Forgotten Reds prospect who was once buried by strikeouts is forcing a new conversation

Austin Hendrick was the Cincinnati Reds first-round pick back in 2020, but has yet to reach Triple-A. Many things have slowed Hendrick's ascension up the minor-league ladder, not the least of which has been a high number of strikeouts. But he's looking to finally put those woes behind him.

Through the first 11 games of the season, Hendrick is hitting .341/.386/.537 with two home runs and 130 wRC+. Moreover, he's kept his strikeout rate to just 27.3% — which is quite the feat for him. If he can keep that up during the first month or two of 2026, he could finally make his way to the Derby City.

Hendrick spent the past two seasons at Double-A Chattanooga and is back in southeastern Tennessee to begin his 2026 campaign. That's not normal. Typically, highly regarded prospects like Hendrick would play 100 games or more at one stop before moving on to the next. Unfortunately, he's had a lot of learning to do along the way.

Reds prospect Austin Hendrick has endured some tumultuous MiLB seasons

He was drafted in 2020, and quickly showed why teams needed to see these high school and college players perform during the season in order to properly evaluate talent. Of course, the coronavirus pandemic caused schools to shutdown sports over the spring, and as a result, several players were probably selected much higher than they should've been.

Hendrick was deployed at Low-A Daytona in 2021, but hit just .211/.380/.388 in 63 games. He repeated Low-A at the outset of the 2022 season, and after 36 games with the Daytona Tortugas, he was bumped up to High-A Dayton. He spent the next 73 games with the Dayton Dragons and then spent all of 2023 at High-A as well. In total, Hendrick spent nearly 300 games in A-Ball and had a combined slash line of just .210/.308/.381 over three minor league season.

Hendrick closed his 2025 season with a bit of a rough path. During his final 30 games of the year, he hit just .204/.283/.359 with an 82 wRC+ and a 36.7% strikeout rate. So far this season, he seems to have quieted his erratic swing-and-miss habits — though old habits die hard.

The Reds have been down this path before. Rece Hinds, Will Benson, and Christian Encarnacion-Strand all struggled with this same issue over the years. Those players (and Hendrick) have massive power, but little-to-no plate discipline. Encarnacion-Strand was recently traded, and both Hinds and Benson may be entering the point of no return if they can't lay off pitches outside the strike zone.

This might be Hendrick's last chance to prove that he's got what it takes, and the Reds would certainly love to see him finally make his way to the upper-level of the minor leagues.

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