C. Notes: Chase Burns' rapid rise to the majors fits a trend

New York Times

23-06-2025

When Chase Burns takes the mound in his big-league debut for the Cincinnati Reds on Tuesday against the New York Yankees, he will be at least the sixth player from the 2024 draft to debut before the 2025 draft begins.
Most famously, the Pittsburgh Pirates' Paul Skenes, the top pick in 2023, not only debuted in the big leagues the year after he was drafted, but also started the All-Star Game in 2024. Ten of the 39 first-rounders from 2023 have already debuted, one (the Los Angeles Angels' Nolan Schanuel) debuted the same year he was drafted and six debuted last season, including Skenes and the Reds' Rhett Lowder.
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'I think it is a little bit of a trend in the game recently where players have been moving through the minor leagues faster,' said Joe Katuska, the Reds' director of amateur scouting. 'But 11 months out from the draft, having four or five guys up already is, I'd say, more than you'd expect.'
Nobody doubted Skenes would move quickly toward the big leagues, but he wasn't alone. At the time of the 2023 draft, there was a group of five players — Skenes and outfielders Dylan Crews, Max Clark, Wyatt Langford and Walker Jenkins — expected to go at the top of the draft. All three of the college players taken in the top five reached the big leagues last year, while the two high schoolers (Clark and Jenkins) are taking a more traditional route. Only one of the five top 14 picks who haven't made the majors (Arizona Diamondbacks shortstop Tommy Troy) was a college player.
Against that backdrop, the 2024 class appeared less talented and deep than the draft class the year prior. While Skenes was the easy pick at No. 1 in 2023, there wasn't much separation between the next four.
Last year, the expectation for the Reds, picking second, was that they'd take Oregon State second baseman Travis Bazzana or Georgia's Charlie Condon, who dominated college baseball at the plate. Instead, the Reds took Burns, the right-hander from Wake Forest. That choice drew skepticism from many. Those who panned the pick may be having second thoughts.
'I think by the time we were actually making the picks, last year's class was better than we thought it was coming into the year,' Katuska said.
Right-hander Ryan Johnson, whom the Angels took with the final pick of the second round (74th overall) last year, pitched on Opening Day this year before ever throwing a minor-league pitch. After 14 relief appearances in the big leagues, he started in High A in May.
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Outfielder Cam Smith of Florida State, who went to the Chicago Cubs with the 14th pick and then to the Houston Astros in the Kyle Tucker deal, made the Astros' Opening Day roster.
Wake Forest first baseman Nick Kurtz, the fourth overall pick, debuted for the Oakland Athletics in April. Jac Caglianone, the Florida Gators slugger, went sixth overall to the Kansas City Royals and earned a promotion earlier this month. Christian Moore, the Angels' eighth overall pick out of Tennessee, followed on June 13.
'That top seven, we talked about all of them and we scouted all of them,' Katuska said. 'There was a narrative for a while that at pick two, you're just supposed to take whoever is left of Bazzana or Condon and we thought it was a wider group than that the whole time.'
Some inside the organization favored Caglianone, some were extremely high on Kurtz and plenty liked Bazzana and Condon. In the end, the Reds went with Burns, a player who could've been a first-round pick out of high school but chose to attend the University of Tennessee instead. After two years with the Vols, Burns transferred to Wake Forest, known for its pitching development.
Burns impressed not just with his stuff in spring training, but also with how he carried himself inside the big-league clubhouse.
Just as they did with Lowder the year before, the Reds shut Burns down after the draft and he didn't make his professional debut until this year. Lowder showed him the Reds were good to their word that he could get to the big leagues quickly if he took care of business in the minors.
Burns did more than that. He sailed through the Reds' minor leagues, making three starts at High A, eight in Double A and two in Triple A before getting the call-up. Over his 66 minor-league innings, he struck out 89 batters and walked only 13. Of those 13, four were during his first Triple-A start and two were the first batters he faced. Six more of the walks were in his first four outings, leaving three walks over his other eight starts.
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'How many times have I said we go after the best available player? That we build up the middle, starting pitching profiles — you guys are all sick of hearing me say it, but that's our process,' Katuska said. 'It's what we believe gives us the best chance to get the best players and put the best team on the field. We thought Chase was the best guy there with our pick.'
And by Tuesday, he'll be a big leaguer.
Matt McLain started at second base, batting second on Opening Day. That was no surprise, considering his performance as a rookie in 2023. After missing all of the 2024 season following shoulder surgery, the team saw McLain as a big reason for optimism leading into 2025.
