome, it almost always is done by players who hit for tons of power and walk at least a decent chunk of the time. There’s not much chance that tons of power is in the future here, so being able to cut down on the strikeout rate – and probably by a significant amount – is going to be key for him as he moves forward at the plate.

    On the basepaths he has stolen 14 bases and been caught just three times in his career. With plus speed that makes sense, but you might also think that with a .411 on-base percentage in 58 games that he would have attempted more steals, too. Of course maybe they are limiting him some in that regard because of the pitching side of things and wanting to be a bit more cautious because there is more hand/arm injury risk with sliding.

    Overall as a position player you could see a guy who is fairly well rounded who has a standout arm and speed with solid pop in his bat. But there’s a long road of development ahead for his bat to get there and while he has the tools to be a quality defender at several positions, which position that could ultimately be remains up in the air. Both the infield and outfield remain options, with Reds senior director of player development Jeremy Farrell telling me earlier this summer that if things on the mound work out that there are some discussions to be had about what makes the most sense for him in the field with regards for keeping him healthiest along with where he could profile the best.

    On the mound there’s no stats to go on. Since signing in the summer of 2023, Sheng-En Lin has not officially pitched in a game. The plan for that is to change in 2025. But the right-handed pitcher did take the mound in the bridge league and instructional league this summer.

    While he has touched 99 MPH in the past as a high school pitcher, out in Arizona this summer he was not quite throwing that hard and was into the mid-90’s with his fastball. He was also throwing an above-average splitter and a solid breaking ball. While the stuff is good on it’s own, what stood out was his ability to pitch. Despite not pitching since early 2023 when he was still 17-years-old, Sheng-En Lin seemed like he didn’t miss any time on the mound. He was mixing his pitches well, throwing strikes, changing speeds to set hitters up and just impressed in his overall pitchability.

    As a pitcher the upside is that of a quality starter who could fit into the middle of a rotation with three average or better offerings who throws plenty of strikes.

    Where things get the most interesting for Sheng-En Lin is if he can be a near-unicorn and be a true 2-way player. It hasn’t been tried all that often over the last 50+ years and Shohei Ohtani is the only example of a player who has truly been able to make it work. A few guys have been pitchers who were used as pinch hitters and occasional fielders and Cincinnati has even had two of those with Michael Lorenzen and before him Micah Owings. There’s a long path between where he’s at now and even reaching the big leagues in any way, but the idea of a guy who can truly be a 2-way player is certainly here and he’s shown glimpses out in Arizona of why it is worth taking the time to see if he can make it work.

    Stats

    Spray Chart

    Video

    Interesting Stat on Sheng-En Lin

    During Day games he hit just .222/.256/.278 with two walks and 16 strikeouts in 40 plate appearances. In night games he hit .331/.454/.456 with 34 walks and 52 strikeouts in 175 plate appearances.

    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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    13 Responses

    2. Happy new year everybody!
      I wonder how the Reds really project Sheng-En Lin as either position-player or pitcher. BTW, he seems to be a really good night-game hitter!

    3. Let’s hope 2025 is a championship year for our Reds and all teams in the system. Happy New Year to everyone.
      Though Lin is young and might still be growing, the history of long term non-success of pitchers below 6’ tall is not in his favor. This tells me that his future might be as a position player.

        1. I there’s a lot of historical selection bias in here. Teams would just move shorter guys to the bullpen because they didn’t think they could be short starters without giving them an actual shot at being a starter. In more modern times (the last two decades or so), we’ve seen more teams give shorter guys a shot to start. And one of the things that also plays better for shorter guys today is that some got moved to the bullpen because teams thought they couldn’t handle a 200+ inning workload. No one is really asked to do that anymore. Granted things have changed in the sense that everyone is basically going full effort now for their 125-150 innings instead of likely going at lesser effort every pitch for 175+, but I think that teams are a lot more willing to see what happens now before moving a guy just because he’s not 6′ 2″.

        2. A lot of the success has to do with the plane of the swing and the potential natural horizontal drop of the pitch from a shorter pitcher. The ball has a longer path through the bats plane path. It was the reasoning behind lowering the mound after 1968 to give the hitters a. Extra advantage.

        3. I’m not too worried about Lin’s height. For one, he just turned 19 and may still grow a bit. And, as Doug notes, he wouldn’t be asked to pitch 300 innings or 28 complete games like Bob Gibson, who himself was listed at 6’1″.

          Lin is a tad bigger than Pedro Martinez. There are, of course, about 19 million other American men who are 5’11” and who could not pitch like Pedro.

          He’s a unicorn of a prospect, so there isn’t much point the Reds (or us) forming any long-term opinions about him. Let’s just see what happens.

        4. I’m going all throwback here, but Juan Marichal is listed at 6′ and that always struck me as generous. I only saw him once live, and he just seemed a tad smaller than the rest of the players in the field. Of course, McCovey was huge, and Juan was as comparatively slight as the middle infielders.

          If Lin is solidly built, and has an extreme training regime (think Lincecum) he’s plenty big enough.

          What we may not see again is a Fredie Norman type.

    4. He is bulkier than I assumed him to be. Give him a chance as far as he can make it as a two way player.

    5. Given his time spent in Arizona in 2024, and his positive scouting report pitching in the bridge league, I wonder if the plan is to move him to Daytona in 2025 right out of the gate, or if he starts again in Arizona in 2025 with maybe a callup to full season ball a little later in the season. My gut says Daytona, but he’ll still only be a teenager.

      1. I am totally guessing here, but if you forced me to bet on it, I would bet on the ACL to begin the year – especially since it now begins in early May instead of June. Of course, I’ve been wrong plenty before and will likely be wrong again, too.

    6. I really don’t know what his best future is, but I doubt we are developing Othani 2.0. It feels more likely that we are developing Lorenzen 2.0. I wonder how good Lorenzen may have hit if he were developed in the same manor as we are trying with Lin.

      It maybe a mistake in player development, and we should instead focus in on his best skill set. However if it turns out well, it may open up the doors to other players with similar skill sets.

      I also keep thinking that if we allowed Greene to also play SS and pitch he wouldn’t have become the SP we saw last year.

    7. Reds are same old sorry reds. Castellini won’t spend any money. Outfielders need help BAD. Does anyone else notice there always in on players after they sign. Won’t spend or nobody wants to play here????

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