1-on-1 with Cole Schoenwetter | Cincinnati Reds No. 27 Prospect Talks Development, Playoffs & Goals
All right, welcome back to Cincinnati Reds Daily, everybody, and welcome back to another edition of Queen City Reds. I’m your host, Greg, and today I am joined by a very special guest. It’s Red’s 27th ranked prospect, um, starting pitcher, Cole Shower. Uh, Cole, thanks for joining us today. Yeah, man. Thanks for having me. Excited to be here. Yeah, absolutely. So, we’ll go ahead and get started. So, obviously, you’re from California originally. Um, and I know when we were setting up this interview, we were talking in Pacific time, so I assume you’re out in California um today. Is that uh is that first of all, have you gotten some much neededed rest um since since the season ended? And do you kind of stay out in California um throughout most of the offseason? Yeah, I took definitely took some time off. Um hung out with my family, couple of my friends, but yeah, usually stay in California just cuz free housing, you know, just can’t complain about that. And you know, just the weather is just amazing. I can I can throw outside all year all year round. And you know, I don’t don’t have too much to complain about out here. So I like to like to stay out here until I have to report for spring training. Yeah, that makes sense. A little bit of a little bit of better weather out there, for sure. Um all right, so let’s go back in time to 2023. Um, you’re 21 years old now, but back at 2023, um, the Reds spent almost three times over the slot value in the fourth round to kind of to get you to sign with them and not go to school. I think you were committed to Santa Barbara, um, if I had that right. Um, so kind of take me through that process. When did you know that was going to happen? Um, what what was like the decision like um to, you know, sign and not go to college? And then just like obviously that’s a dream come true getting drafted um by a major league team. Yeah. I mean honestly I had no idea what I wanted to do. I think I was genuinely 50/50 just not sure what would have been best for me. And you know, draft day came around, had all those talks, my agents, my parents, and we decided on a number that, you know, if we if I got that and then I was going to go to Pro Bowl and, you know, unfortunately didn’t go on day one. It is what it is. It’s not all about the round. So, but luckily the Reds came calling after the third round and, you know, gave me the opportunity and I’m forever grateful for that. And you know, it’s just it was truly an amazing moment cuz you know, it’s something you’ve been dreaming out about since you were a kid, like since I was four or five years old. You know, seeing the people on TV wanting to be those people. So, it was truly amazing just, you know, to hear my name get called and, you know, just be be with my family when it happened and a couple of my friends. It was it was pretty awesome. And, you know, I shed a tear, you know, just out of pure excitement. So, it was it was pretty amazing and you I’m just forever grateful for it. Yeah. So, just just I want to tell tell the fans kind of how that all works. Obviously, the baseball MLB draft is so different than like NFL draft or NBA draft because guys, you know, want certain numbers or maybe they’ll go to college or um like seniors in college basically have no leverage so they’re not going to ever go early. Um so, is it kind of kind of how it works? Is it like you through your agent kind of talk with teams and they kind of teams kind of know what to expect of like if if you’ll sign or if you won’t sign or is it some of it’s just a shot in the dark kind of? Yeah, I mean I think before the draft I told teams that you know I was willing willing to sign if if the number was right and for for those that don’t know baseball is kind of like it’s all all based on money. you know, it doesn’t Yeah. doesn’t doesn’t matter where you go. There’s a slot value for every pick and you can get, you know, over under this under the amount of money, you know, whatever, you know, however much money you want, but uh I was lucky enough to get a pretty decent chunk in the fourth round. And, you know, that was that was enough to steer me away from going to college and, you know, just it was a good feeling. Yeah, for sure. So, what um what age would you say or what um like growing up playing baseball? Obviously, when did you feel like okay, I got a pretty good shot to uh play professionally? Uh professionally, honestly, it probably wasn’t until like my junior year of high school. Uh okay, we had a I had a guy who was older than me who all the scouts came to see and you know, we were at practice one day and I threw pretty hard as a junior. I think I was like 95 96 and you know we’re at practice one day and one of the he said to me he was like you know all these guys are going to come watch you next year and I was like what do you mean? He goes bro you’re going to get drafted. I was like really like it just had never really occurred to me that that could happen. And so I think that’s kind of when I realized that like my pro ball dreams could be out there. And you know that was pretty cool. But I