Top 36 Prospects: Cincinnati Reds
Below is an analysis of the prospects in the farm system of the Cincinnati Reds. Scouting reports were compiled with information provided by industry sources as well as my own observations. As there was no minor league season in 2020, there are some instances where no new information was gleaned about a player. Players whose write-ups have not been altered begin by telling you so. For the others, the blurb ends with an indication of where the player played in 2020, which in turn likely informed the changes to their report. As always, I’ve leaned more heavily on sources from outside the org than within for reasons of objectivity. Because outside scouts were not allowed at the alternate sites, I’ve primarily focused on data from there. Lastly, in effort to more clearly indicate relievers’ anticipated roles, you’ll see two reliever designations, both in lists and on The Board: MIRP, or multi-inning relief pitcher, and SIRP, or single-inning relief pitcher.
For more information on the 20-80 scouting scale by which all of our prospect content is governed, you can click here. For further explanation of Future Value’s merits and drawbacks, read Future Value.
All of the numbered prospects here also appear on The Board, a resource the site offers featuring sortable scouting information for every organization. It can be found here.
Rk | Name | Age | Highest Level | Position | ETA | FV |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Jose Garcia | 22.7 | MLB | SS | 2021 | 55 |
2 | Tyler Stephenson | 24.4 | MLB | C | 2021 | 50 |
3 | Hunter Greene | 21.4 | A | SP | 2022 | 50 |
4 | Nick Lodolo | 22.9 | A | SP | 2022 | 50 |
5 | Austin Hendrick | 19.5 | R | RF | 2024 | 45+ |
6 | Lyon Richardson | 20.9 | A | SP | 2023 | 45+ |
7 | Jonathan India | 24.0 | AA | 3B | 2021 | 45 |
8 | Tyler Callihan | 20.5 | R | 2B | 2024 | 45 |
9 | Rece Hinds | 20.3 | R | RF | 2024 | 45 |
10 | Michael Siani | 21.4 | A | CF | 2023 | 45 |
11 | Christian Roa | 21.7 | R | SP | 2023 | 40+ |
12 | Jared Solomon | 23.5 | A+ | SIRP | 2022 | 40+ |
13 | Ivan Johnson | 22.2 | R | 2B | 2023 | 40+ |
14 | Tony Santillan | 23.7 | AA | SIRP | 2021 | 40+ |
15 | Jackson Miller | 19.0 | R | C | 2025 | 40 |
16 | José De León | 28.4 | MLB | MIRP | 2021 | 40 |
17 | Vladimir Gutierrez | 25.3 | AAA | MIRP | 2021 | 40 |
18 | Ryan Hendrix | 26.0 | AA | SIRP | 2021 | 40 |
19 | Bryce Bonnin | 22.2 | R | SIRP | 2024 | 40 |
20 | Riley O’Brien | 25.9 | AA | SIRP | 2021 | 40 |
21 | Allan Cerda | 21.1 | R | RF | 2022 | 40 |
22 | Graham Ashcraft | 22.9 | R | SIRP | 2022 | 40 |
23 | TJ Friedl | 25.4 | AA | CF | 2021 | 40 |
24 | Mac Wainwright | 18.4 | R | RF | 2025 | 35+ |
25 | Luis Mey | 19.5 | R | SIRP | 2023 | 35+ |
26 | Jacob Heatherly | 22.6 | A | MIRP | 2022 | 35+ |
27 | Eric Yang | 22.7 | R | C | 2023 | 35+ |
28 | Brandon Bailey | 26.2 | MLB | SIRP | 2021 | 35+ |
29 | Eduardo Salazar | 22.6 | A | MIRP | 2022 | 35+ |
30 | Mariel Bautista | 23.2 | A | CF | 2022 | 35+ |
31 | Miguel Medrano | 23.0 | R | SIRP | 2022 | 35+ |
32 | Noah Davis | 23.7 | R | SP | 2022 | 35+ |
33 | Michel Triana | 21.1 | R | 1B | 2024 | 35+ |
34 | Joe Boyle | 21.4 | R | SIRP | 2024 | 35+ |
35 | Debby Santana | 20.3 | R | 3B | 2023 | 35+ |
36 | Yan Contreras | 19.9 | R | SS | 2024 | 35+ |
Other Prospects of Note
Grouped by type and listed in order of preference within each category.
Sleeper Arms I Like
Reiver Sanmartin, LHP
Jhon De Jesus, RHP
Case Williams, RHP
James Marinan, RHP
Sanmartin has been traded a few times (Texas to New York to Cincinnati). He’s a little low-slot lefty whose tailing fastball and sweeping slider move away from one another in an effective way. He has a shot to end up with plus command and make a roster. De Jesus is a stallion with arm strength — 91-96, touch 98 — and 30 control/feel. Williams is a 2020 draftee who the Rockies picked and sent to Cincinnati as part of the Jeff Hoffman/Robert Stephenson swap. He was in the 88-92 range with middling projection as an underclassman, then was up to 95 in a indoor bullpen environment. Marinan has pedigree as a sinker/slider starter prospect. He was up to 95 in some starts and 88-92 in others.
