Dragons 2022 Preview: Part 3--Second Basemen

As 174 Reds minor league players prepare for the season in Goodyear, Arizona, the Dayton Dragons organization continues to work towards opening night. 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.

Reds minor league players in Goodyear are competing for spots on the rosters of the four Reds full-season affiliates, including the High-A Dragons. Each Reds minor league team will play a 16-game spring schedule from March 17-April 3. The Dragons will arrive in Dayton on April 4 as they try to build on the 2021 season when they were East Division co-champions at the High-A level.

This is part three 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 Second Basemen

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

Candidates: Ivan Johnson, Tyler Callihan.

The second base position will present one of the more interesting decisions for the Reds player development leadership group in 2022, with two outstanding prospects as possibilities. When you look at how the position unfolded in 2021, it becomes one of the more fascinating positional stories on the roster.

When Minor League Baseball resumed in May of 2021 after a cancelled 2020 season, the Dragons roster limit had been increased from previous years, jumping from 25 to 30. That mostly allowed for an increase in the number of pitchers on the staff, but it also opened a couple of extra roster spots for position players who otherwise would not have been in Dayton. One of those players seized on his opportunity, to put it mildly.

When the Dragons opened the season, their starting second baseman was Quincy McAfee, one of the most versatile players in the entire Reds system. McAfee and Garrett Wolforth (part of my first basemen preview earlier this week) are in their own category in terms of their abilities to play multiple positions. Wolforth is a catcher who plays everywhere on the field except middle infield. McAfee is a middle infielder who can actually play all four infield positions and everywhere in the outfield. He plays everywhere except catcher.

When the Dragons opening day roster was announced in 2021, the name on the list that brought a collective reaction of “who?” was Francisco Urbaez, an undrafted free agent second baseman out of Florida Atlantic University. Urbaez had been signed after the abbreviated five-round draft in 2020, so he had never played a professional game when the 2021 season began. But with roster limits increased to 30 last season, it allowed a player like Urbaez to be given a spot at the bottom of the roster. With McAfee as the starting second baseman, and other options at the position also available to manager Jose Moreno, the playing time for Urbaez during the early part of the 2021 season was sparse.

However, with McAfee able to play other positions, Urbaez did occasionally get a start at second base, and when he played, the results were outstanding. In fact, it did not take long before it became clear that Urbaez was actually the best hitter on the entire team. Urbaez was headed towards becoming a runaway winner of the league batting title, batting .333 on August 11th. On that date, the Reds promoted Urbaez to Double-A Chattanooga. Urbaez ended the year with a batting average that was 43 points higher than any other qualified player in the league, but the promotion to Double-A left him a few plate appearances short of the minimum number to qualify. Urbaez became a great story, a player coming out of nowhere to earn his opportunities when they were presented, starting the season at the end of the bench, and finishing as a candidate for Reds Minor League Batter of the Year.

When Urbaez was promoted to Chattanooga, Ivan Johnson took his place with the Dragons. Johnson is an outstanding prospect. Behind Johnson on the ladder is young Tyler Callihan, another great prospect. So between Urbaez, Johnson, and Callihan, you have three second basemen for two starting spots (Chattanooga and Dayton). How will the Reds sort that out? We will know in less than a month.

Let’s take a look at the two players who could be options at the second base position for the Dragons on April 8.

Ivan Johnson was the Reds fourth round draft pick in 2019. He is currently ranked as the Reds #16 prospect by MLB.com and #18 by Baseball America. Depending on the prospect rating outlet, Johnson is generally viewed as the fourth or fifth best infield prospect in the Reds system (behind Matt McLain, Elly de la Cruz, and Jose Torres). Johnson played in 27 games for the Dragons in 2021, his first experience at the High-A level. Will that be enough for the Reds to promote Johnson to Double-A? And if he does go to Chattanooga, well, Urbaez is there too at the same position.

