You tell us!
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This Sunday evening, July 13th, the Cincinnati Reds will make their pick in the 1st round of the 2025 MLB Draft. They hold the 9th overall selection this time around, and it’s a draft class that doesn’t feature an ‘obvious’ selection or three atop it.
In other words, just about every computation and permutation of actual draft order is on the table for the Reds, as the eight picks that go off the board in front of them should have ample variability.
Surely they have their sights on a top target, but they also surely have plans B, C, and D in the event all their favorite targets come off the board before they have their chance.
Several players have seen their names linked with the Reds in the run-up to the draft, of course, be they purely through mock drafts or through writers and analysts doing their deductive work in determining which players the Reds have been scouting the hardest.
Among those are uber-talented prep right-hander Seth Hernandez of Corona High School (CA). He’s the kind of talented high school righty who has teams sniffing around using the #1 overall pick to select him even though no team has ever used the top pick in the draft on a high school right-handed pitcher. The Reds seem to be one of the teams who’s least averse to drafting and being patient with a guy like Hernandez, though, as their big swing on Hunter Greene years ago revealed.
Auburn University catcher Ike Irish may end up an outfielder, but his offensive profile still has him ranked around the Top 10 overall prospects – and the Reds have been linked to taking him if he’s still around, too.
There’s also Hernandez’s Corona HS teammate Billy Carlson, a shortstop with the type of upside to potentially render Hernandez into the role of ‘former teammate of Billy Carlson’ in the annals of history. He’s got a 70-grade fielding tool with plus bat speed to boot, and will almost certainly be a Top 10 pick by someone – including, perhaps, the Reds.
What say you? Does one of this trio stand out to you as a player in whom the Reds should entrust their future? Or is their another name out there who has piqued your interest that you hope the Reds select?
Let us know in the voting (and comments) below!