Reds prospect Rece Hinds had heckuva debut for Double-A Chattanooga Lookouts

The Cincinnati Reds promoted one of their top outfield prospects, Rece Hinds from High-A Dayton to Double-A Chattanooga yesterday, and he did not disappoint in his debut.

Hinds, who'd been with the Dayton Dragons all season, was added to the Chattanooga Lookouts' roster on Tuesday. The Dragons' season had come to a close, and the promotion to Double-A would allow Hinds to gather some extra at-bats before the offseason.

The former second-round pick wasted little time proving that the jump in competition was no problem at all. Hinds went 2-for-4 with a home and a double while playing right field for the Lookouts in their 6-2 victory over the Tennessee Smokies.

Reds prospect Rece Hinds had a heckuva debut for Double-A Chattanooga.

Rece Hinds has seen some changes this season. The 22-year-old changed positions earlier this spring going from third base to the outfield. The Cincinnati Reds had hoped that the move would cut down on the wear and tear that had resulted in several injuries for Hinds during his firs couple seasons in the organization.

Heading into 2022, Hinds had played just 67 game despite being drafted in 2019. But, a hamate injury took Hinds out of action for about two months. Hinds landed on the IL in late-June and did not return until August 15th when he played for a week at the Arizona Complex League.

Hinds then was able to get into 14 games with the Dayton Dragons before the High-A season came to a close. Hinds hit .218 in those 14 games and blasted seven home runs. He also went down swinging 22 times. Despite a 36.7% strikeout-rate during that span, Hinds was still able to record a wRC+ of 104 according to FanGraphs.

The Cincinnati Reds are lacking top-level outfield prospects. Rece Hinds is lumped in with Austin Hendrick, Allan Cerda, and Yerlin Confidan. All four have tremendous power and athleticism, but they all need to improve their pitch recognition and cutdown on the strikeouts in order to make it to the big leagues.

Rece Hinds will have a handful of games remaining this season and then head into the offseason with a lot to work on. It was good to see Cincinnati make the decision to move Hinds to the outfield prior to this season, and now the Florida native just needs to stay healthy. There's a lot to like about Hinds' game.