Reds Prospect Throws One Of The Best Sliders In The Minors

It won’t be long before Cody Reed will need to move out of his apartment in Louisville and into a permanent home in Cincinnati. When that time comes, we can understand if the Reds lefthander wants to hire someone else to move his stuff for him.

Reed, who entered the season as the No. 34 prospect in baseball, made his Triple-A debut in Columbus on April 13. The next week, he was supposed to make his first home start in Louisville with his parents in town, but the day before his scheduled start, he cut his left index finger moving furniture into his new apartment and ended up on the disabled list.

Back on the mound Tuesday at Norfolk with his finger healed, Reed showed some signs of nerves with his fastball command but baffled Orioles Triple-A hitters with one of the best sliders in the minors. Over five innings, he allowed only one run on five hits with six strikeouts and one walk.

Reed’s slider is an easy plus pitch that earns 70 grades from some scouts, with sharp, two-plane break and late diving action underneath the barrels of hitters expecting a fastball. It’s a nasty weapon against lefthanded hitters, but Norfolk had only one lefty in its lineup, so Reed pounded the Tides’ righthanded hitters with back foot sliders, resulting in empty swing after empty swing.

“I think I have advantage when it comes to lefties,” Reed said, “but righties I try to mix everything in. That back foot slider has really helped me, trying to make it look like a fastball as long as possible, then let the grip do the work and let it snap off. Getting bad swings is always encouraging as a hitter. I just kept working at it and it’s got to the point where I know where I start it and where it ends up. It’s a pitch that’s really helped me so far.”

Reed’s slider ranges from the mid-to-upper 80s, with Reed manipulating it based on the count and what he’s trying to do with the pitch. He throws it with two strikes, when he’s behind in the count or to start a plate appearance with equal effectiveness.

“It’s my go-to pitch,” Reed said. “It’s my put-away pitch and I try to throw it for strikes. I try to take some off when I throw it for strikes and I can amp it up a little bit when I’m trying to get a swing and miss or a strikeout in a big situation.”

Reed also happens to have one of the best fastballs from a lefthanded starter in the minors, sitting in the low-to-mid 90s and capable of touching 99 mph. That’s remarkable given where he was as a high school senior in Mississippi. Back then, Reed was already 6-foot-5 but weighed just 165 pounds. Without much strength on his frame, Reed said he topped out at 84-85 mph and pitched at 80-83 mph as a high school senior. Nobody drafted him.

After two years at Northwest Mississippi JC, Reed added 60 pounds and filled out to 6-foot-5, 225 pounds, which helped him get his fastball to touch the mid-90s. The Royals took notice and drafted Reed in the second round of the 2013 draft. His first full season didn’t go well, with a 5.46 ERA in 84 innings with 58 strikeouts and 36 walks for low Class A Lexington.

Then came the breakthrough season for Reed, who transformed himself from the Royals’ No. 28 prospect entering the 2015 season into one of the best pitching prospects in baseball by the end of the year. Improved control, stuff and confidence led to more strikeouts, a lower ERA and a new team, with the Royals sending Reed along with fellow lefties Brandon Finnegan and John Lamb to the Reds for Johnny Cueto last July.

“My offseason after I was drafted, I didn’t take it as serious,” Reed said. “I didn’t get into a routine, I might have skipped some days. I didn’t take it as serious and it showed. The offseason before (the 2015 season), the grind of the offseason, I really experienced that. I took it serious. I never missed a day, never missed any type of throwing I needed to do. I stuck to my schedule and did the same exact thing this year. I got a nutritionist to help with food. Baseball is something I want to do and play a long time.”

Against Norfolk, Reed only walked one hitter, though he needed 99 pitches to get through five innings. His fastball command wasn’t sharp, but that might have just stemmed from Reed’s finger injury throwing off his usual regimen early in the season.

“The first two innings,” Reed said. “I was amped up a little bit with nerves and I tried to rear back a couple times. I try not to do that . . . I got a little erratic with it at some points, but it’s been two weeks since I’ve thrown off the mound in a competitive game. Just getting into a routine and getting by my body into sync, I think that will help clear out some of that erraticness.”

Still, there wasn’t much damage against Reed, whose only run allowed came in the third inning after a two-out walk to Christian Walker, who then scored on a double from Dariel Alvarez.

Given how devastating Reed’s fastball/slider combination was against lefties and righties on Tuesday, he doesn’t have to use his changeup much, but he said he threw around 10-12 changeups against the Tides. At its best, Reed’s changeup is an average to slightly better pitch, one that got a couple of swings and misses from Norfolk hitters.

“I’m trying to get that pitch to where I can throw it just as confidently as I can throw my slider,” Reed said. “In high school, my go-to pitch was my changeup, but I also didn’t throw very hard. When I got to junior college, I started throwing harder. Now it’s a transition to re-learning throwing the changeup.”

The Reds aren’t going to contend in 2016 and Reed has just two games of Triple-A experience, so there’s no hurry to bring him up to Cincinnati just yet. But if Reed’s fastball command continues to progress, the pitcher with one of the best lefthanded sliders in the minors could be on the move to the majors later this summer.