Rece Hinds

Rece Xola Hinds

• Bats Right, Throws Right
• Height 6' 4", Weight 215 lb.
• High School Niceville High School, IMG Academy
• Debut July 8, 2024

• Born September 5, 2000 in Niceville, FL USA

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Biographical Information

"The power is legit. Man, when he gets a hold of the ball -- I’ve never really seen many balls go where he hit it tonight. Just how hard he hits the ball, too. It’s impressive. I’m happy for him. He’s living the dream." Cincinnati reds catcher Tyler Stephenson, commenting on Rece Hinds' first two major league games.

Outfielder Rece Hinds was drafted by the Cincinnati Reds in the 2nd round of the 2019 amateur draft, out of the IMG Academy in Bradenton, FL to which he had transferred after his junior year of high school. He was a third baseman at the time. He only had the opportunity to play three games after signing with the Reds in 2019, going 0 for 8, but because he was a high draft pick, he was able to be present at the major league team's alternate training site in Dayton, OH when the COVID-19 pandemic shut down the minor leagues in 2020.

Thus, his real professional playing debut came in 2021, with the ACL Reds and Daytona Tortugas of what was called the Low-A Southeast that year only. In 54 games, he hit .259/.332/.542, showing some promising power with 13 doubles and 12 homers. In 2022, he moved to the outfield and was with three different teams, including a rehabilitation assignment back in the Arizona Complex League, 67 games in the Midwest League with the Dayton Dragons, and a six-game look at AA with the Chattanooga Lookouts of the Southern League. His combined slash line was .233/.304/.428. Following that season, he played in the Arizona Fall League and participated in the Rising Stars Game for the top performers in that circuit. He finally played over 100 games in a season in 2023, when he appeared in 109 contests for Chattanooga. He was named a Reds organizational All-Star after hitting .269 and slugging .536 with 23 doubles and 98 RBIs.

The start to his 2024 season wasn't that great, as playing in AAA for the first time with the Louisville Bats, he was hitting .216 after 77 games, although the power was still there - 14 doubles and 13 homers. He was called up to Cincinnati on July 8th but was not really expecting it. Still, he had a very strong debut, going 2 for 3 in a 6-0 win over the Colorado Rockies, highlighted by a massive home run off Tyler Kinley estimated at 449 feet; earlier in the game, his first major league hit had been a double. For the record, only one other player had hit a longer homer in his major league debut since the introduction of Statcast in 2015, Colorado's Sam Hilliard with a 455-foot blast in 2019. As an encore, he hit three more extra-base hits in his next game on July 9th - including another tape-measure homer that travelled even longer than his first one as it was estimated at 458 feet. There was no record of any other player getting five extra-base hits in his first two major league games since at least 1900 - and all this was accomplished at home and not, as one could think, at Coors Field. He was the first player in the Statcast era to have his first two career homer travel over 445 feet, and the first player in Reds history to homer in his first two games. He had a chance to also hit for the cycle when he came up against reliever Nick Mears in the 8th needing just a single, but he was still taking big swings and he struck out to end the inning. For one, pitcher Nick Lodolo, who had been with him at the Reds' alternate training site in 2020, was not surprised about his power: “You could see it then. The guy is a freak athlete, for sure," he told reporters after the game. On July 12th, he hit the first grand slam of his career, off Yonny Chirinos of the Miami Marlins in a 7-4 win. That earned him comparisons to Willie Mays, who was the last player who, in a five-game span at any point, had collected 9 hits, 7 for extra bases, with 3 homers, 2 stolen bases, 1 triple and 1 grand slam. If that wasn't enough, he then had a two-homer game on July 13th to push his numbers even further into unprecedented territory.

Further Reading

• Mike Petraglia: "Hinds hits his 4th, 5th HRs in 6th career game, extending unreal run", mlb.com, June 13, 2024. [1]
• Mark Sheldon: "Hinds' emotional MLB debut highlighted by 'blackout' trip around bases: Rookie's 449-foot blast is 2nd longest by player in MLB debut since '15", mlb.com, July 8, 2024. [2]
• Mark Sheldon: "Encore! Hinds continues historic power display in remarkable start to career", mlb.com, July 10, 2024. [3]
• Mark Sheldon: "Five days post-debut, Hinds' historic stretch turns grand", mlb.com, July 13, 2024. [4]

Related Sites

• Rece Hinds on mlb.com