The high school baseball season and college baseball season both have about a month or less remaining. That means it really is time to start paying attention to guys for the draft, which isn’t going to take pace for another two months.
The Cincinnati Reds will be drafting 9th overall this year and that pick has a bonus pool value of $6,513,800. That’s lower than where they’ve selected in the 1st round in the last two years when they took Chase Burns 2nd overall and Rhett Lowder 7th overall. The two years prior to that saw them take Cam Collier with the #18 pick and then Matt McLain with the #17 pick.
In Baseball America’s latest mock draft, released earlier today, they note that there’s very little separation in this class from the top group. It seems that unlike a typical year when the top two or three guys are on a different level, you might be able to get a guy 10th who compares with the guy that goes 1st or 2nd in the draft.
Keith Law of The Athletic released his first mock draft last week. He, like Baseball America, notes that at this point things are very unsettled – even at the #1 spot – and it makes things rather tough at this point to feel comfortable saying “this is how it’s going to work out” when July rolls around.
Those two mock drafts have the Reds going in different directions. One of them has Cincinnati selecting outfielder Jace LaViolette out of Texas A&M. The other has the club taking left-handed pitcher Kade Anderson out of LSU.
In some ways the 2025 season has been a big step forward for Kade Anderson, but in other ways it hasn’t been. The draft-eligible sophomore has lowered his ERA from his freshman season a bit, going from 3.99 last season to a 3.66 mark as I type this. He’s made 13 starts and thrown 76.1 innings, and he’s cut his walk rate in half with just 20 walks this season and he’s racked up 124 strikeouts so far. Where he’s run into problems in 2025 that he didn’t in 2024 is giving up home runs. Last season he had just three home runs allowed in 38.1 innings. This season he’s allowed 14 home runs.
From a stuff perspective he’s god two above-average pitches in both his fastball and his curveball. The curveball can be a plus offering and is his best pitch. He also has a change up, but it’s a pitch that needs some refinement.
Jace LaViolette at one time was rated the #1 prospect in the draft by Baseball America. He entered the season with 50 home runs in his first two years at Texas A&M. In 50 games this season his power has been down – he’s hit just 17 home runs after having 29 last year in 68 games. But it’s not just the power that’s down, he’s hitting just .274 and his strikeout rate remains much higher than you want to see from a college hitter. The upside, though, remains sky high. He’s got a chance to stick in center field and hit for plus power. That’s a rare combination that have.
It seems like no one at the top has really made up their mind. And that is going to cause a trickle-down issue for the rest of the draft, too. Not knowing who may or may not be there gives teams a much larger pool of guys that they are still paying attention to at this point in the year compared to most years. With the draft being pushed from mid-June to mid-July, it’s changed the timeline for when you really start to hear the rumors of who could be asking what, who could be rising and falling based on bonus demands. At the #9 spot the Reds are in a spot with a ton of possibilities ranging from potentially getting a top talent to maybe a situation where with the type of draft class it is to taking a guy with lower demands who can save them money to spend over the next few rounds to get higher quality guys there.