Johnson played at Kennesaw Mountain High School in suburban Atlanta, two years behind former Dragon Tyler Stephenson at that school. He began his college career at the University of Georgia in 2018 and transferred after one year to the junior college level. He spent 2019 at Chipola College, a powerhouse junior college program, and he led that team to the Junior College World Series in his only year there. In 57 games at Chipola in 2019, Johnson batted .381 with nine home runs, a .587 slugging percentage, 14 stolen bases, and an OPS of 1.078. The Reds selected him with their fourth pick in the 2019 draft.

After the cancelled season of 2020, Johnson started the 2021 season at Low-A Daytona, playing shortstop. After a slow start and a month on the injured list, he heated up and batted .410 with seven extra base hits over his last 11 games at Daytona to raise average from .224 to .263 and earn a promotion to Dayton.

With the Dragons, Johnson played some shortstop but moved to second base when Matt McLain, the Reds first round draft pick in 2021, was in the lineup (McLain will be the Double-A shortstop in 2022 at Chattanooga). Johnson posted an OPS of over .800 with both Daytona and Dayton in 2021, an excellent accomplishment for a middle infielder. He has hit 16 career home runs in 472 minor league at-bats. After the 2021 season, he went to the prestigious Arizona Fall League and blasted six home runs to rank tied for fourth in that league while also finishing fifth in slugging percentage at .617. Johnson will be a starter at either Dayton or Chattanooga in 2022 (and almost certainly at second base). His assignment will impact the next player on our list.

Tyler Callihan

There are players that emerge as good prospects in professional baseball after coming through the amateur ranks without a lot of attention. Tyler Callihan is most definitely not one of those players. If you came across any list of the top high school hitters in the entire country in 2019, Callihan’s name would be somewhere near the top of the list. He played in showcase events, competed in highly-publicized national home run derbies, and was an international star as a member of TEAM USA, leading his team to a gold medal at the Pan American Championships in 2018.

Callihan is currently ranked as the Reds #12 prospect by MLB.com and #17 by Baseball America. When you read the reports on Callihan, he is praised so heavily for his hitting ability that you get the impression he would be ranked even higher if he was settled on a defensive position. Up to this point, Callihan has been stationed at second base in the Reds organization, and reports indicate that he has worked diligently to improve his skills in the field and eliminate questions about his defense.

Callihan played at Providence School in Jacksonville, Florida, a very strong program that plays a tough schedule. One statistic tells you all you need to know about Callihan as a hitter. In 2019 as a senior, he actually had more home runs (12) than strikeouts (10), an accomplishment that is almost unheard of. He earned a starting spot at Providence as an eighth grader. By the end of his career there, he was selected as the Florida Times-Union All-First Coast Player of the Year and to the All-First Coast All-Decade Team for the 2010’s. He was picked to play for USA Baseball’s Under 18 national team and started all nine games in the Pan American Championships in Panama, batting .528 with two home runs to earn All-Tournament honors. Callihan reached the final round of the prestigious 2018 Under Armour All-America Home Run Derby before losing by one home run to future Reds organization teammate Rece Hinds (who will be previewed among Dragons outfield candidates). He was one of eight sluggers to earn a spot in the 2018 Junior Home Run Derby at the MLB All-Star Game hosted by Washington Nationals, finishing tied for fourth.

Callihan was drafted by the Reds in the third round in 2019. He made his Full-Season debut with Daytona in 2021 and appeared in 23 games, all at second base, before suffering a season-ending right elbow sprain on June 2. Callihan had eight multi-hit games among the 23 he played in and batted .299 a pair of home runs.

Callihan has only 87 at-bats above the Rookie-level of professional baseball and is coming off a major injury that wiped out the majority of his 2021 season. Will he return to Daytona to start 2022 with a plan to join the Dragons later in the season, or open the year with the Dragons? The decision on Ivan Johnson’s assignment will certainly impact Callihan. It would seem unlikely that both players will play for the same team, unless there is a position change involved.

Next up: Shortstops

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

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