In Chase Burns, the Cincinnati Reds hope they landed the best pitcher in the MLB Draft

The fireballing righty went 2nd overall last night.

The talk before the 2024 MLB Draft had long been about whether the Cleveland Guardians, who held the #1 overall pick, would eschew the early draft rankings and instead shake things up by taking a player they may be able to sign for under-slot value.

Instead, the talk of the draft became that the Cincinnati Reds bucked the consensus rankings and bypassed taking one of the proven college bats 2nd overall after Cleveland settled on Oregon State’s Travis Bazzana with pick #1. Despite the presence of Georgia’s Charlie Condon and Florida’s Jac Caglianone still on the board, Cincinnati returned to Wake Forest to select RHP Chase Burns at pick #2.

The consensus All-American and Golden Spikes Award semifinalist boasts an electric fastball that routinely tops 100 mph, and his slider is filthy to the point that ESPN’s Kiley McDaniel gave it a 70 grade. It was a hair-split betweeen Burns and Arkansas LHP Hagen Smith for the nod of being the ‘top’ pitcher in this particular draft class, and clearly Cincinnati showed their leanings when they played this hand.

Burns was listed by most as between the 4th and 7th best prospect in this draft class, side by side with Smith behind the before-mentioned trio of top hitters (with Caglianone, a two-way player at Florida, generally expected to focus on hitting). Cincinnati, though, clearly liked what they saw with the potential in Burns, and made him their selection almost a year to the day they selected Rhett Lowder in the 1st round of the 2023 draft out of Wake Forest, too.

Over at the SBN Mothership, they gave the Reds a B+ on their move, but did note that they felt Burns was the best pitcher in this draft. And if you aren’t enamored with any of the top hitters in this draft class, well, make sure you walk away with the best possible arm instead.

It was something of an unexpected move on-paper by Cincinnati, but it’s clear they’re making it a priority to draft elite pitching talent as early and often as they possibly can. Their current starting rotation is full of former 1st rounders Hunter Greene and Nick Lodolo alongside former 2nd rounder Andrew Abbott, with Lowder obviously waiting in the wings. Perhaps they’ve taken the overall mantra of acquiring as much pitching talent as possible through drafting and trades since getting elite pitching talent to sign as a free agent to pitch in the bandbox that is Great American Ball Park has proved to be somewhat elusive.

Regardless, Burns now likely jumps to the top of Cincinnati’s top prospect lists, doing so with this kind of ridiculous stuff in his arsenal:

Welcome to Reds Country, Chase!