This story was excerpted from Mark Sheldon's Reds Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.
BALTIMORE -- Despite giving up his first home runs in the Minors on Friday, Reds top prospect Chase Burns' professional career is off to an impressive start.
Burns' first two games were particularly eye-opening.
On April 4, Burns pitched four scoreless innings with one hit, one walk and six strikeouts. The right-hander followed that with one earned run, two hits, two walks and seven strikeouts over 3 2/3 innings for his first loss on April 11.
"Chase is off to a solid start," said Reds director of player development Jeremy Farrell. "It was two cold-weather outings where he has shown the ability to throw his fastball for strikes and he punched out almost 50 percent of the batters he faced."
On Friday at Great Lakes, Burns gave up a pair of first-inning home runs to Dodgers Top 15 prospects Zyhir Hope and Kendall George. But no one else reached safely after the first inning, and he retired his last 11 batters.
Over four innings, Burns gave up three earned runs on two hits and two walks with seven strikeouts. According to the Dragons' website, his fastball reached 100 mph at least 10 times.
More importantly, after not pitching professionally last year, when he was the second overall selection in the 2024 MLB Draft, Burns is gaining experience and learning how to handle life as a professional.
¡°I think the thing that I've learned the most from is just really taking care of your body," Burns told Jonathan Mayo on the MLB Pipeline podcast last week. "You're throwing every day, you're at the field every day, and just your workload. As a pitcher, we see a lot of injuries now, and I think people are doing a better job now of taking care of their arms and looking at how many throws we're throwing each day.
¡°That's the biggest takeaway for me, because when you move up, you're going to be on that five-man rotation, and you want to be able to do that. You kind of have to build yourself up for that. I think I've been doing a great job at that."
After growing up in Tennessee, Burns has also adjusted well to pitching in Dayton -- which is about a one-hour drive north of Cincinnati.
¡°Being in Dayton has been exciting. You can definitely feel Reds fans coming from Cincinnati," Burns told Mayo. "All of our games, we'll see a bunch of Reds fans, and Dayton shows out. So it's really exciting. It gives me a huge confidence to see the fans and how much they support a High-A team like that.¡±
Here are other good starts of note in the Reds' system.
Triple-A Louisville
Outfielder Ivan Johnson (NR) already has three home runs in his first 16 games and is batting .340 with a 1.010 OPS and 14 RBIs. Second baseman/left fielder Tyler Callihan (No. 29 prospect in the organization) has four homers while batting .344 with a 1.033 OPS in 17 games.
Double-A Chattanooga
Third baseman Sal Stewart, who is ranked No. 3 in the organization and No. 80 overall, is batting .319 with a .949 OPS and two home runs through his first 12 games entering Saturday. Stewart delivered a big moment on April 12 in Game 1 of a doubleheader vs. Birmingham when he slugged a walk-off grand slam.
Single-A Daytona
Right-handed pitcher Ty Floyd (No. 17), who missed all of last season because of shoulder surgery, has a 4.00 ERA through his first three starts. On April 11, Floyd allowed one run on one hit -- a homer -- over three innings with no walks and six strikeouts. He was the 38th overall selection in the 2023 Draft out of LSU.