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Chase Burns

Reds To Promote Chase Burns For MLB Debut

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The Reds are planning to select top pitching prospect Chase Burns from Triple-A Louisville, reports C. Trent Rosecrans of The Athletic. He will start against the Yankees on Tuesday in his MLB debut.

Burns, 22, was the second overall pick in last year’s draft. He dominated for Wake Forest in his final year of college play, going 10-1 while striking out 191 batters across 100 innings and pitching to a 2.70 ERA. Coming into 2025, he was widely considered the top prospect in the Reds organization and a top 50 prospect in the game. If possible, the young right-hander has only improved his reputation over his first 13 professional starts. Armed with a fastball that hits triple-digit and one of the nastiest sliders in the minor leagues, Burns has put up a 1.77 ERA, a 36.8% strikeout rate, and a 6.85 strikeout-to-walk ratio between High-A, Double-A, and Triple-A. Although he has shot up through the system at a speed rarely seen, he has yet to ever look overmatched. So, after just two starts at Triple-A, he is already gearing up for his next challenge.

This might seem like an aggressive promotion, but Burns has done everything in his power to earn the opportunity. Meanwhile, the Reds are low on starting pitching depth. Wade Miley landed on the IL yesterday after just three appearances for Cincinnati. He joined Hunter Greene and Carson Spiers, as well as Rhett Lowder, Julian Aguiar, and Brandon Williamson, the three of whom have been out all season. To make matters worse, Nick Martinez has struggled badly in June, and Chase Petty, recalled earlier today, has taken the loss in all three games in which he’s appeared so far in his big league career. Thus, with an ailing big league rotation and Burns excelling in the minors, the Reds are going to give their top prospect a shot in the majors, less than a year after they drafted him. They will have to free up a space for Burns on the active and 40-man rosters prior to his debut.

Reds Sign No. 2 Overall Pick Chase Burns

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The Reds announced this evening that they’ve officially signed second overall pick Chase Burns. MLB Pipeline’s Jim Callis reports (on X) the the right-hander received a $9.25MM signing bonus. While that’s a bit shy of the $9.79MM slot value, it’s the largest signing bonus in draft history. Burns edges past the $9.2MM which Paul Skenes secured as last year’s first overall pick.

It’s possible that record will only stand for a few days. Burns is the first player from this year’s top 10 to sign. First overall pick Travis Bazzana (and potentially #3 selection Charlie Condon) could land a loftier bonus in the coming weeks. That won’t be of much concern to Burns, the first pitcher to come off the board last week. While Burns was widely expected to be the top pitcher selected, he was a slightly surprising pick at #2. Condon and West Virginia infielder JJ Wetherholt — who “slipped” to the Cardinals at #7 — were marginally ahead of Burns on most public rankings heading into the draft, largely because of the heightened injury risk for pitchers.

ESPN’s Kiley McDaniel and Keith Law of the Athletic each had Burns as the #5 player in the class. FanGraphs slotted him sixth, while Baseball America ranked him fourth. All four publications had Burns and Arkansas lefty Hagen Smith as the top two pitchers in some order.

Burns was a high-profile draft prospect as a high schooler back in 2021. Teams weren’t willing to meet his asking price at the time, leading the 6’3″ righty to the University of Tennessee. Burns had two strong seasons in Knoxville and transferred to Wake Forest for his draft year. He started 16 times for the Demon Deacons, firing 100 innings with a 2.70 earned run average. Burns fanned nearly half the batters he faced and easily led Division I pitchers with 191 strikeouts. Smith was second in the nation with 161 punchouts. He kept his walk rate to a 7.7% clip and finished his college career with a 40% strikeout rate against a 7.6% walk percentage.

With that level of dominance, it’s not surprising that prospect evaluators suggest Burns has a top-of-the-rotation ceiling. Reports credit him with an upper-90s fastball that can run as high as 100 or 101 MPH. That pitch and his wipeout slider have each gotten 70 or 80 grades on the 20-80 scouting scale. Burns’ curveball and changeup are a bit behind the fastball/slider combination and scouting reports point to some effort in his delivery, but there’s not much question about his ability to stick as a starter. Both Law and McDaniel note that he could move quickly through the minors.

