The Dragons will begin their 22nd season on Friday, April 8th against the Fort Wayne TinCaps at 7:05 p.m. at Day Air Ballpark. Single-game tickets for Dragons 2022 games at Day Air Ballpark as well as information on season ticket plans and group outings are available at daytondragons.com or by calling (937) 228-2287.

Candidates for spots on the Dragons opening day roster continue to train in Goodyear, Arizona. The Dayton club, and the other three Reds full-season affiliates, continue a 16-game spring schedule against their corresponding team in the Cleveland Guardians farm system. The final scheduled spring game is April 3. The Dragons will arrive in Dayton on April 4.

This is part six of an eight-part series previewing the 2022 Dragons. Players listed here are candidates for positions on the Dragons season-opening roster.

This preview is an unofficial projection of possible roster candidates. Minor League rosters are not established until April 4. Spring training variables including performance, injuries, trades, and additional player acquisitions will impact the roster accordingly.

The Outfielders

The Dragons outfield picture changed several weeks ago when the Reds announced that blue-chip prospect Rece Hinds was moving from third base to the outfield. Hinds, who is profiled below, is regarded by many as the hitter with the best raw power in the Reds organization.

For some context on the quality of talent on the Dayton roster, consider the four players we preview below as potential outfielders. You have:

- A player who was literally viewed as one of the top teenage baseball players in the world when he was drafted three years ago and has improved since that time.

- A player who won his conference’s Player of the Year award as a Division I college player.

- A player who is currently on the Reds 40-man roster and was so highly regarded by the big league club that they used one of their limited roster spots to ensure that he would not be poached by another club.

- A player who finished his college career at the Division I level with the second highest home run total in school history.

The Dragons possessed a strong outfield in 2021 when they finished the season as the co-champions of the East Division with a record of 65-55. They began the year with Brian Rey, Michael Siani, Quin Cotton, Jacob Hurtubise, and Mariel Bautista splitting the available time in the outfield. Rey got off to a sizzling start and was quickly promoted to Double-A Chattanooga. Siani, Cotton, and Hurtubise spent the entire year with the Dragons and settled in as a very athletic starting outfield. The Dragons bench coach in 2021, Darren Bragg, often described the group as “like having three center fielders on the field at one time.” Bautista was in Dayton for most of the season as well but received limited playing time. Allan Cerda, a Reds top-20 prospect, joined the team in August from Low-A Daytona and played well. Jack Rogers was added late in the season after being signed out of the draft.

Following the season, Bautista qualified for free agency and was not re-signed by the Reds organization. The other players all return and at least a couple are likely to move up to Double-A Chattanooga. Depending on injuries, additional free agent signings at the big league level, and spring training performances, the outfield situation could be fluid throughout the spring. There is a “trickle down” impact on the minor league rosters as the Reds make cuts out of Major League camp and players are reassigned to a Cincinnati farm club. Trying to make projections on the Dayton opening day roster in the outfield presents one of the more difficult challenges of any position group.

My expectations are that Siani will probably move up to Chattanooga for 2022. He might have made the Lookouts roster in 2021 if not for a shoulder injury that limited him to the role of designated hitter for the first few weeks of the Dragons season. And while Siani had a disappointing year as a hitter in 2021, he is the best defensive outfielder in the entire Reds organization (including major league players), has spent two full seasons at the Single-A level, and represents a big investment by the Reds based on the way they worked to get him in the 2018 draft when he was signed to an over-slot amount as a fourth round draft pick (he was projected as a late-first round or second round pick).

Plugging in the names, there are eight minor league outfielders for (most likely) 10 spots at the Double-A and Triple-A levels, and Siani would be the ninth. That leaves one more spot. If there is an injury involving any of the nine, or even involving one of the outfielders expected to open the year in the Majors with the Reds, the domino effect would create another opening at the Double-A level. For now, let’s figure that there is one spot unaccounted for in Chattanooga. Who gets it, and who returns to the Dragons?

It would probably come down to Hurtubise or Cotton, with Cerda also being a possibility for that final Double-A roster position. The Reds will make that decision. Of those three, I am going to figure that the Double-A spot goes to Hurtubise, who hit .283 for the Dragons in 2021, led the team in stolen bases with 39, and is the oldest of the three. It could just as easily be Cotton, who led the Dragons in 2021 with 10 home runs while batting .231 with 24 stolen bases. Whichever player returns to Dayton would probably get the first crack at moving up a level during the early part of the 2022 season should a need arise. Cerda has just 21 games experience at the High-A level but is on the Reds 40-man roster and could get consideration as well.

Let’s take a look at one possible Dayton outfield group.

Candidates: Quin Cotton, Allan Cerda, Rece Hinds, Jack Rogers

Click links on each name for career stats and player information.

Quin Cotton

There are a lot of things to like about Cotton. He brings a combination of power and speed to an offense. He can hit in the lead-off spot or be slotted into the cleanup position. He is an excellent defensive outfielder who can play center or left field. He is a smart player and a clubhouse leader with a winning attitude that any manager would appreciate.

Cotton played in 92 games for the Dragons in 2021, third most on the team behind Hurtubise (102) and Siani (97). He led the Dragons in home runs (10), runs batted in (41), and total bases (123). He started 53 games in left field, 26 in center, and four in right. He had the biggest single game of the year for any Dragons player on June 5 at Lake County, collecting four hits including two home runs and six runs batted in. The .231 batting average is something that Cotton can improve upon.

