A breakdown of the seven prospects the Cincinnati Reds are sending to the Fall League

ST. LOUIS – The Cincinnati Reds are sending seven prospects to the Arizona Fall League next month, including highly-rated shortstops Noelvi Marte and Matt McLain.

Marte, currently playing for Spain in a World Baseball Classic qualifier, was the highest-rated prospect the Reds acquired at the trade deadline. Ranked as the No. 33 prospect by Baseball America, he was one of the four players in the Luis Castillo trade with Seattle. McLain was the Reds’ top pick in the 2021 MLB Draft and been a bubble top-100 prospect in Baseball America’s rankings.

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The Fall League, which begins Oct. 3, is viewed as a place for rising prospects to gain exposure against other upper-level prospects, additional time for teams to evaluate players before finalizing their 40-man roster ahead of the Rule 5 Draft, and a chance for some players to gain more at-bats or innings following injuries.

The full group of Reds prospects headed to the Fall Leagues includes Marte (High-A Dayton), McLain (Double-A Chattanooga), outfielder Rece Hinds (Chattanooga), starting pitcher Christian Roa (Chattanooga), starter Sam Benschoter (Dayton), reliever Vinny Timpanelli (Dayton) and reliever Jake Gozzo (Dayton).

“What we found with this league, at least in the last year or two, it’s more like a Double-A/High-A process,” Reds farm director Shawn Pender said.

Here’s a look at each of the seven prospects and why the Reds chose to send them to the Fall League:

Noelvi Marte, 20, SS

Marte, who will turn 21 in October, is considered a future middle-of-the-order bat in the big leagues. He hit .279 with 19 homers, 23 doubles, 68 RBI and 74 runs in 115 minor league games this year, posting a .371 on-base percentage while stealing 23 bases in 32 attempts.

He’s bigger than his listed height and weight, probably closer to 6-foot-3, 210 pounds, and there are questions about whether his size will move him from shortstop.

“We wanted to get him an opportunity to play some third base, too,” Pender said. “This way, with McLain there and being able to play second and third, it gives him a number of opportunities. And quite honestly, we wanted to get to know him more.”

Marte had a slow start to the season, but he was a force at the plate in his final 3 ½ months. In 30 games after joining the Reds at Dayton, he hit .293 with four homers, four doubles and 13 RBI. He showcased strong plate discipline with 17 walks to 23 strikeouts.

Are the Reds committing to Marte at third base?

“I don’t think we know,” Pender said. “We have a good problem and a bad problem. We have a lot of shortstops. Marte is big enough to play third. He’s got enough power to profile there. He’s also a good athlete that runs well and played a good shortstop even though he’s a little bigger than what you would say most shortstops are. Not big like (Elly) De La Cruz who is tall, just a good wide frame. He might outgrow it, but he can play there. We thought it would be good to give him an opportunity to play some other positions instead of short.”

Matt McLain, 23, SS

The Reds have been aggressive with McLain since drafting him out of UCLA with the No. 17 overall pick in 2021. He spent time in big-league spring training, working with the Major League coaching staff, and he played the entire season at Double-A.

McLain’s numbers may not jump off the page, entering Friday with a .233 batting average and .355 on-base percentage in 100 games. He totaled 16 homers, 20 doubles, 54 RBI, 64 runs and 25 stolen bases in 28 attempts.

“Trying to get Matt some more time at shortstop,” Pender said. “Since the De La Cruz promotion, it took some of that away. We want to make sure he remains a shortstop priority. Whether he ends up moving to another position is still to be determined. He played a really good second base, but we just thought it would be a good way to get him some more of those reps.”

McLain missed about a month with a wrist injury during the summer, so playing in the Fall League will give him a full season’s worth of games.

“He did a lot of really positive things,” Pender said. “I would say it was a very good first year when you consider the fact whether they are college or high school, you rarely get the guy to Double-A until his third year and he was there in his first. We were very pleased.”

Rece Hinds, 22, OF

Hinds, a second-round pick in 2019, may possess the most power in the organization, but he’s struggled to remain healthy. This is the first season he’s played more than 54 games, but he was sidelined for six weeks with a fractured left hamate.

“We wanted to get him more at-bats,” Pender said. “The fact he’s transitioning to more of an outfield position gives him a chance to continue to do that, get him ready for a Double-A jump next year.”

Hinds, moved from third base to right field this year, had a .235 batting average and .310 on-base percentage in 67 games at High-A with 10 homers, nine doubles, four triples and 26 RBI. He struck out 107 times in 274 plate appearances, which is an area he must improve.

Christian Roa, 23, RHP

Roa missed the first month of the season after dealing with a shoulder injury, and he’s improved as the year progressed. He’s posted a 2.44 ERA in his last 12 starts, entering Friday, with his last three outings at Double-A.

He was a second-round pick in the 2020 MLB Draft out of Texas A&M. In his three Double-A starts, he’s permitted five hits and two runs over 17 innings (1.06 ERA) while striking out 19 and walking seven. The 6-foot-4, 220-pound right-hander is a candidate to pitch in Triple-A after the Double-A season ends this weekend.

“He had some growth he needed to go through, and it’s actually happened even better at Double-A than it did in High-A while he was successful at both,” Pender said. “We had a plan for him to go there, given the innings that he missed due to his recovery from injury. This way it gets us to build up his innings.”

Sam Benschoter, 24, RHP

Signing with the Reds as an undrafted free agent out of Michigan State last year, Benschoter has impressed all year. He spent most of the season at Single-A Daytona where he was a little older than the average age, but he posted a 4.01 ERA in 14 outings with 80 strikeouts and 18 walks across 51 2/3 innings.

He missed more than a month on the injured list this summer, but the 6-foot-3 righty compiled a 3.58 ERA in his last eight starts, which includes four appearances at High-A.

“He’ll go as a longman, piggyback, so we’re not worried about him going over his innings limits,” Pender said.

Vinny Timpanelli, 23, RHP

A catcher at a Div. III college in New Jersey, the Reds signed him after seeing him pitch in a men’s league in 2020. He struggled with his initial assignment at Double-A this year, but he ended the season at High-A with a 2.89 ERA in his last 13 relief appearances with 35 strikeouts and 10 walks in 18 2/3 innings.

“He’s got a big arm and he’s developed a slider,” Pender said. “Because he was a conversion guy, I think (Double-A) was a little too fast. Once we got him back to Dayton, he fit in much easier, almost like he did at the end of last year (at Dayton). We felt like this was a better way of getting him an increase in innings and an opportunity to compete at a level that is like High-A/Double-A.”

Timpanelli, who pitched in one big-league spring training game this year, is listed at 6-foot-2, 210 pounds.

Jake Gozzo, 25, RHP

Another undrafted free agent from 2020, Gozzo was a first baseman at Oklahoma Baptist. He spent the entire season at Dayton, compiling a 3.95 ERA across 25 relief appearances with 36 strikeouts and 24 walks in 41 innings.

Listed at 6-foot-5, 220 pounds, he needs to cut down on his walks, but he held opposing hitters to a .186 batting average.

“He’s always had good stuff,” Pender said. “He’s got a good fastball and a good secondary pitch. We just felt like it would be a good challenge for him.”

This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Cincinnati Reds prospects: Noelvi Marte, Matt McLain in Fall League