College-Aged Outfielders With a Carrying Tool
Quin Cotton, LF
Fidel Castro, RF
TJ Hopkins, CF
Lorenzo Cedrola, CF
Cotton was in the third round mix for some clubs coming into his junior spring at Grand Canyon. Scouts hoped a swing change might unlock dormant raw power, and as Cotton tried to make one, he came undone and had a bad year. Now he’s in an org that has lately had some success making swing changes. He has 55 pull power. Castro’s frame is still really projectable for a 21-year-old and he has natural low-ball lift. He’s got a shot to grow into power yet. Hopkins is a senior sign who hit .295/.371/.463 at South Carolina. Cedrola is a speedster without viable strength.
Up-the-Middle Depth
Miguel Hernandez, SS
Errol Robinson, SS
Gus Stieger, SS
Jacob Hurtubise, CF
Wilfred Astudillo, C
Jose Tello, C
James Free, C
Chuckie Robinson, C
Hernandez can still pick it and make an average amount of contact, but hasn’t filled out like I thought he might when he was 19. Errol Robinson, a minor league Rule 5 pick, is like this but a few years older. Stieger is a 2020 undrafted free agent out of South Dakota State. He played against Minnesota on either side of a big college tournament in Minneapolis, got seen there, and looks like a potential infield bench piece. He’s a capable shortstop defender and has fair feel for contact for a small-school hitter. Hurtubise is another 2020 NDFA, from West Point. He can really run and play center field. Astudillo (yes, he’s Willian’s brother) is only 20 and, like his brother, has precocious feel for contact and swings too much. The other two are big-bodied catchers with power. Free signed for $125,000 as an undrafted free agent in 2019. Tello was too old for the 2019 AZL but hit well. Robinson (and Astudillo) was a Rule 5 minor league pick from Houston. He’s hit for power in the past but really can’t catch.
Older Relief Types
Joel Kuhnel, RHP
Francis Peguero, RHP
Kuhnel has a heavy mid-90s fastball when healthy but he’s often not and cleared waivers when he was outrighted off the roster recently. He did have some Rule 5 buzz, though. Peguero was up to 96 in 2019, strong velocity for a lower slot guy, but his breaking ball isn’t great.
Young Dominicans
Junior Tamares, CF
Braylin Minier, SS
Esmil Torres, SS
Tamares is a plus runner with some feel to hit. Last year in this space, I said he needed to get stronger and he has. He has the best physical projection of the three players in this group now. This is an especially relevant group because for over a decade, Cincinnati’s most prominent international talent acquisitions have typically come from Cuba. It’s been the Reds’ M.O. to avoid the teenage demographic and instead sign older Cuban players when they hit the market later in the process. Most of the 2019 17-year-old class had verbal deals long before new International Scouting Director Trey Hendricks arrived. It makes sense then that they ended up with Triana, who hit the market at age 19, and Minier, who popped so late that any info on him is hard to come by since clubs had most of their money committed and had stopped scouting 2019s. Baseball America has noted that Minier was trained by Patrick Guerrero, who used to work under Reds International crosschecker Bob Engle in Los Angeles and Seattle. Minier was the youngest player on the 2020 instructs roster but didn’t end up coming to the US and was noticeably thicker in the D.R. Torres was in the DSL last year. He had a medium frame that has gotten bigger and fuller since signing, good defensive footwork, and a downward-cutting swing from both sides of the plate.
System Overview
This group is pretty shallow, and the Reds’ pro-active pursuit of undrafted free agents during the summer, along with the fact that they made the most selections in the minor league phase of December’s Rule 5 draft, indicates that they know it and are exploring all avenues to add depth. The severely abbreviated nature of the 2020 draft was especially unkind them org for this reason. Nine of the top 17 prospects on this list are either from Cuba or went to school in Georgia or Florida, and several prospects the club has dealt away in recent years have been from there, too.
The Reds cashed in a bunch of chips to be able to compete in earnest in 2020 and they were rewarded with an empty Great American Ballpark because of the pandemic. Now they seem to be in cost-cutting mode, willing to listen to trade offers for some of their talented-but-expensive veterans. The logjam most in need of clearing is at third base, where Eugenio Suárez, Nick Senzel, Jonathan India, and maybe Mike Moustakas can all play. Suárez is due about $10 million annually through 2024 while India and Senzel are still pre-arb and Moose, a better handedness fit with the other two, is signed through 2023. Suárez presents teams interested in Nolan Arenado with an interesting secondary option, and the Reds should try to get a grasp on what the Arenado offers are like to position their asking price for Suárez.
Eric Longenhagen is from Catasauqua, PA and currently lives in Tempe, AZ. He spent four years working for the Phillies Triple-A affiliate, two with Baseball Info Solutions and two contributing to prospect coverage at ESPN.com. Previous work can also be found at Sports On Earth, CrashburnAlley and Prospect Insider.
“The Reds weren’t getting much offense from their middle infield this year, so in late-August they decided to promote Garcia. You’ll never guess what happened next!”