But after a year off, McLain started slowly. Entering the game against the Chicago White Sox on May 13, McLain was hitting .168/.297/.304. Leading up to that, all of his starts were either in the first or second spot in the lineup. Against the White Sox that day, Reds manager Terry Francona moved him to the eighth spot. He'd batted eighth or ninth in all but one of his starts since then. Until Sunday.
McLain was back in the No. 2 spot for Sunday's game against the St. Louis Cardinals, and he rewarded his skipper with a first-inning solo homer to give the Reds an early lead in the eventual 4-1 victory.
From May 13 to Saturday, he hit .254/.306/.386 in 34 games. In the first 17 of those games, he hit .203/.213/.305. In the 17 games from June 1 to Saturday, he hit .309/.397/.473. After Sunday's 1-for-4 performance, he's hitting .209/.301/.351. That's not what everyone expected, but it's a long way from the .159 batting average and .266 on-base percentage he put up through April.
The Reds took two out of three games from the Minnesota Twins before losing two of three against the Cardinals. Sunday's 4-1 victory behind Andrew Abbott kept the team from being swept for the first time all season. The Reds are the last team in baseball that hasn't been swept this season. They went 3-3 for the week.
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Tuesday could be the biggest day of the year aside from Opening Day, with top prospect Burns, last year's second pick in the draft, making his debut. Oh, and the Yankees are in town that day. With an off day on Thursday, the San Diego Padres visit for three games.
The Reds will also honor the 50th anniversary of the 1975 World Series champions this weekend, with 23 members of the 1975 and 1976 World Series champions scheduled to be in attendance during the celebrations. That will include five of the six living members of the Great Eight: Johnny Bench, Tony Perez, Ken Griffey, George Foster and Cesar Geronimo. Dave Concepción is unlikely to appear.
• IF Jeimer Candelario (lumbar spine strain) finished his 20-game rehab assignment, and the Reds will likely activate him Monday. In 15 games with the Triple-A Louisville Bats, Candelario hit .211/.318/.333 with a home run and 10 RBIs. He went 0-for-9 in his last two games, but 6-for-14 in the four games before that.
• OF Austin Hays (left foot contusion) has been doing pregame work and is expected to go on a rehab assignment this week.
• 3B Noelvi Marte (left oblique strain) made two rehab appearances.
• LHP Wade Miley (left flexor strain) joined the 15-day IL on Friday. There is no concrete timetable for his return yet, but it probably won't be soon.
• RHP Hunter Greene (right groin strain) will likely return from Arizona this upcoming week. He has been throwing after getting a second opinion on his injury and receiving an epidural injection for his back. He's expected to return to the rotation around the All-Star break.
• Triple-A Louisville (32-43): Left-hander Reiver Sanmartin had Tommy John surgery in 2022 and has come back as a reliever. Sanmartin has appeared in 22 games for the Bats and is 2-2 with a 3.34 ERA over 29 2/3 innings, including two scoreless on Sunday.
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• Double-A Chattanooga (38-28): With Sunday's 8-2 victory over the Rocket City Trash Pandas, the Lookouts clinched the Southern League's North Division first-half title, giving the team a playoff spot this fall. IF Cam Collier, the team's 2022 first-round pick, had surgery on his thumb this spring, and after a stint in the AZL and with High-A Dayton, headed to Chattanooga last week. In his seven games with the Lookouts, he's hitting .462/ .533/.538 in 30 plate appearances. He had hits in six of his first seven games and multiple hits in five of those, including two in Sunday's victory.
• High-A Dayton (22-46): The Dragons entered the bottom of the fifth inning Sunday against the Fort Wayne TinCaps down 10-2, but they scored twice in the fifth and eight in the sixth inning after the TinCaps got back a run in the top of the sixth. The Dragons went on to win 12-11, marking the largest comeback in franchise history. The Dragons sent 14 batters to the plate in the sixth and had seven hits. OF Anthony Stephan hit a score-tying three-run homer before the Dragons loaded the bases and 3B Peyton Stovall walked to drive in the go-ahead run.
Folks, we've got a whole new ball game!
Anthony Stephan helps the Dragons erase a 10-2 deficit with this game-tying bomb in the bottom of the 6th!! 💣💣💣#dragons25#feelthefire pic.twitter.com/MsRAxJ1Sjk
— Dayton Dragons (@DragonsBaseball) June 22, 2025
Stephan, a 13th-round pick out of the University of Virginia last year, is hitting .271/.385/.448 with two homers in 33 games with the Dragons.
• Class-A Daytona (31-38): 2B Bernard Moon went 4-for-6 with a home run and two doubles in Sunday's 16-6 Tortugas victory. He also stole home on a double steal and drove in six runs. On the season, he's hitting .246/.316/.382 with three homers and seven steals. The 20-year-old went in the 16th round of the 2023 draft from Redan High School in Stone Mountain, Ga., the alma mater of Reds great Brandon Phillips.