Cincinnati Reds prepare for the Rule 5 Draft with roster moves

The Cincinnati Reds added six prospects to their forty man roster to prepare for the Rule 5 Draft.

The Cincinnati Reds added the six prospects that they want to protect from the Rule 5 Draft to the forty man roster.  Last year, the Reds added Barrett Astin.  Then they exposed him to waivers during the season.

The headline player of the six is Shed Long.  He is a second baseman that split his time between High-A and Double-A last season.  In 104 total games he batted .281 with an OBP of .358.

Outfielder Jose Siri is what you would call the sexy prospect,  He is a power hitting outfielder, hitting 24 home runs and driving in 76 RBIs.  He spent all of 2017 in Dayton playing for the Dragons, setting a Midwest League hitting record for consecutive games along the way.

The third position player is super utility man Alex Blandino.  Blandino was a first round draft pick in 2014.  After a rough 2016 season, Blandino rebounded in 2017 in no small part thanks to switching from shortstop to all over the field defensively,

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Blandino batted .265 with an OBP of .382 while playing for both Double-A and Triple-A.  He also showed some power hitting 12 and driving in 51.  This solid season moved Blandino to the 25th rank prospect in the Reds’ organization.

The Cincinnati Reds also protected three pitchers from getting selected in the Rule 5 Draft.

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Zack Weiss is the big name of the pitching group.  He missed the 2016 with elbow surgery after starting the season in the big league camp.  In 2017 Weiss made 34 appearances covering 41 innings, while striking out 56 over two different minor league levels.

Right-hander Jose Lopez was one of the other pitchers added to the roster.  The Reds drafted Lopez in the sixth round of the 2014 draft.  He made 24 starts between two different levels going 9-6 over 147 innings, striking out 147.

The final player that the Reds added was starting pitching prospect Jesus Reyes.  He also started across two levels, making 25 starts covering 137 ⅓ innings.  He went 8-9 with an ERA of 3.60 and a WHIP of 1.32.

The Reds signed Reyes out of the Dominican Republic in 2015.  He pitched in both High-A and Double-A in 2017.  He projects to start the season in Triple-A if everything falls into place.

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These are exciting players for the Reds to protect.  Blandino, Long, and Weiss all have solid chances to make their MLB debuts in 2018.  However, if not, 2019 is just around the corner.