MLB mock draft has Reds leaning into strength that keeps paying off

We're getting to the point of the year where the college baseball season is in full swing, and executives around the league are beginning to put together their big boards. Nick Krall, Brad Meador, and Co. are surely hard at work for the Cincinnati Reds, and it's worth considering which direction they might go at this point.

That's what Jim Callis of MLB.com did for us with his newest mock draft. In this exercise, the draft guru projects the Reds to pick University of Arkansas left-handed starter Hunter Dietz.

Callis points out that though the 21-year-old is in his third season with the Razorbacks, and had pitched just 1⅔ innings prior to 2026. No matter, he's racked up an impressive 108 strikeouts in 72⅔ frames with a 3.22 ERA.

"If he keeps this up, he could climb into the top 10," Callis wrote, showing the type of potential Dietz has, while also highlighting how much of a steal he could be should he remain in this range, available for Cincinnati's taking at pick No. 18.

Mock draft sees Reds duplicate a familiar strategy

If there are two things we expect the Reds to target early, it's collegiate starters and high school shortstops. On the starter front, the Reds have used first-round picks on Rhett Lowder and Chase Burns out of the college ranks in 2023 and 2024, respectively, breaking the streak only to select Steele Hall (high school shortstop) last season.

Add in the fact that, they picked Nick Lodolo out of TCU in the first round back in 2019, and although not a first-round pick, they used a second rounder on Andrew Abbott coming out of the University of Virginia in 2021, and you can see the value they place on these kinds of arms.

Four-fifths of Cincinnati's ideal rotation when everyone is healthy is made up of college arms drafted in the first two rounds. The Reds have found that these types of pitchers tend to be fast risers, with Chase Burns' breakneck pace from drafted to ace serving as the prime example of what these types of pitchers can do.

Dietz looks to be something of a left-handed version of Burns. Baseball America (subscription required) has Dietz ranked as the No. 31 prospect in the class. They note his 6-foot-6, 235-pound frame, high-octane fastball that sits 95 and runs up to 98 mph, and two additional plus pitches in a slider/cutter hybrid and a high-spin curveball as reasons to believe in the youngster despite his injury-plagued first two seasons.

It's still early, and given the glowing reviews, there's definitely a chance that Dietz is gone before the Reds are on the clock, but if he's there, he looks like a solid pick. More than that, the continuation of this sort of strategy is a strong way to build a team, given the success that the Reds have had thus far.

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