Last week in Dayton I was able to speak with Cincinnati Reds outfield prospect Kien Vu. The outfielder was the club’s 9th round selection in the 2025 Major League Baseball draft. He played in Daytona with the Tortugas in the final month of the season and hit .273/.371/.532 in 23 games. This year he’s starting out with the Dragons and has somehow been hit by five pitches in just eight games played.
This article was first sent out to those who support the site over on Patreon. Early access is one of the perks that you could get be joining up as a Patron and supporting the work done here at RedsMinorLeagues.com
Last year was your final year of college, and then, you know, college season ends and you’ve got to wait six, seven weeks now where it used to, you know, the draft was in early June, so there there was not much off time between then and now. What did you do in the I guess the downtime, so to speak, between the end of the college season and the draft last year.
It is a weird time because it’s like it’s full of like anxiety. So right when the season ended, I actually stayed out there in Arizona because we had the combine that was there at the Diamondback Stadium. So pretty nothing really changed for those first few weeks because I would still go to the field every day and hit and throw and whatever I needed to do to get ready for the combine. And yeah, there’s some meetings, workouts, stuff like that out in Arizona. And then right after the combine, I went home and I think there might have been two weeks.
I could be wrong, but there was there was some downtime for sure. And so I went home and I went on a vacation with my family and just kind of spent that time relaxing. Then had the draft and came right right to Arizona.
And how long were you in Arizona before you wound up in Daytona?
Might have been like three weeks. Couple weeks. Yeah.
What was that what that transition like? Because you know you had the combine but then you had you had a little bit of off time before you kind of had to get back into playing games and all that. So what was that like because I feel like that you know you usually don’t do that. You know in high school your season starts and you play two maybe three times a week depending on how things go and then once you get into college the season starts you’re playing three time four times a week all the way to all the way to the end of the season.
Yeah, it’s not I mean honestly that schedule wasn’t too bad because so college we’ll have all of fall. We’ll be playing games all fall and then spring comes around and that season obviously. And then in college right after the season most of us go off and play summer ball somewhere. So we are used to just kind of playing year round.
Then right after the draft that those couple of weeks that I did have off were were nice to kind of reset, but then it was kind of easy to not easy, but it was it was easy to get back into the swing of things once I got back in Arizona. We kind of jumped right into games. We had they have draft camp and bridge camp. And so that’s kind of the transition into playing every day again.
But for me, it wasn’t too bad because I had summer ball a few years before that. We were playing during the fall and the spring. So, I was used to playing kind of year round. So, then by the time I did get shipped off to Daytona, it was kind of just I was playing baseball again. And so I’d say I’d say the biggest adjustment for me was actually this off season that I had from what, November to all the way to February. That’s probably the longest I’ve ever taken off of baseball.
Going from college ball to pro ball. What was that transition like?
It wasn’t too bad. I mean we were just talking about it actually. In pro ball, it’s for the most part you’re facing a Friday guy, a Friday night college starter every single time you go up to bat. Consistency is the hardest part. You’re still going to get your hits and walks and strikeouts, all that stuff. But getting on base as much as you can is the biggest thing I’d say was the hardest part of between pro ball and college. So that that was the biggest adjustment. Playing every day is it’s not too much different than college because even though we’re only playing three four times a week in college, you’re still practicing and lifting every other day. So the wear and tear on your body is pretty similar to college. So, that wasn’t too much of a difference, but I’d say just the level of pitching and the consistency of good pitching that you’re facing was the the biggest part for me.
When you look at yourself as a player, how how do you see yourself?
Yeah, I’m just playing the game hard. I never grew up one of those top prospects or I wasn’t very good in high school. So my whole baseball career has kind of been a grind. I’m not trying to change anything once I get here. Grinding through games has helped me find success on the field.
So, that’s what I’m going to continue to do out here. I will back up my guys on defense. I’ll make the plays and I I’ll try to limit the stupid mistakes. Then when I’m up to bat, I’m just trying to get on base and win games. For me that’s all I can control right now. As soon as I try to hit homers like Duno or make crazy plays out there like guys like Carlos Jorge, it takes me out of my game. Then it kind of it messes with my head and all that stuff. So, I’m just trying to win games, get on base, steal bags. If I run into a couple, I run into a couple, hit some homers here and there, but yeah, I’m trying to win a baseball game.
So, your preload setup at the plate, it’s a little unique. When did you start that? Is there a player you kind of modeled that after, or is it just something you were tinkering around with when you were younger and it just it worked?
Yeah. No, so that’s newer. I started that my sophomore year of college. We had a hitting coach there, Brett Wallace, who kind of noticed some inconsistencies in my hands when I did load. So I used to have more a traditional, like straight up and down bat and every time I loaded my hands were kind of in a different spot.
All we were focusing on was trying to get my hands in a consistent spot. I found that if I kind of just let my bat lay on my shoulder kind of in that deep position, I can kind of just grab my barrel and put it into the same spot every time. So, I grab my barrel and swing. And so, it worked my sophomore year and I was like why change anything when I got here? So that’s been what I’ve been rocking with.