May 12, 2023; Miami, Florida, USA; Cincinnati Reds left fielder Jake Fraley (27) looks on from home plate after hitting a three-run home run against the Miami Marlins during the ninth inning at loanDepot Park. Mandatory Credit: Sam Navarro-USA TODAY Sports
What are they saying about the Cincinnati Reds draft?.
Last night the Cincinnati Reds made three selections in the first two rounds of the 2024 Major League Baseball Draft. Their first round pick was Wake Forest right-handed starting pitcher Chase Burns. Later in the night they would select shortstop Tyson Lewis out of Millard West High School in Nebraska for their second round pick and LSU right-handed starting pitcher Luke Holman went to Cincinnati in the competitive balance round B at pick #71 overall.
Today will see the Reds make another eight picks as they go about completing rounds 3-10 of the draft. Tomorrow will conclude the draft with rounds 11-20. Both days of the draft will begin at 2:00pm ET. We’ll have full coverage of all of the remaining picks at RedsMinorLeagues.com if you want to follow along.
But before all of the days action begins, we’re going to look back at Sunday night and see what the national publications and draft analysts are saying about the Reds picks.
Baseball America named the Reds first day as the most interesting draft so far. Cincinnati picked 2nd, 51st, and 71st on the night. But the Reds wound up selecting the 4th, 40th, and 43rd ranked players on Baseball America’s Top 500 prospect list. There’s more to what they wrote, but “the Reds are all-in on developing pitchers” seems to be the key take away.
ESPN’s Alden Gonzalez was asked about which player drafted has the best chance to be an MVP or Cy Young award winner one day and he liked Chase Burns as a potential Cy Young winner.
The hitters at the top of the draft were generally more polished than the pitchers, but if we’re talking about supreme upside, I’m going with Chase Burns, who went No. 2 to the Cincinnati Reds and has drawn comparisons to Skenes. Burns has a fastball that averages 97 to 99 mph and has reached 102, to go along with a hellacious slider. Burns is not as fully formed as Skenes was at this time last year; he needs to establish better command of his fastball and develop a more reliable third pitch. But his ceiling is exceedingly high.
Jonathan Mayo of MLB Pipeline had this to say about the Chase Burns selection:
The Reds were looking at many options and it may have come down to Charlie Condon vs. Chase Burns. In the end, they went for one of the best arms in the entire class, giving them their second straight Wake Forest pitcher taken in the first round (Rhett Lowder in 2023). Burns transferred to Wake Forest and its pitching lab and it had a tremendous effect as he took a step forward with all of his stuff. He has a fastball that touches 100 mph, but it’s his easily plus slider that misses a ridiculous amount of bats.
Three picks down. 18 more to go. While most drafts wind up being made or blown based on how a team’s first round pick turns out, that’s not always the case. But even when it is, the players selected on day two, and every so often on day three can add plenty of value.
Some of the more recent examples there would include guys like Carson Spiers (2020, undrafted in a shortened 5-round draft), Graham Ashcraft (6th round, 2019), the legend that is Ricky Karcher (17th round, 2017), Alexis Diaz (12th round, 2015), Tejay Antone (5th round, 2014), and Tyler Mahle (7th round, 2013).
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