Reds Make Surprising Pick, Draft Hometown Star in Late Round of MLB Draft

The Cincinnati Reds made a surprising draft pick in the 19th round on Sunday afternoon, taking Matt Ponatoski out of Moeller High School.

Ponatoski has already established himself as one of the top high school athletes in the country. Along with starring on the baseball field at Moeller, he was also the school's quarterback and was named Gatorade Ohio Player of the Year in both football and baseball during the 2024-25 school year.

Ponatoski is committed to the University of Kentucky, where he plans to play both football and baseball. It feels likely that he will still choose to honor that commitment and begin his college career rather than sign with the Reds.

“Matt will go down as one of the top players to ever walk the halls at Moeller High School, which is saying a lot,” Moeller High School baseball coach Tim Held told WLWT's Kurt Knue.

The Reds would likely need to offer him a huge signing bonus for him to skip college.

The Greatest Draft Pick in Reds' History

Red — Johnny Bench during a ceremony at Great American Ball Park in 2017. Syndication Cincinnati | USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect

MLB.com recently took a look at the single greatest Draft selection in the history of all 30 organizations. When it came to the Reds, they went with a franchise legend.

"One of two members of the first-ever Draft class of ’65 in this story, Bench trails only Nolan Ryan (the other one listed here) among those drafted and signed in WAR, with 75.1," MLB.com's Jonathan Mayo wrote. "That mark tops all drafted catchers and the Hall of Famer was a 14-time All-Star who won 10 Gold Gloves, a pair of MVPs and the Rookie of the Year Award."

Bench didn't know much about the Reds before they drafted him.

“The only thing I knew about the Reds at the time was they had lost to the Yankees in ’61,” he told Brian Frank of The Herd Chronicles. “Mantle of course was my idol, being from Oklahoma. That’s all I knew about them. Then I started reading about them and they’d had Frank Robinson, Joey Jay, (Wally) Post, and Vada Pinson, guys that were really, really good players.”

Bench went on to play 17 seasons for the Redsm slashing .267/.342/.817 to go along with 389 career home runs. He led Major League Baseball in RBIs in 1970, 1972, and 1974.

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