Cincinnati Reds outfielder Rece Hinds didn't receive much fanfare earlier this week when he was promoted for his big-league debut. Now, after two games, he has something better: a piece of Major League Baseball history. Hinds became the first player on record to slug five extra-base hits over their first two games in the majors.
Hinds went 2 for 3 in his debut on Monday, doubling and hitting a 421-foot home run as part of a Reds win. He raised the bar on Tuesday, hitting another double, a triple, and a home run that was measured at 458 feet. Hinds had a chance at the cycle, but struck out in his final trip to the plate. The Reds nevertheless collected the win to improve their seasonal record to 44-48, putting them 3 1/2 games back of a wild card spot in the NL.
Hinds, 23, was originally a second-round pick as a third baseman in 2019. Despite that draft pedigree, it's fair to describe him as an unlikely candidate to make such history. In 77 Triple-A games this season, he hit .216/.290/.409 with 13 home runs and 12 stolen bases.
Hinds, predictably, has big-time power. He's twice posted exit velocities above 115 mph this season, including a 116 mph line drive in May that put him in the same range as Bobby Witt Jr., Yordan Alvarez, and Fernando Tatis Jr. Hinds hasn't ranked higher on prospect lists (Baseball America had him placed 24th in the Reds system ahead of his debut) because of his extreme strikeout tendencies. He K'd in more than 38% of his plate appearances in Triple-A, and even including his MLB run, he's whiffed on more than 40% of his swings. Teams are more accepting of strikeouts than ever before, but those are untenable rates.
Of course, who cares about sustainability in these cases? What Hinds has done is ensure that he'll always be remembered in baseball lore, much the way that people still talk about Aristides Aquino, another former Reds outfielder who launched 11 home runs in 14 games as a rookie in 2019. Maybe Hinds can make the necessary adjustments and have a lengthy big-league career, or maybe his aforementioned flaws cause him to burn bright and burn quickly. Right now, he's putting on a show and helping the Reds win games, and that makes it OK to live in the moment.