mean just since a kid you’ve you always want to play professional baseball like you know it’s it’s what you live for. Yeah, for sure. That that’s cool. That’s kind of a moment like oh my dream can become a reality type of moment. I’m sure it was it was pretty pretty cool to hear. So once again this is where this is where baseball’s obviously so different too from those other leagues of like you can be a first round draft pick and never make it to the majors. Um whereas like if you’re a first round quarterback taken they’re going to start you at some point. Um, y but you baseball you obviously have to go through all the minor leagues and so what’s that process like? So the Reds the Reds draft you know you’re you know you’re with the Reds. Um just can you kind of take fans through what happens next? I’m sure things move fast. I think they probably send you out to Arizona, but kind of how’s that how’s that all work? Um right after you get drafted? Yeah, I got drafted I think I want to say a week later. I was on a flight to Arizona. you know, you go through all your draft MRIs, everything like that. And on my draft MRI, I found out that I had a tear in my shoulder actually. So, I got put straight into rehab unlike, you know, everybody else was in draft camp and then joining instructs and all this. So I went straight straight into the rehab group and I think it was good for me just being young and you know I was little, you know, there was a leash and I think they just wanted to watch me a little bit and see how I reacted to going into rehab. Yeah, I went straight into rehab and then went back to rehab when the new year started and uh didn’t really start throwing or I mean I was throwing but I didn’t start throwing in games until I want to say spring training had ended and then I played the rookie ball season and uh was lucky enough to get promoted, finished the year in LOA and then spent the entire next season in Lowey. Yeah. So, you kind of hit on something that I wanted to um ask about because I follow prospects pretty closely, but I always see so obviously you were you said you were in rehab, so you probably didn’t play in any of these games, but you always see games out there in Arizona that are kind of like on the back fields and I guess they’re like unofficial games because they’re not like a a league happening or anything. Is that just basically they’re just setting up unofficial games to uh get experience for guys that aren’t um with the ACL team or with, you know, Daytona or that type of thing? Is that pretty much what that is on the like back fields type of thing? I would say it’s basically just the ACL team. It’s it’s instructs or bridge camp or extended spring training which is just like you know every affiliate team has already left the complex and they want you to still play games so that you know you can be up to date or up to speed for the regular season and then you know affiliates are still playing so they want you to keep playing in case you know you got to get called up or something like that. So, you know, there’s still games every day uh in Arizona, like even if it’s not the ACL season. Yeah. Yeah. And that was my question because I always see there’s I forget what the guy name guys on or the guy on Instagram I follow. There’s somebody that always has videos of Troy Collins baseball life or something like that. Yeah. He’s always posting and I’m like, well, there’s no games today. But obviously there are they’re just unofficial. Yeah. There’s just there’s the stats don’t matter in them, but they’re just for reps, right? All right. So, let’s get into so like you said 2024 um you appeared in 20 or 24 games between the ACL Reds and Daytona. Uh this year you made 18 starts for Daytona and appeared in 26 games. Um obviously I’m sure the numbers aren’t quite what you’d like them to be um yet, but again you’re still um 21 years old, got drafted just a couple years ago. What would you say the biggest difference um you found in pro ball compared to obviously you didn’t play college, you came straight from high school, which I’m sure is a massive change. Um, what would you say you found like the the biggest differences? Is it just pure talent or is there something else to it? Yeah, I mean I think there’s there’s talent anywhere you go. I played on all those summer circuit things and there was there was always talent, you know, playing with those guys who were all first round picks, but I think it’s just the level in which people go about their daily life. um you know, you would show up to the field and there’s people who have already been there for an hour and you’re just like, “Dude, what are you doing?” You know, it’s just like people really have a routine set and they’re they’re doing it every day. So, I think that was the biggest shock to me was, you know, seeing all this and kind of being like, “All right, like I got to get on that.” You know, I got to start doing that and, you know, put myself in the best position possible to succeed. And I think that was that was the biggest step. Yeah, that’s interesting. It’s funny. I think I’ve said this to somebody. It might have been um Jay Allen when I had him on, but um we had