5 Reds prospects to watch at High-A Dayton in 2023

3. Reds prospects to watch at High-A Dayton in 2023: Chase Petty

It sounds as if there are some injury concerns with Chase Petty to begin the season. The Cincinnati Reds plan to keep the pitching prospect in Arizona after the teams breaks and heads north. Hopefully, the elbow issues that Petty is dealing with are minimal and this is just precautionary.

If it is, then get ready to watch one of the Reds top prospects take off in 2023. The Reds acquired Petty from the Minnesota Twins prior to last season. In return, Cincinnati shipped Sonny Gray to the Land of 10,000 Lakes.

Petty was known as a fire-baller coming out of high school, which led to the Twins taking him with their first-round pick in 2021. But last season saw Petty take a deeper look into his repertoire with an eye toward becoming a pitcher rather than just a thrower.

Some critics will point to Petty's lack of strikeouts in 2022, and there's merit to that argument. But the one things that really stuck out was the small number of walks issued from a 19-year-old hurler that can touch 100-plus on the radar gun.

In 20 starts, Chase Petty kept his walk-rate below 8.0-percent. That extremely encouraging for such a young hurler, and if the right-hander is able to command his secondary pitches, Petty could be a frontline starter within the next few years.