Cincinnati Reds: Projecting Triple-A Louisville Bats’ starting lineup

What will the Reds’ Triple-A affiliate, Louisville Bats, starting lineup look like?

A few of the players who descended on Goodyear, Arizona back in February have already been reassigned to minor league camp. The Cincinnati Reds‘ front office and coaching staff will soon be making decisions on who will be on the team’s 26-man roster to start the 2021 season. Several of the players who are left off the Opening Day roster will find their way onto the Louisville Bats.

The Louisville Bats have been the Reds Triple-A affiliate for nearly the last two decades. A short drive down I-71, Louisville, a city rich in baseball history, has been a key part of the Cincinnati organization and helped produce such stars as Joey Votto, Jay Bruce, Aroldis Chapman, Eugenio Suárez, and Nick Senzel.

While this year’s minor league season will look a little different, we’re still likely to see several future major leaguers don a Louisville Bats jersey and find their way onto the turf at Slugger Field. The Bats’ Opening Day was pushed back to May 4th.

Louisville was initially scheduled to begin play in April, but MLB cited the the likelihood of minor league players becoming eligible for a COVID-19 vaccination before the start of the season as a primary reason for the delay to the 2021 season.

The delay will change the way the Bats’ Opening Day lineup may shake out, but we’ll do our best to predict who’s likely to begin the 2021 season at Triple-A Louisville. Several of the players mentioned may have shot to make their big league debut for the Reds this coming season as well.