Get To Know a Call-Up: Michael Reed

The Braves shuffled the roster a little bit this afternoon, and to expand the bench in the wake of this weekend’s designation of outfielder Peter Bourjos, the Braves have selected the contract of Gwinnett outfielder Michael Reed.

Michael Reed, OF
Age: 25
Bats: R
2018 Level: AAA Gwinnett

The Results

2018 (AA/AAA): .337/.460/.535 | 9 HR | 7 SB | 16.7% BB | 26.3% K | 182 wRC+

The History

Reed was a 10th-round selection by the Milwaukee Brewers in 2011, and his six season in the Brewers tantalized with evident raw power and excellent strikezone judgement, but a poor batting profile. Despite this, Reed did get a September cup of coffee in both 2015 and 2016. In 2017, Reed cooled his heels all season with the AA Biloxi Shuckers, and with good reason as he only hit .208/.346/.351.

I wrote back in the Braves System Depth offseason series that possibly no man in professional baseball could benefit from a change in his batting profile more than Reed. The Braves acquired him on a minor league free agent deal, without an invitation to big league spring training. Opening Day assignments placed him in AA Mississippi, lower on the depth chart than fellow minor league veterans like Jaff Decker, Ezequiel Carrera, and Lane Adams.

Since then, those guys are no longer with the organization and Michael Reed has only been the most productive offensive player in all of the Braves minor leagues. Reed killed Southern League pitching to the tune of a .314/.446/.493 batting line. Forcing the organization to promote him to Gwinnett, Reed channeled his inner Ronald Acuña and somehow got even better, hitting .369/.480/.592. Reed was named the OFR Position Player of the Week in the 6/3/2018 Farm Report. He is second in all of the Braves minors in hits (to Rome’s Riley Delgado) and doubles (to Rome’s Drew Waters), and is sixth in home runs and stolen bases while leading all Braves minor leaguers in batting average, on-base percentage, OPS, and wRC+.

The Report

Reed is listed as 6′-even and 215 pounds, but is built like a small tank. He has a quick bat and good pitch strike recognition and strike zone judgement, which he has been using to good effect in 2018 to pepper the field with line drives. Reed has a powerful trunk and forearms, but had severe groundball tendencies until this season. If pitchers can get him off-stride, he can still be prone to rolling over the ball weakly to the right side, but pitchers that have been able to do that this year know they’ve accomplished something.

Reed has above average speed which used to rate plus. Reed can adequately play any of the outfield positions, but is somewhat stretched in center field.

What’s Next

Reed should get the opportunity to do what Lane Adams and Peter Bourjos could not, hold the 4th-outfielder and primary right-handed pinch hitter role. Reed comes into the major league season a huge wild card, and his challenge will be to keep swinging a hot bat in what will be more limited playing time behind a set outfield of Acuña, Ender Inciarte, and Nick Markakis.

In another roster move today, RHP Peter Moylan was added to the disabled list and RHP Evan Phillips was called up from Gwinnett. Last week I published Get To Know a Call-Up: Evan Phillips to mark the occassion, but unfortunately Phillips was sent back without getting into a game. Everything in that article remains the same, except Phillips pitched three perfect appearances last week for Gwinnett.