The Cincinnati Reds are a Major League Baseball (MLB) franchise based in Cincinnati, Ohio. They play in the National League Central division. Officially known as the "First-Year Player Draft",[2] the Rule 4 Draft is MLB's primary mechanism for assigning players from high schools, colleges, and other amateur clubs to its franchises. The draft order is determined based on the previous season's standings, with the team possessing the worst record receiving the first pick.[2] In addition, teams which lost free agents in the previous off-season may be awarded compensatory or supplementary picks.[3] Since the establishment of the draft in 1965, the Reds have selected 59 players in the first round.
Of those 59 players, 28 have been pitchers, the most of any position; 22 of these were right-handed, while 6 were left-handed. The Reds have also selected 13 outfielders, eight shortstops, four catchers, four third basemen and two first basemen. They have never selected a second baseman in the initial round of the draft.[4] The franchise has drafted eleven players from colleges or high schools in California, while another eight were drafted out of Texas. The only first-round pick out of the Reds' home state of Ohio was Barry Larkin, a native of Cincinnati.[4]
One of these picks has been elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame; Barry Larkin, drafted in 1985, was elected to the Hall in his third year of eligibility in 2012.[5] Five of these picks have won a World Series championship with the Reds. Don Gullett & Gary Nolan won two consecutive Series with the Reds, 1975 and 1976, and Gullett won again in 1977 as a member of the New York Yankees.[6] Three of the Reds first-round picks participated in the team's 1990 championship: Larkin, Scott Scudder, and Jack Armstrong.[7] In addition to eventually reaching the Hall of Fame, Larkin was awarded the Roberto Clemente Award in 1993, the Lou Gehrig Memorial Award in 1994, and named the National League Most Valuable Player in 1995.[1]
Cincinnati has made ten selections in the supplemental round of the draft, but has never held the first overall pick. They have also had two compensatory picks since the first draft in 1965.[4] These additional picks are provided when a team loses a particularly valuable free agent in the previous off-season,[3][8][V] or, more recently, if a team fails to sign a draft pick from the previous year.[9] The Reds have failed to sign their first-round pick twice. Mike Miley, selected in 1971, chose to attend college at Louisiana State University; he would later be drafted by the California Angels in 1974.[10][11] The Reds did not receive a compensatory pick for failing to sign Miley. Jeremy Sowers, the Reds' 2001 choice, decided to attend Vanderbilt University, and was selected in the first round of the 2004 draft by the Cleveland Indians. Sowers' MLB debut came in 2006 against Cincinnati.[12] For failing to sign Sowers, the Reds received the 40th pick in the 2002 draft, which they used to select Mark Schramek.[13]
| Year | Links to an article about that year's Major League Baseball Draft |
| Position | Indicates the secondary/collegiate position at which the player was drafted, rather than the professional position the player went on to play |
| Pick | Indicates the number of the pick |
| * | Player did not sign with the Reds |
| § | Indicates a supplemental pick |
| † | Member of the National Baseball Hall of Fame |
| '90 | Player was a member of the Reds' 1990 championship team |
| '75 '76 | Player was a member of the Reds' 1975 and 1976 championship teams. |
