# List of Cincinnati Reds first-round draft picks

The Cincinnati Reds are a Major League Baseball (MLB) franchise based in Cincinnati, Ohio. They play in the National League Central division. Officially known as the "First-Year Player Draft", the Rule 4 Draft is MLB's primary mechanism for assigning players from high schools, colleges, and other amateur clubs to its franchises. The draft order is determined based on the previous season's standings, with the team possessing the worst record receiving the first pick. In addition, teams which lost free agents in the previous off-season may be awarded compensatory or supplementary picks. Since the establishment of the draft in 1965, the Reds have selected 59 players in the first round.
Of those 59 players, 28 have been pitchers, the most of any position; 22 of these were right-handed, while 6 were left-handed. The Reds have also selected 13 outfielders, eight shortstops, four catchers, four third basemen and two first basemen. They have never selected a second baseman in the initial round of the draft. The franchise has drafted eleven players from colleges or high schools in California, while another eight were drafted out of Texas. The only first-round pick out of the Reds' home state of Ohio was Barry Larkin, a native of Cincinnati.
One of these picks has been elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame; Barry Larkin, drafted in 1985, was elected to the Hall in his third year of eligibility in 2012. Five of these picks have won a World Series championship with the Reds. Don Gullett & Gary Nolan won two consecutive Series with the Reds, 1975 and 1976, and Gullett won again in 1977 as a member of the New York Yankees. Three of the Reds first-round picks participated in the team's 1990 championship: Larkin, Scott Scudder, and Jack Armstrong. In addition to eventually reaching the Hall of Fame, Larkin was awarded the Roberto Clemente Award in 1993, the Lou Gehrig Memorial Award in 1994, and named the National League Most Valuable Player in 1995.
Cincinnati has made ten selections in the supplemental round of the draft, but has never held the first overall pick. They have also had two compensatory picks since the first draft in 1965. These additional picks are provided when a team loses a particularly valuable free agent in the previous off-season, or, more recently, if a team fails to sign a draft pick from the previous year. The Reds have failed to sign their first-round pick twice. Mike Miley, selected in 1971, chose to attend college at Louisiana State University; he would later be drafted by the California Angels in 1974. The Reds did not receive a compensatory pick for failing to sign Miley. Jeremy Sowers, the Reds' 2001 choice, decided to attend Vanderbilt University, and was selected in the first round of the 2004 draft by the Cleveland Indians. Sowers' MLB debut came in 2006 against Cincinnati. For failing to sign Sowers, the Reds received the 40th pick in the 2002 draft, which they used to select Mark Schramek.

## Key

| Year | Links to an article about that year's Major League Baseball Draft |
| Position | Indicates the secondary/collegiate position at which the player was drafted, rather than the professional position the player went on to play |
| Pick | Indicates the number of the pick |
| * | Player did not sign with the Reds |
| § | Indicates a supplemental pick |
| † | Member of the National Baseball Hall of Fame |
| '90 | Player was a member of the Reds' 1990 championship team |
| '75 '76 | Player was a member of the Reds' 1975 and 1976 championship teams. |

