Cody Reed is emerging as a force with the Cincinnati Reds. His strong spring training has transformed him into a potential front-end of the rotation starter sooner than expected.
The soon-to-be 23-year-old, left-handed starter has never thrown an inning of Triple-A ball. Still, his numbers and his stuff don’t lie.
Reed threw eight innings in spring training heading into his third start. He has a 1.13 ERA and a 0.63 WHIP with seven strikeouts. The limited sampling could turn quickly, but his power arm and command make Reed one of the most promising pitchers in the Reds’ organization.
Reed threw 145.2 innings between High-A and Double-A last year. He put up a 2.41 ERA and 1.16 WHIP with 144 strikeouts.
Prior to last year, the story was different for Reed. He gave up 71 earned runs in 113.2 innings between Rookie ball and Low-A. That 5.62 ERA for his first two years in the minors may have factored into the willingness of the Kansas City Royals to include their former second-round draft pick in the Johnny Cueto deal.
Now, Reed is starting to look like the centerpiece of the Cueto trade for the Reds. John Lamb and Brandon Finnegan were the other two left-handed starting pitchers the Reds acquired for the trade deadline rental of Cueto. Both may have futures in the Reds’ rotation, but Reed has surpassed them in potential.
Reed’s success is a good problem for the Reds to have, but it still nonetheless presents a problem. The Reds should want to maximize club control over Reed. That would mean keeping him in the minors most if not all of the 2016 season.
So far Reed is making that hard to justify, even for a team that could lose more than 100 games this year. If the Reds do opt to promote Reed sooner rather than later, it’s clear his promotion should come more towards May to preserve an additional year of service time in the club’s favor.
But the Reds may decide Reed is ready right now. And it doesn’t look like they would be wrong.
Robb Hoff writes about the Cincinnati Reds for OutsidePitch MLB. You can follow him on Twitter and Facebook.
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