The Cincinnati Reds drafted Sean Buckley out of St. Petersburg College in the 6th round of the 2011 draft. Buckley is the son of Reds scouting director Chris Buckley, but don’t think that the pick was nepotism as draft services had him as a 5th-7th round picks heading into the draft. At 6′ 4″ and 220 lbs., Buckley had size and power potential to go along with some athleticism.
He headed out to Billings and hit quite well with a .289/.372/.551 line to go along with 14 home runs in 258 plate appearances. He struggled mightily at third base though with the Mustangs as he posted an .885 fielding percentage. Looking deeper in the numbers he struggled a bit with the strikeouts as he had a 28.3% strikeout rate with the Mustangs to go along with a walk rate of 8.9%.
In 2012 things began rough as he missed out on some of spring training because he needed an appendectomy. He really never was able to get things going either as he finished up the 2012 season with a .244/.307/.413 line in 469 plate appearances with 33 walks and 139 strikeouts. His strikeout rate jumped up slightly, but his walk rate took a hit as it dropped to 7.0%. He would still flash the power tool, but with the exception of June he struggled to hit. He did make the defensive transition across the infield to first base, and even got a handful of games in left field.
For as rough as 2012 was, the 2013 season was worse. It wasn’t worse because of any performance though, it was worse because of injury leading to a lack of any kind of performance. Buckley headed into the regular season, from what I was told, nursing an elbow injury. He went on to play the first week of the season, going 1-19 with a walk and 2 hit-by-pitches and he didn’t play again the rest of the season after being placed on the Bakersfield Blaze disabled list on the 11th of April.
His 2012 season saw him have struggles with health early on in the spring and never recover. The 2013 season barely got started before he was on the disabled list for the rest of the year. Heading into the 2014 season Buckley will be two full years removed from having a good season at the plate, nearly a full season removed from playing games and he will be 24-years-old and likely starting at the Advanced-A level. Fairly or unfairly, I do believe that it will be a huge year for Buckley in determining how his future plays out. At 24, he is at an age where guys need to be reaching the upper minor leagues and producing. He is a bit behind schedule because of his injury, and with his age if he starts producing he won’t be held back. But with all of the things working together, 2014 is a pivotal year for him to start showing some of what he showed in Billings during the 2011 season.