Top Draft pick's development plan mapped out

This story was excerpted from Mark Sheldon’s Reds Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.

MILWAUKEE -- When it comes to his professional baseball debut, starting pitcher Chase Burns will be on hold until 2025.

Burns, who was the second overall pick out of Wake Forest in the 2024 MLB Draft last month, is working out at the team's complex in Goodyear, Ariz., with the goal of pitching in instructional league games in the fall.

"Multiple factors played into the decision," Reds player development director Jeremy Farrell said. "But given the time off he had from the end of the Wake Forest season and wanting to set him up for 2025, the plan will be for him to pitch competitively in instructional league and then go into a normal offseason routine to prepare for next year."

Burns, 21, is following a blueprint that was already used by Cincinnati with starting pitcher Rhett Lowder, its 2023 first-round pick. Lowder -- another Wake Forest product -- was at an innings limit and he did not pitch last summer before getting into some games in the instructional league setting.

Ranked as MLB Pipeline's No. 6 overall Draft prospect, and the top-rated right-handed pitcher, Burns was 10-1 with a 2.70 ERA and 191 strikeouts in 100 innings over 16 starts for the Demon Deacons in 2024. He was the ACC's Pitcher of the Year and a Golden Spikes semifinalist, and he led college baseball in strikeouts.

The Reds signed Burns on July 18 for a record $9.25 million bonus and sent him to train in Arizona. Because he last pitched in early June, he needed to build up his arm again.

So far, that is going well.

"Reports have been good," Farrell said. "He's going through his daily throwing program and getting assimilated to pro ball. He's on track to get off the mound in a few weeks."