The Dayton Dragons will open their 24th season in the Midwest League at Day Air Ballpark on Friday, April 5th against the Lansing Lugnuts at 7:05 p.m. The opening night contest against Lansing is the first of 66 home games for the Dragons in 2024, and the start to a 132-game season. Over the next four weeks, we will provide an eight-part positional preview of the candidates for the Dragons 2024 roster. For Dragons season ticket or group ticket information, go to daytondragons.com/tickets or call (937) 228-2287.

Spring training is currently underway in Goodyear, Arizona. By my count, there are 173 minor league players in competition for roster spots within the Cincinnati Reds organization. That total includes 24 players who are currently training in Reds big league camp as non-roster players. Additionally, there are 40 players on the Reds major league roster training in Goodyear, for a total of 213 players currently battling for Reds major league or minor league roster spots.

One of the most interesting stories among the 173 Reds minor leaguers is former Dragon Alex Blandino, who was the Reds first round draft pick in 2014 as a shortstop. Blandino reached the big leagues with the Reds for parts of three seasons, most recently in 2021. He played Triple-A ball in the Giants and Mariners organizations in 2022 and was always a versatile player, capable of playing shortstop, second base, and third base. But Blandino, now 31 years old, is in minor league camp with the Reds in 2024 as a knuckleball pitcher. The idea of an infielder reaching his 30’s and converting to pitcher, much less as a knuckleballer, would seem to be a more likely occurrence in a Hollywood movie than in reality, but Blandino will give it his best shot. Blandino, a friendly, hard-working, and well-liked member of the Dragons in 2014, will have many people pulling for him.

Reds full-season affiliates in 2024 are the same as they have been for the past three seasons. Each Reds minor league team will play a spring schedule from March 12-31. The Dragons will arrive in Dayton on April 2.

Louisville Bats (Triple-A)

Chattanooga Lookouts (Double-A)

Dayton Dragons (High-A)

Daytona Tortugas (Single-A)

Some players who do not earn spots on any of the four affiliate rosters will continue to work at the spring training complex in Arizona in what is commonly referred to as “Extended Spring Training,” playing an informal schedule against players from other organizations before a fifth Reds farm club, the Arizona Complex League Reds, begins its season in May.

This is part one of an eight-part series previewing the 2024 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 2. Spring training variables including performance, injuries, trades, and additional player acquisitions will impact the roster accordingly.

The Catchers

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

Candidates: Cade Hunter, Logan Tanner.

The Reds currently have six catchers in big league spring training camp, led by former Dragon Tyler Stephenson. It is likely that two of last season’s Dragons catchers, Mat Nelson and Michael Trautwein are assigned to Double-A Chattanooga to start the season. Both Nelson and Trautwein are currently among the six catchers in major league camp with the Reds.

The two most likely candidates to be assigned to Dayton were both high selections in the same draft in 2022. Cade Hunter, the Reds fifth round draft pick in ’22 out of Virginia Tech, saw significant time with the Dragons last season after Trautwein was moved up to Chattanooga, and he figures to return to Dayton. Logan Tanner, the Reds second round selection in ’22 out of Mississippi State, spent all of 2023 at Single-A Daytona and would be expected to join Hunter in Dayton this season.

Cade Hunter is a versatile player whose primary position is catcher but has also played left field on a semi-regular basis. He received a promotion to the Dragons from Single-A Daytona on July 18 of last season and received nearly two months of experience in the Midwest League. He had opened the season at Single-A Daytona. Hunter got off to a great start with the Dragons, blasting two home runs in the same game on July 19, just his second day with the team.

