The Cincinnati Reds announced that they have invited 15 players to spring training. Every player that is on the 40-man roster is automatically invited to spring training, so these 15 players are in addition to those 40 players and are all on minor league contracts. The list has a wide variety of players, with two 20-year-old’s and a 37-year-old – with plenty of guys in between.
Cincinnati is inviting seven non-roster pitchers to camp as of now. Bryan Shaw is the previously mentioned 37-year-old. He’ll be joined by Alex Young as the two guys with big league experience under their belts. The Reds are also inviting top prospects Chase Burns and Chase Petty, the club’s top two prospects, Jose Acuna, Zach Maxwell, and Lenny Torres.
Behind the plate to catch that group is three non-roster invitees in Will Banfield, Michael Trautwein, and Austin Wynns. The latter two were in spring training with Cincinnati last season and spent time in Triple-A with the club – and Wynns also found his way to Cincinnati during the season. Banfield signed with the club as a minor league free agent last month.
There are four infielders who are also getting non-roster invites. Edwin Arroyo, who missed all of 2024 after injuring his shoulder in spring training last year with the Reds, will be back with the big league club this spring. He will be joined by top 10 prospects Cam Collier and Sal Stewart. Ivan Johnson is also listed as an infielder on the Reds release, but he spent significantly more time in the outfield in 2024 than he did on the infield. Only one prospect was listed as an outfielder – Hector Rodriguez. He, along with Collier, were the two 20-year-olds who get invites to big league camp.
Among this group it feels like only a few of them could really be considered for a job out of spring training with the big league club. Obviously Bryan Shaw and Alex Young are among that group as guys in their 30’s with big league service time under their belts. Ivan Johnson is coming off of a good year that saw him hit .289/.359/.537 in 46 games after he was called up to Triple-A and as a guy who can play both infield and outfield there’s a chance he could show enough to land a bench role. Any of the catchers have a chance if there’s an injury that opens up a spot, but without one it’s tough to see how they would fit in.
When it comes to the prospect pitchers it would probably take some injuries to open a spot up, but Chase Petty, Jose Acuna, Lenny Torres, and Zach Maxwell all had Triple-A time last year. Chase Burns is the top prospect in the organization and was the #2 pick in the entire draft last summer, but it seems very unlikely that they would skip him entirely over the big leagues and put him directly into the rotation given the starting pitching depth that they do have.
The post Reds invite 15 players, including top prospects to spring training appeared first on Redleg Nation.