## Picks

| Year | Name | Position | School (Location) | Pick |
| 1965 | Bernie Carbo | Third baseman | Livonia High School (Livonia, Michigan) | 16 |
| 1966 | Gary Nolan '75 '76 | Right-handed pitcher | Oroville High School (Oroville, California) | 13 |
| 1967 | Wayne Simpson | Right-handed pitcher | Centennial High School (Compton, California) | 8 |
| 1968 | Timothy Grant | Right-handed pitcher | Riverview High School (Boykins, Virginia) | 13 |
| 1969 | Don Gullett '75 '76 | Left-handed pitcher | McKell High School (South Shore, Kentucky) | 14 |
| 1970 | Gary Polczynski | Shortstop | Nathan Hale High School (West Allis, Wisconsin) | 15 |
| 1971 | Mike Miley* | Shortstop | East Jefferson High School (Kenner, Louisiana) | 24 |
| 1972 | Larry Paine | Right-handed pitcher | Huntsville High School (Huntsville, Texas) | 7 |
| 1973 | Bradford Kessler | Outfielder | Claremont High School (Claremont, California) | 22 |
| 1974 | Steve Reed | Right-handed pitcher | Fort Wayne High School (Fort Wayne, Indiana) | 23 |
| 1975 | Tony Moretto | Outfielder | William Henry Harrison High School (Evansville, Indiana) | 22 |
| 1976 | Mark King | Right-handed pitcher | Owensboro High School (Owensboro, Kentucky) | 23 |
| 1977 | Tad Venger | Third baseman | Hart High School (Newhall, California) | 24 |
| 1978 | Nick Esasky | Shortstop | Carol City High School (Opa-locka, Florida) | 17 |
| 1979 | Dan Lamar | Catcher | Bellaire High School (Houston, Texas) | 20 |
| 1979 | Mike Sullivan | Right-handed pitcher | Clemson University (Clemson, South Carolina) | 22 |
| 1980 | Ron Robinson | Right-handed pitcher | Woodlake High School (Woodlake, California) | 19 |
| 1981 | no first-round pick | no first-round pick | no first-round pick | no first-round pick |
| 1982 | Scott Jones | Left-handed pitcher | Hinsdale South High School (Hinsdale, Illinois) | 22 |
| 1982 | Billy Hawley | Right-handed pitcher | Brookland-Cayce High School (West Columbia, South Carolina) | 23 |
| 1982 | Robert Jones* | First baseman | Proviso East High School (Maywood, Illinois) | 28§ |
| 1983 | Kurt Stillwell | Shortstop | Thousand Oaks High School (Thousand Oaks, California) | 2 |
| 1984 | Pat Pacillo | Right-handed pitcher | Seton Hall University (South Orange, New Jersey) | 5 |
| 1985 | Barry Larkin$^†$ '90 | Shortstop | University of Michigan (Ann Arbor, Michigan) | 4 |
| 1986 | Scott Scudder '90 | Right-handed pitcher | Prairiland High School (Blossom, Texas) | 17 |
| 1987 | Jack Armstrong '90 | Right-handed pitcher | University of Oklahoma (Norman, Oklahoma) | 18 |
| 1988 | no first-round pick | no first-round pick | no first-round pick | no first-round pick |
| 1989 | Scott Bryant | Outfielder | University of Texas at Austin (Austin, Texas) | 20 |
| 1990 | Dan Wilson | Catcher | University of Minnesota (Minneapolis, Minnesota) | 7 |
| 1991 | Pokey Reese | Shortstop | Lower Richland High School (Hopkins, South Carolina) | 20 |
| 1992 | Chad Mottola | Outfielder | University of Central Florida (Orlando, Florida) | 5 |
| 1993 | Pat Watkins | Outfielder | East Carolina University (Greenville, North Carolina) | 32§ |
| 1994 | C. J. Nitkowski | Left-handed pitcher | St. John's University (Jamaica, New York) | 9 |
| 1995 | no first-round pick | no first-round pick | no first-round pick | no first-round pick |
| 1996 | John Oliver | Outfielder | Lake-Lehman Junior/Senior High School (Lehman Township, Pennsylvania) | 25 |
| 1996 | Matt McClendon* | Right-handed pitcher | University of Florida (Gainesville, Florida) | 33§ |
| 1997 | Brandon Larson | Shortstop | Louisiana State University (Baton Rouge, Louisiana) | 14 |
| 1998 | Austin Kearns | Outfielder | Lafayette High School (Lexington, Kentucky) | 7 |
| 1999 | Ty Howington | Left-handed pitcher | Hudson's Bay High School (Vancouver, Washington) | 14 |
