4 MLB Draft sleepers the Reds should consider before taking Seth Hernandez

The 2025 MLB Draft is just around the corner and it's time to start narrowing down the list players most likely to land with the Cincinnati Reds as the ninth overall pick. The College World Series is underway, meaning we're close to the final draft cycle of the season. Draft boards are shaping up and mock drafts are starting to paint a clearer picture of what to expect when Rob Manfred takes the podium.

MLB Pipeline recently released their latest mock draft. Dating back to late last year, MLB has had a different player landing with the Reds with each new edition of their mock. In December, it was Eli Willits, the switch-hitting 17-year-old shortstop from the prep ranks in Oklahoma. A few months ago, it was Jace Laviolette, the big left handed slugger out of Texas A&M. Jojo Parker, a prep shortstop out of Mississippi was the pick a few weeks back. Now in the latest edition, MLB actually has the best prep pitching prospect in the class, Seth Hernandez, landing with the Reds.

Hernandez has the potential to be very special. We are talking about a pitcher that evaluators have consistently claimed to be the best high school pitching prospect since Jackson Jobe was selected third overall in 2021. A lot of those same evaluators actually claim that Hernandez is better than Jobe. In my personal opinion, it's hard to see a world in which Hernandez is still available when it's the Reds turn to pick. However, MLB.com probably knows something I don't if they have him mocked this far down after getting legitimate first overall consideration earlier this year.

Will Seth Hernandez still be on the board when the Reds pick in the 2025 MLB Draft?

After all, we have seen prep prospects lose stock throughout the season in back to back years now, for no other reason than collegiate prospects shooting up draft boards, specifically during the college postseason. Konnor Griffin, the first prep prospect off the board last year, was in the hunt to go first overall early in the season, and ended up falling to the Pittsburgh Pirates with the ninth overall pick.

Organizations are starting to lean more towards the high-probability, fast-moving college guys, even at the top end of the draft. High school pitchers have historically been the riskiest demographic to select from, so it's not actually out of the realm of possibility for Hernandez to fall as far as ninth overall, regardless of how good he can be.

If Hernandez is in fact available with the ninth overall pick, the Reds could have an interesting decision to make. Hunter Greene, Cincinnati's ace, obviously came from the prep ranks as the second overall pick in 2017. Granted, it took a lot of growing pains and a Tommy John surgery to get there. That's the type of risk the Reds would be running if they wanted to return to the well and select Hernandez.

On top of that, the Reds have leaned heavily on college prospects in the first round that they can under-slot in order to land prep prospects they like later on in the draft. In fact, they haven't taken a prep prospect with their first round pick since 2020. With all of that being said, let's talk about four different players the Reds could pivot to with their first round pick that will allow them to approach the rest of the draft the same way they have over the last few years.