Cincinnati Reds: Jose Siri on historic streak in Dayton

Before the season began, Cincinnati Reds outfield prospect Jose Siri wasn’t on many top prospect lists. He wasn’t on John’s Top 20 Reds list and he is just 24th on MLB Pipeline’s Top 30 Reds prospects. Despite that, Siri is making national headlines with his play for the Dayton Dragons in the Midwest League (High-A).

Right now, the 22-year-old center fielder from the Dominican Republic has a 30-game hit streak and is five games away from tying the all-time record in the league’s history (35 by Tony Toups for Waterloo in 1977). Since he started this streak back on June 22, Siri is hitting .348 with ten home runs.

After not being on Baseball America’s preseason list of top Reds prospects, Siri cracked the top ten on their midseason update in his first full season with the Dragons. Last year, he played 27 games at Low-A after starting the year in Rookie ball (Billings).

To get some insight on how Siri has been so successful, I asked Dayton play-by-play announcer Tom Nichols over the weekend about what has stood out to him. One of the things that he mentioned was how great he has been as an all-around player.

“I think he has been the best all-around player over a two-month period that I have seen in Dayton in my 10 years here. He is a true five-tool player. He is a great defensive center fielder with blazing speed and tremendous instincts. He is aggressive on the bases. As a hitter, as the hitting streak indicates, he has been very consistent.”

Over the last ten years, the Dragons have had players play in their ballpark such as Todd Frazier (2008), Didi Gregorius (2010), and Billy Hamilton (2011). When you hear Siri mentioned as one of the best on a list with those names, it stands out big time.

Siri is one of five players in the Midwest League with over 100 hits this season (103, which is tied with his teammate Taylor Trammell). In addition, he has the most stolen bases (29 in 40 attempts), second in runs scored (71), fourth in triples (eight), and fourth in slugging percentage (.517).

If you count his 2016 numbers in Billings, Siri has 26 home runs in the last two seasons. As for where he hits those home runs, it’s pretty much evenly spread across the field. According to MLB Farm’s spray charts, seven of his 16 home runs have gone to right field or right center. Plus, the power is fun to watch:

While Siri is having a historic stretch of games, there is always something that a player needs to work on, which is part of their development process. Nichols told me some of the things he needs to do better at the plate, but also talked about his upside:

“He has some things to work on as a hitter in terms of recognizing the breaking ball and laying off the slider out of the zone, but in terms of upside, he is off the charts.”

Defensively, Siri hasn’t made many errors in the outfield. He has seven errors in 91 games at center or right field. His speed can help him get to any baseball if he takes a wrong route initially. Here is a catch he made in right field that ended a game earlier this month:

The Dragons have the night off tonight and Siri will look to extend his hit streak Wednesday night in Lansing against the Lugnuts (Toronto Blue Jays). This year, he is 5-for-18 against Lansing and three of those hits are against one pitcher (Andy Ravel).

Right now, Siri is getting up there in popularity with the Siri from the IPhone. The Reds prospect may not have all the answers like the IPhone might (unless you are an Android supporter), but it will be fun to watch how he develops in an organization that is in rebuilding mode.