There are a few players out to strong starts this season in the Cincinnati Reds farm system. It might be tough to argue that any of them are out to a better start than Ivan Johnson. The outfielder was Rule 5 Draft eligible this year after Cincinnati left him off of the 40-man roster. Johnson hit .289/.359/.537 in the second half of 2024 after joining Louisville for the final two months of the year. Despite that, no one selected Johnson and the 4th rounder from 2019 remained in the Reds organization.
After a strong finish last season, Ivan Johnson has picked up where he left off. And then some. Last night he picked up two more hits, including a double. The outfielder has started 11 games in Triple-A this season and he’s had a multi-hit game in five of those games. He’s only gone hitless in one of his starts, and he also went hitless in another game – but in that game he walked in his only plate appearance.
For Johnson, his hot start has him hitting .400/.467/.675. He’s gone 16-for-40 with two doubles, three home runs, five walks, 11 runs scored, he’s driven in 11 runs, and for good measure he has gone 4-for-5 in stolen base attempts. Some teams may be regretting their decision to pass over the outfielder right about now.
Johnson lost the 2020 season like all other minor leaguers did. But since then he’s also lost decent chunks of two seasons due to injury. In 2021, 2022, and 2023 he lost at least a month in each year to the injured list. That missed time may have slowed down his development some and slowed down his progression up the ladder.
He’s now 26-years-old, which isn’t exactly young for a player in Triple-A. But he’s also playing the best baseball he’s ever played and he’s doing so at the highest level of the minor leagues. Since arriving in Triple-A last season he’s hit .312/.382/.566 at the level in 59 games. We’re venturing out of the “small sample size” at this point and into the “this guy might be playing his way into the big leagues real soon” kind of situation.
You can see Ivan Johnson’s career stats here.
Tyler Callihan keeps hitting, too
Ivan Johnson isn’t the only Louisville Bat’s hitter that’s getting it done to begin this year. Tyler Callihan extended his hitting streak to six games last night when he went 2-4 against Columbus. It’s just a modest hit streak, but those two hits also extended his on-base streak to 15 games. That’s every game of the season for Callihan. All of that has led to him hitting .328/.406/.557 to start his season.
You can see Tyler Callihan’s career stats here.
Hector Rodriguez finds some patience
When the Reds acquired Hector Rodriguez back in 2022 at the trade deadline from the Mets, he was still just 18-years-old. He was just getting his career started, but he was having a good start to it. Rodriguez had hit for a high average to that point in his career but he was not a player who had shown too much patience at the plate – he didn’t walk much. He also didn’t strike out much.
Since joining the organization, he hasn’t walked much, either. His strikeout rate has gone up a little bit as he’s climbed the ladder, but it’s still quite low. Typically speaking, the more contact you make the lower your walk rate will be simply because your plate appearances aren’t extended as often by a lack of contact.
You can see the career stats for Hector Rodriguez here.
This season, Rodriguez is walking a bit more than he has in the past. He’s played in nine games this season for Double-A Chattanooga. And he’s walked six times. That’s plenty of walking, but for Rodriguez it’s sticking out in a big way. In the 2023 season he never walked more than six times in a given month. Last season he only walked more than six times in a month once – in August he drew seven walks in 26 games. He only walked more than four times in one other month last year.
We’re still in the “small sample size” range here, and it could just be a fluky situation. But if Rodriguez has actually found that he needs to shrink his “swing zone” a little bit and it leads to more walks, it’s likely to also lead to more contact and to better contact overall, too. Put this in the “keep an eye on” tab.