Cincinnati Reds Top Prospect Report – Taylor Trammell

How the Cincinnati Reds top prospects doing entering the 2018 season?

While the Cincinnati Reds had a disappointing end to the 2017 season, there is plenty of reason for hope in the future.  The team is loaded with talented prospects across all of their minor league teams, and many of those players started off with promising starts in their careers.

Let’s take a look at how one of the Reds’ top 30 prospects (per MLB Pipeline at the start of spring training) looks as we head into the 2018 season.

Taylor Trammell (OF)

2017 Stats (Single-A):

Dayton: .281/.368./.450, 24 2B, 13 HR, 77 RBI, 71 BB, 123 K, 41 SB

Trammell was taken in the competitive balance portion of the 2016 draft.  That is the same draft that the Reds selected Nick Senzel at #2 overall, but Trammell’s career trajectory appears more defined.  Trammell was a two-sport star in high school and has acclimated well to professional baseball.

In 2016 Trammell excelled in rookie ball, batting .303 with a .374 OBP.  He stole 24 bases on only 61 games. In rookie ball he looked like a left fielder, but he ended the season as one if the top 100 prospects in baseball.

Defense is the biggest question facing Trammell long term.  He plays center, but he doesn’t look as comfortable there. He looks more like former Saint Louis Cardinal Vince Colemen, than the Reds’ current center fielder, Billy Hamilton.

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Taylor Trammell is in camp with the Cincinnati Reds, but not for the playing time.

More from Reds Prospects

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Trammell is likely going to start the season as the lead-off batter in Double-A Pensacola.  He may end up in the same role at High-A Daytona Beach. It is just a matter of how quickly the Reds want to test Trammell’s development.

Outfielders are throughout the major league roster. Not only do they have four MLB starting level outfielders in Cincinnati, but they just signed Ben Revere to a minor league contract.  That means Trammell has no chance to make his MLB debut this season.

The next level of prospects also block Trammell. Aristides Aquino and Jose Siri are a pair of sluggers that are already on the Reds’ forty man roster.  

Phil Ervin made his MLB debut last season, too.

That means Trammell has plenty of time to develop.  It also means that he will face competition to make the team when he is ready. It may also mean starting the season at Daytona Beach.

Next: Reds pitchers are injured, again!

The long term outlook for Trammell looks great.  He is an OBP machine with plus speed. With defensive development he will be a fixture in Cincinnati for years once he makes the roster.