| 2000 | David Espinosa | Shortstop | Miami Coral Park High School (Miami, Florida) | 23 |
| 2000 | Dustin Moseley | Right-handed pitcher | Arkansas High School (Texarkana, Arkansas) | 34§ |
| 2001 | Jeremy Sowers* | Left-handed pitcher | Ballard High School (Ballard, Kentucky) | 20 |
| 2002 | Christopher Gruler | Right-handed pitcher | Liberty High School (Oakley, California) | 3 |
| 2002 | Mark Schramek | Third baseman | University of Texas at Austin (Austin, Texas) | 40§ |
| 2003 | Ryan Wagner | Right-handed pitcher | University of Houston (Houston, Texas) | 14 |
| 2004 | Homer Bailey | Right-handed pitcher | La Grange High School (La Grange, Texas) | 7 |
| 2005 | Jay Bruce | Outfielder | West Brook Senior High School (Beaumont, Texas) | 12 |
| 2006 | Drew Stubbs | Outfielder | University of Texas at Austin (Austin, Texas) | 8 |
| 2007 | Devin Mesoraco | Catcher | Punxsutawney Area High School (Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania) | 15 |
| 2007 | Todd Frazier | Third baseman | Rutgers University–New Brunswick (New Brunswick, New Jersey) | 34§ |
| 2007 | Kyle Lotzkar | Right-handed pitcher | South Delta Secondary School (Delta, British Columbia) | 53§ |
| 2008 | Yonder Alonso | First baseman | University of Miami (Coral Gables, Florida) | 7 |
| 2009 | Mike Leake | Right-handed pitcher | Arizona State University (Tempe, Arizona) | 8 |
| 2009 | Bradley Boxberger | Right-handed pitcher | University of Southern California (Los Angeles, California) | 43§ |
| 2010 | Yasmani Grandal | Catcher | University of Miami (Coral Gables, Florida) | 12 |
| 2011 | Robert Stephenson | Right-handed pitcher | Alhambra High School (Martinez, California) | 27 |
| 2012 | Nick Travieso | Right-handed pitcher | Archbishop Edward A. McCarthy High School (Southwest Ranches, Florida) | 14 |
| 2012 | Jesse Winker | Outfielder | Olympia High School (Orlando, Florida) | 49§ |
| 2012 | Jeff Gelalich | Outfielder | University of California, Los Angeles (Los Angeles, California) | 57§ |
| 2013 | Phillip Ervin | Outfielder | Samford University (Homewood, Alabama) | 27 |
| 2013 | Michael Lorenzen | Right-handed pitcher | California State University, Fullerton (Fullerton, California) | 38 |
| 2014 | Nick Howard | Right-handed pitcher | University of Virginia (Charlottesville, Virginia) | 19 |
| 2014 | Alex Blandino | Shortstop | Stanford University (Palo Alto, California) | 29 |
| 2015 | Tyler Stephenson | Catcher | Kennesaw Mountain High School (Kennesaw, Georgia) | 11 |
| 2016 | Nick Senzel | Third Baseman | University of Tennessee (Knoxville, Tennessee) | 2 |
| 2016 | Taylor Trammell | Outfielder | Mount Paran Christian School (Kennesaw, Georgia) | 35 |
| 2017 | Hunter Greene | Right-handed pitcher / Shortstop | Notre Dame High School (Sherman Oaks, California) | 2 |
| 2017 | Jeter Downs | Shortstop | Monsignor Edward Pace High School (Miami Gardens, Florida) | 32 |
| 2018 | Jonathan India | Third Baseman | University of Florida (Gainesville, Florida) | 5 |
| 2019 | Nick Lodolo | Left-handed pitcher | Texas Christian University (Fort Worth, Texas) | 7 |
| 2020 | Austin Hendrick | Outfielder | West Allegheny Senior High School (Imperial, Pennsylvania) | 12 |
| 2021 | Matt McLain | Shortstop | UCLA (Los Angeles, California) | 17 |
| 2021 | Jay Allen | Outfielder | John Carroll Catholic High School (Fort Pierce, Florida) | 30§ |
| 2022 | Cam Collier | Third Baseman | Chipola College (Marianna, Florida) | 18 |
| 2022 | Sal Stewart | Third Baseman | Westminster Christian School (Palmetto Bay, Florida) | 32§ |
| 2023 | Rhett Lowder | Right-Handed pitcher | Wake Forest University (Winston-Salem, North Carolina) | 7 |
| 2023 | Ty Floyd | Right-Handed pitcher | LSU (Baton Rouge, Louisiana) | 38§ |
| 2024 | Chase Burns | Right-Handed pitcher | Wake Forest University (Winston-Salem, North Carolina) | 2 |