The Reds had drafted Hunter in the fifth round in 2022 after a huge college season at Virginia Tech. He helped his team to the #3 ranking in the country entering the NCAA tournament. The Hokies eventually fell one win short of qualifying for the College World Series as Hunter batted .330 with 17 home runs, 66 runs batted in, and 11 stolen bases in 58 games. He was a semi-finalist for the 2022 Buster Posey Award, the same award that Mat Nelson had won the previous year. After turning professional, Hunter enjoyed a great spring training in 2023, hitting the ball as well as any player in the Reds minor league camp. He opened the 2023 season with Daytona in the Florida State League and split his time equally between catcher and left field. He missed time with a hamstring injury in mid-April and endured a 2 for 34 slump upon his return to the lineup that dropped his batting average all the way to .164 on May 9. He improved over the next two months, batting .299 from May 10 to July 4 while appearing in 39 games, belting seven home runs over that period with a .902 OPS. On both June 3 and June 28 with Daytona, Hunter smashed two homers in the same game. He was promoted to the Dragons after appearing in a total of 61 games with Daytona, batting .245 with 10 home runs.

With the Dragons, Hunter’s second game with the team resulted in his third two-homer game of the season. After 12 games with the Dragons, Hunter was hitting .333 with a .939 OPS. But he might have worn down over the latter part of his first full season of professional baseball, batting just .191 over his final 31 games to lower his final batting average with the Dragons to .228. He appeared in 43 games with the Dayton club, belting five home runs to give him 15 for the year in 104 games. He actually played in three games with Double-A Chattanooga after the Dragons season ended, going 2 for 9.

Hunter’s father, Scott, is the Amateur Scouting Director for the Seattle Mariners. Most observers feel that Cade Hunter is capable of greatly improved offensive numbers with the Dragons in 2024. Despite an inconsistent 2023 season, he is still considered to be a strong hitting prospect who is improving defensively behind the plate.

Logan Tanner was selected by the Reds in the second round of the 2022 draft out of Mississippi State University, where he helped the Bulldogs to the 2021 College World Series championship as a sophomore, leading the team in home runs with 15 including one in the title game against Vanderbilt. He also played for USA Baseball’s College National Team in the summer of 2021. As a junior in 2022, he fell off a bit, batting .285 with seven home runs in 55 games, still earning Second Team All-SEC honors in the best college baseball conference in the country.

Tanner spent the entire 2023 season at Single-A Daytona, splitting time at the catcher position with Cade Hunter prior to Hunter’s promotion to Dayton, then assuming a role as the team’s clear starter. Tanner’s first full season of professional baseball featured some growing pains at the plate. He played in 65 games with Daytona and batted .202 with two home runs and an OPS of .611. He showed potential during a four-week stretch from June 25-July 23 when he batted .295 in 14 games, posting an .869 OPS while collecting five doubles and a home run.

Tanner had also been a big star at the high school level in Mississippi, earning All-State honors as both a junior and senior at George County High School. Tanner was the fourth catcher taken in the 2022 draft and received a signing bonus from the Reds of over $1 million. Tanner’s success as a leader on a college national championship team in a top conference does provide optimism that he can take a step forward in 2024.

Another potential interesting name at the catcher position in 2024 is John Michael Faile, who will make his debut in the Reds organization after an enormous season in independent ball in 2023 following a record-breaking college career. Faile, 23, played college baseball at NCAA Division II North Greenville University in South Carolina, where one of his coaches was former Reds catcher Eddie Taubensee. Faile broke the all-time career RBI record, not just for the school, but for college baseball’s entire Division II level, and he won his conference’s triple crown in 2022. Faile hit over .400 for two straight seasons in 2021 and 2022 while hitting 39 home runs in just 99 games over those two seasons. In 2023, after going undrafted, he signed to play in the Pioneer League, an independent circuit that operates in partnership with Major League Baseball. Faile played for Billings, a Reds farm club for decades before the reorganization of the minor leagues in 2021 that moved them out of affiliated baseball. Faile played in 54 games for Billings in 2023 and blasted 21 home runs while batting .353. His OPS of 1.175 was in line with his college numbers at North Greenville. It would be difficult to project how Faile’s numbers in college and independent professional baseball will translate to affiliated pro ball, but he has certainly proven to have the ability to show production that is literally off the charts. He could come to Dayton as a third catcher, or perhaps start one level lower, at Daytona, and serve as the back-up to Connor Burns, the Reds fifth round draft pick in 2023 out of Long Beach State, and the Dragons likely starting catcher in 2025.

Next up: First Basemen