The Cincinnati Reds have lost a little depth in the minor leagues at the outfield position after releasing Peyton Burdick. Burdick began the 2024 season in the Baltimore Orioles organization, but after three weeks in Triple-A, the Orioles placed him on waivers, and the Reds claimed him and optioned him to Louisville.
A month later, Peyton Burdick made his Reds debut, although briefly. On May 21st, at Louisville, the Batavia, Ohio native smashed a 500-foot home run.
While it’s “just” Triple-A, that would be the farthest home run of the 2024 professional baseball season. The longest home run hit in the major leagues in 2024 was 480 feet. Funny enough, that home run was hit by the Reds’ own Jakob Junis back in August when Jesus Sanchez and the Miami Marlins played Cincinnati; it was Junis’ debut in a Reds uniform, and he got clobbered, giving up three runs on six hits in 1.2 innings, but Cincinnati won 10-3 that day.
About six weeks after blasting the biggest home run of the year, the Reds placed Peyton Burdick on waivers, and he went unclaimed. Cincinnati outrighted him to Triple-A. Two weeks later, he was placed on the disabled list and did not return to the field for the remaining two and a half months.
While Burdick had a lot of power potential, he didn’t hit too often. He appeared in 47 games for Louisville before being sidelined for the rest of the season due to an injury, but when he was fit and on the field, he hit only.189/.291/.341, with 80 strikeouts in 189 plate appearances. His results were identical in his 16 games in Triple-A Norfolk while in the Orioles’ organizational system to start the season.
The Marlins’ 2019 third-round choice out of Wright State played in 46 games for Miami in 2022 and 2023, hitting five home runs. In 2024, he did not make it to the major leagues with the Orioles or the Reds.
A release in December is both unusual and common. Typically, if a player like Burdick is released in December, it is because they were given the option to play overseas and were granted a release. A cursory internet search has not found that to be the case at this time, but that doesn’t mean it didn’t happen; it simply means that if it did, it has not yet been reported. In any case, Burdick has left the Reds and will pursue other options.
