Outfielder Rece Hinds hit his 20th home run of season for the Louisville Bats on August 15th. Since then he’s hit three more and has 23 of them on the year in the minor leagues (he also has two home runs with the Cincinnati Reds at the MLB level this season). It took him nearly three more weeks to capture his 20th stolen base of the season for Triple-A Louisville but he was able to do that on September 10th as his torrid month where he’s hit .500 through the first eight games continued.
Being a member of the 20/20 club isn’t new for Rece Hinds. He, along with Blake Dunn, were the last two Reds minor leaguers to have 20/20 seasons when both of them got there in the 2023 season. That year saw Hinds also have 23 home runs and 20 steals. He’s got a week-and-a-half remaining this season to top both of those numbers this year.
Going back to the 1960 minor league baseball season Cincinnati has only had 25 seasons in which a minor leaguer had 20 or more steals and 20 or more home runs in the same year. Rece Hinds is one of three players to have done it twice. The other two guys did it in the same two seasons as Jeff Jones and Gary Redus both went 20/20 in the 1981 and 1982 seasons.
Among those players within the Reds farm system 20/20 club, only one player has reached the two marks while hitting more than 28 home runs. The previously mentioned Jeff Jones hit 42 home runs in his 1982 season. The player with the most stolen bases in a year in which he went 20/20? Well, it’s actually two players. Blake Dunn and Gary Redus (1982) both stole 54 bases during their 20/20 campaign.
In the 2024 season Hinds played in 99 games with Louisville and another 24 games with Cincinnati and had a combined 473 plate appearances. He had 19 home runs between the two stops and he had 22 steals. So close to making it three years in a row with at least 20 home runs and 20 steals.