Cotton had opened his professional career with Billings in 2019, batting .283 with four home runs in 67 games as the Mustangs starting center fielder, earning selection to the Pioneer League’s full-season all-star team. He was drafted by the Reds in the eighth round in 2019 after playing three seasons at Grand Canyon University of the Western Athletic Conference (WAC). As a sophomore in 2018, he was named WAC Player of the Year while winning the conference batting title at .390.

Allan Cerda

Cerda was added to the Reds 40-man roster after the 2021 season when he completed his fifth year of professional baseball. He would have been eligible for selection by another club in the Rule 5 draft if he had not been placed on the 40-man roster by the Reds. He reported to spring training at the same time as the big league players and has trained with the Reds, already appearing in Major League spring games.

Cerda was ranked as the #14 prospect in the Reds system by Baseball America, and #17 by MLB.com, when spring training began.

Cerda made his full-season debut in the Reds organization in 2021 with Daytona after spending three seasons at the short-season level. He hit .242 at Daytona with 14 home runs in 66 games. In his final 16 games with the Tortugas from August 3-21, he belted seven home runs, batting .306 with a slugging percentage of .758 and an OPS of 1.147 to earn a promotion to the Dragons on August 24.

When he arrived in Dayton, Cerda adjusted quickly to the higher quality of opposing pitching and actually hit better for the Dragons than he had at Daytona. He appeared in 21 games with the Dragons, batting .273. Over his final seven games with Dayton, Cerda batted .458 with two home runs. Overall in 2021, he finished third among all Reds minor leaguers in home runs with 17 while ranking second in slugging percentage among full-season players at .523. MLB.com described him as “big, athletic, and projectable, Cerda’s raw power is his calling card on the offensive side.”

Rece Hinds

Hinds was ranked as the Reds #7 prospect by MLB.com and #8 by Baseball America when spring training began. He was named by Baseball America as the “Best Power Hitter” in the Reds organization entering 2022. They also named him as the player with the “Best Infield Arm,” but he was converted to the outfield a few weeks ago.

Much like Tyler Callihan, who was profiled in our second base preview, Hinds entered professional baseball with a tremendous amateur resume. He was one of the most highly-regarded high school players in the nation and was selected to play in various home run derbies and showcase events. The Reds picked Hinds in the second round of the 2019 draft as a high school prospect.

Hinds spent his senior year in the spring of 2019 at IMG Academy in Bradenton, Florida after playing at Niceville High School in the Florida panhandle. He was often identified in prospect listings as having the best raw power of any high school player in the 2019 draft. He won the prestigious 2018 Under Armour All-America Home Run Derby, edging his future teammate in the Reds organization, Tyler Callihan, by one home run in the final round. He finished second behind future second overall draft pick Bobby Witt, Jr. in the Junior Home Run Derby at the 2018 Major League All-Star Game hosted by the Washington Nationals. He was rated by Perfect Game as the #4 prospect in the state of Florida and #11 prospect in America entering the 2019 draft. He was a member of the 2017 USA Baseball 17 and under national team and planned to attend LSU before signing with the Reds.

Hinds played very briefly at the Rookie level in the Reds system after being drafted in 2019 and spent the summer of 2020 at the Reds alternate training sight in Mason after the Minor League season was cancelled. He received his first extended professional experience in 2021 with Daytona and appeared in 22 games with the Tortugas before suffering a torn meniscus in his left knee and being placed on the injured list on June 8. He missed more than two months, but he returned with a bang to earn the Reds Minor League Batter of the Month award for August when he hit .328 with six home runs in 61 at-bats. He finished the season with 12 home runs to rank tied for sixth in the Reds organization despite being limited to 201 at-bats. To date, all 341 defensive innings of Hinds’ pro career have come at third base, but that will change in 2022.

Some of the most famous power hitters in Dragons history, names like Wily Mo Pena and Samone Peters, are still talked about by fans of the team who remember their massive home runs from more than 20 years ago. Hinds has the power to create the same kind of memories for Dragons fans in 2022.

Jack Rogers

Rogers was the Reds ninth round draft pick in 2021 out of Sam Houston State University in Texas. He spent four years at that school and as a senior in 2021, he batted .367 with 16 home runs, 55 RBI, and 12 stolen bases to earn Second Team All-Southland Conference honors. He finished second in school history in single-season home runs and also ranked second in career homers with 30. He hit three home runs in one game on April 3, 2021 at Central Arkansas. Rogers was a two-way star at Klein Collins High School in Texas, where he earned All-District honors as a pitcher/outfielder. On the mound, he went 12-1 with a 1.09 ERA as a senior, while batting .375 with five home runs.

Rogers joined the Dragons on August 11, 2021 and hit three home runs in his first eight games. The biggest homer was a ninth inning game-tying two-run home run at Lansing August 15. Rogers started six games in left field, six in right, three at first base, and three as a designated hitter for the Dragons last season. He potentially could see time at first base again in 2022.

Next up: Starting Pitchers

Part 1: Catchers: https://www.milb.com/dayton/news/dragons-2022-preview-part-1-catchers

Part 2: First Basemen: https://www.milb.com/dayton/news/dayton-dragons-2022-team-preview-part-2-the-first-basemen

Part 3: Second Basemen: https://www.milb.com/dayton/news/dragons-2022-preview-part-3-second-basemen

Part 4: Shortstops: https://www.milb.com/dayton/news/dragons-2022-preview-part-4-shortstops

Part 5: Third basemen: https://www.milb.com/dayton/news/dragons-2022-preview-part-5-third-basemen

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