The Cincinnati Reds have signed 2025’s 2nd round draft pick Aaron Watson. He agreed to a signing bonus of $2,750,000 according to Jim Callis of MLB.com. The slot value for the #51 pick was $1,891,200.
Update: The Reds have also signed 8th round pick Kyle McCoy today. Information about his signing has been added below.
Aaron Watson, a right-handed pitcher out of Trinity Christian Academy in Jacksonville, Florida has a lot of projection in him. Listed at 6′ 5″ and 205 lbs his fastball is already touching 96 MPH and could gain more as he fills out his frame. He mixes both a 4-seam and 2-seam fastball with an above-average slider in the mid-80’s as well as average offerings with both a curveball and a splitter.
He has shown quality stuff. But he also showed good control and an ability to throw all of his pitches for strikes. His secondary stuff can be a little inconsistent at times and will need to improve in that aspect as he develops and moves through the farm system.
“He’s a big kid, good projection to him,” said Reds scouting director Joe Katuska on draft night. “6 foot 5, 6 foot 6. Up to 96 MPH with a really good sinker. It’s a sinker/slider/change up profile. Really good projection. We had a chance to scout him all spring and really like the upside there.”
Cincinnati got left-handed pitcher Kyle McCoy to sign for just under the slot value of his pick, saving the team $2,500 on their pool allotment. McCoy returned from Tommy John surgery in 2025 and posted a 3.32 ERA for Maryland in 84.0 innings. The 6′ 6” lefty averaged 91 MPH on his fastball this past season and has a good slider to go with a solid change up.
With the overslot bonus going to Watson and slightly underslot on Kyle McCoy, Cincinnati’s draft pool now has an additional $86,600 in it before going into their overage spending. The signing deadline is July 28th at 5pm ET.
Cincinnati has not yet signed 15th round pick Andrew Shaffner out of NC State, 18th rounder Ethan Moore, 19th rounder Myles Upchurch, or 20th rounder Leamsi Montanez.
Both Ethan Moore and Myles Upchurch have indicated they were going to college. And given the types of talents they were entering draft day there’s just no way there is enough money in the Reds draft pool to entice either of them to sign. If we account for the Reds using their 5% overage allotment, they could sign any single player remaining for $828,440. They would have $676,440 left to spread out to players that remain unsigned beyond the $150,000 they can give them before money begins to count towards their pool allotment.
You can follow all of the draft picks and signings here at the Cincinnati Reds 2025 Draft Tracker.