Cincinnati selected another Wake Forest righty, Rhett Lowder, in the top 10 a year ago. They’re hopeful that duo will join Hunter Greene, Nick Lodolo and Andrew Abbott as part of a homegrown starting staff. There’s injury risk with any group of young pitchers and the Reds will need more than five starters on an annual basis, but that quintet could be the nucleus of one of the sport’s best rotations if things break right over the next couple seasons.

2024 MLB Draft, First Round Results

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This year’s amateur draft is officially underway, and we’ll be updating this post throughout the night with every first-round selection.  More details and scouting reports on all these young players are available in pre-draft rankings from Baseball America, Fangraphs, MLB Pipeline, The Athletic’s Keith Law, and ESPN’s Kiley McDaniel.  As well, Pipeline has the breakdown of the slot values assigned to each pick in the first 10 rounds, as well as the bonus pool money available to all 30 teams.

The first-round picks…

  1. Cleveland Guardians: Travis Bazzana, 2B, Oregon State
  2. Cincinnati Reds: Chase Burns, RHP, Wake Forest
  3. Colorado Rockies: Charlie Condon, OF/3B, Georgia
  4. Oakland Athletics: Nick Kurtz, 1B, Wake Forest
  5. Chicago White Sox: Hagen Smith, LHP, Arkansas
  6. Kansas City Royals: Jac Caglianone, 1B/LHP, Florida
  7. St. Louis Cardinals: JJ Wetherholt, 2B/SS, West Virginia
  8. Los Angeles Angels: Christian Moore, 2B, Tennessee
  9. Pittsburgh Pirates: Konnor Griffin, SS/OF, Jackson Prep High School (MS)
  10. Washington Nationals: Seaver King, SS/3B/OF, Wake Forest
  11. Detroit Tigers: Bryce Rainer, SS, Harvard-Westlake High School (CA)
  12. Boston Red Sox: Braden Montgomery, OF, Texas A&M
  13. San Francisco Giants: James Tibbs III, OF, Florida State
  14. Chicago Cubs: Cam Smith, 3B, Florida State
  15. Seattle Mariners: Jurrangelo Cijntje, LHP/RHP, Mississippi State
  16. Miami Marlins: PJ Morlando, OF, Summerville High School (SC)
  17. Milwaukee Brewers: Braylon Payne, OF, Elkins High School (TX)
  18. Tampa Bay Rays: Theo Gillen, OF/MI, Westlake High School (TX)
  19. New York Mets: Carson Benge, OF, Oklahoma State
  20. Toronto Blue Jays: Trey Yesavage, RHP, East Carolina
  21. Minnesota Twins: Kaelen Culpepper, SS, Kansas State
  22. Baltimore Orioles: Vance Honeycutt, OF, North Carolina
  23. Los Angeles Dodgers: Kellon Lindsey, SS, Hardee High School (FL)
  24. Atlanta Braves: Cam Caminiti, LHP, Saguero High School (AZ)
  25. San Diego Padres: Kash Mayfield, LHP, Elk City High School (OK)
  26. New York Yankees: Ben Hess, RHP, Alabama
  27. Philadelphia Phillies: Dante Nori, OF, Northville High School (MI)
  28. Houston Astros: Walker Janek, C, Sam Houston
  29. Arizona Diamondbacks: Slade Caldwell, OF, Valley View High School (AR)
  30. Texas Rangers: Malcolm Moore, C, Stanford

All 30 teams will have picks in the first round this year, though the Mets, Padres, and Yankees all had their first-round selections dropped back by 10 slots.  These three teams surpassed the third luxury tax tier ($273MM) in 2023, and thus their punishment included a 10-space drop in their opening draft choice.

The 2024 draft will take place over three days, consisting of 20 rounds of selections.  Rounds 3-10 will take place on Monday, rounds 11-20 will take place on Tuesday, and the draft’s first 74 picks will come off the board tonight.  Those 74 picks consist of the first two proper rounds, the two Competitive Balance Rounds, two sets of compensatory rounds (giving picks to teams who lost qualifying offer-rejecting free agents), and two Prospect Promotion Incentive picks.

The two PPI selections will go to the Diamondbacks at 31st overall and the Orioles at 32nd overall, awarded since Corbin Carroll and Gunnar Henderson fit all of the criteria for their teams to receive the bonus picks.  Carroll and Henderson won Rookie of the Year honors, both young stars were included on their respective teams’ Opening Day rosters, and were rated as top-100 prospects in at least two of three sets of preseason prospect rankings from Baseball America, MLB Pipeline, and ESPN.

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