MLB Draft - How to watch the Cincinnati Reds help (or destroy) their rebuild

The Cincinnati Reds hold pick #18 in the 2022 MLB Draft, and that pick will get picked when they pick the pick later this evening. Got it?

Baseball’s annual matriculation from amateurism to professionalism kickstarts at 7 PM ET tonight, with broadcast coverage set for both ESPN and MLB Network. Picks tonight will include the 1st round, the compensation picks following the 1st round, Competitive Balance Round A, the 2nd rough, Competitive Balance Round B, and compensation picks that follow the 2nd round (with the two compensation round picks the result of free agent signings/departures from last offseason). In other words, the first 80 picks of the 2022 MLB Draft will take place tonight, with rounds 3 through 10 coming on Monday and rounds 11 through 20 on Tuesday.

Those 80 picks will include four made by the Cincinnati Reds, who will select 32nd overall (as a result of Nick Castellanos signing with the Philadelphia Phillies), 55th overall (2nd round), and 73rd overall (Competitive Balance Round B) following their 1st round selection at #18. They’re the owners of the 7th largest draft pool this year as a result of their additional picks, which will give them a number of different strategies to employ with their picks.

Will they swing big with one of their first two picks, angling to land a player who’ll require an over-slot bonus to avoid taking the college route for 2023? Will they target college bats who, in theory, will move quicker to the big leagues to pair with the likes of Jonathan India, Tyler Stephenson, Hunter Greene, Nick Lodolo, and Graham Ashcraft? Or, will they go younger, picking up prep picks who are more on the same development path as the Chase Pettys on the farm?

We’ve not truly heard them publicly connected to anyone concretely, which is as much a byproduct of having 17 picks off the board before them as anything, but we’ve seen a couple names that the mock drafts seem to feel might fall to the Reds for their first selection. Pittsbugh-area high schooler Cole Young is one, while Campbell University’s Zach Neto is another. Could they even roll the dice on former Vanderbilt star Kumar Rocker after his shoulder surgery and year spent in indy ball?

Tune in this evening to find out how the Reds will lay the next brick in their rebuild!

The complete draft order can be found here via MLB.com.