There’s just a week and change left in Augustâ€â€after that calendar page turns every MLB team will be able to bring up any or all of the members of their 40-man roster in their respective minor league systems. The Reds have 14 gentlemen who fit such a description, six of whom are position players.
Barring some shuffling of the 40-man roster’s membership (which should happen to some degree, considering a few names which are currently missing from it), the following players are those who will be eligible to join the expanded Cincinnati ballclub, with their cumulative minor league performance for 2015:
The Hitters
Holy strikeout rates, Batman. Obviously, we’ve seen plenty of Negron at the MLB level this year. Duvall and Skipworth represent a whole lot of power and not much else (although the latter’s walk rate is encouraging). It’s the other three who should provide some reasons of their own to watch the Reds in September. Yorman and Waldrop were in the MLB Futures Game which kicked off the All-Star break and hold plenty of promise. Duran is still a bit raw (though he’s roughly two years older than Jesse Winker), so he may not end up making the trip this season.
Of course this all is to say nothing of the aforementioned crown jewel of the minor league position players, Mr. Winker, and his great form of late.
The Pitchers
Another big name is obviously missing from this list. Robert Stephenson isn’t currently on the 40-man, but he’s also on the Louisville Bats’ disabled list for the time being (although all reports point to him picking right back up where he left off on August 25 or 26).
The MLB performances of Lorenzen, Cingrani, Axelrod, and Contreras have given us a good idea of what to expect should they reappear in Cincinnati in September. Josh Smith and Amir Garrett have put up the most impressive lines overallâ€â€the former seems nearly certain to return next month, but the latter is the one to get excited about. His distance from the majors not withstanding, having Garrett make his MLB debut next month would make for appointment television-watching.
This is just an update, and one which will almost certainly be needing an update of its own in a week or so. Looking at the numbers above, it seems like a whole bunch of “meh” peppered with a little bit of good and a dash of great. But, as it’s been for weeks now, this season is no longer about this year. The fun part is just going to be watching these kids get to know each other and learn to play together for the next month-plus.