I played high school baseball and we had to play like summer ball. Um and we had a game like every day for two months and I remember thinking like that was ridiculous. Like by the two end of two months I was like man I don’t want to I need a break. So every time I thinking about pro ball like that’s those seasons are long and long and long. So, I’m sure it’s a just a big adjustment from again from high school going straight to that. Gets tiring, but you know, when you love it, there nothing you’d rather do. Yeah, for sure. So, here’s a here’s another question um I have when it comes to minor league baseball. Um obviously players and coaches are still trying to win. Um obviously you guys made the playoffs in Daytona this year, so it’s not like anybody’s going out there trying not to win. Um, but I just I’m just curious with the ultimate goal being like for all the prospects to be as good as they can and work on things. Are there ever times where you guys are like asked to like sac not sacrifice success but maybe like hey don’t th you know what you got in certain pitches and they want you to throw a certain pitch more um to work on it in games and get those reps. Are there’s times where like the coaches are telling you guys to just work on things in games that maybe at the time might not be your best out pitch or might not be the best thing going for you at the moment? Yes and no. I think it’s different from hitters to pitchers because pitchers you only get to pitch once a week if you’re start at least. So you luckily you get a bullpen midweek to work on it. But sometimes they you know they’ll talk to you a coordinator will talk to you and be like hey we want you you know throwing your change up more. That’s what they came up to me and said um after I really struggled for the first two months of the season was just kind of all over the place. They came up to me and it’s like hey change up more you know you get good results with it. It’s do that. So I think that was the biggest thing for me was just you know throwing that more cuz you know obviously it helped. I started to turn my season around a little bit, but I’ve seen them tell people, “Hey, we want you to try and bunt here or, you know, do this.” But it’s nothing really that big that you’re going to be like, “All right, like you’re changing your whole game plan.” And it’s it’s never really that. It’s just little things that you add on and you just sense try and work on those little things. Like we had a guy who would get to two strikes and just couldn’t get out of the zone with this slider. So he would just get hit with two strikes and they’re like so the biggest thing he worked on was just trying to leave the zone with two strikes and you know it’s just it’s just always little thing. It’s never it’s never really anything that big. Yeah, makes sense. All right. So I’ve had like I said I think I told you but I had I’ve had Jay Allen on here before. Um like Jay he’s awesome. I’ve had Kim Kier on. Um and I like always love asking the minor league guys. I have on here just about um the bus rides and the the the trips you guys take because obviously it’s far away uh far and away different than what the major league guys are doing taking planes and whatnot. Uh so do you have like a go-to activity um on bus rides? Are you a listen to music guy or play cards guys or just give people I guess a little bit of insight on what those road trips are like in the minor leagues? I mean for us it’s our buses were never really you know that active. It was mainly just people you get your own row and some people lay down, some people do whatever. I honestly get pretty car sick. So, I was I was kind of I just sit there sit there and stare out the window and, you know, look at my phone until I felt nauseous and then stare out the window again. It was it was never really anything that interesting. You know, maybe we’d play Mafia a couple times or, you know, listen to music. I when we beat St. Lucy in the playoffs. That was that was a pretty fun bus ride back. But, you know, it was it was never really that that interesting. It was honestly just everybody on their own. Yeah. What’s the What was the furthest bus ride you guys had this season? I think it was We were lucky. I think it was only like four and a half hours. Oh, that’s not too bad. Okay. So, you don’t have any You’re not having like any seven, eight hour bus rides. No, that makes it that makes it better. No, Florida State leagues. Not Not that big. Yeah. Yeah. Uh, all right. Here’s a guy I wanted to ask you about just being what? being his teammate. Obviously, he’s a big prospect in the red system, but um what are your thoughts on Alfredo Duno? Um and then just from there, are there anyone else kind of on the Tortugas that you played with this year that you think fans should be aware of or that just kind of really impressed you? Yeah, I mean obviously Duno is just a freak of nature. It was super fun to watch him play, but you know, he’s got the hit tool. He’s got everything you could honestly think of. He’s just he’s great. But I think what impressed me with him was how much he matured mentally on the field too. Um you know earlier in the year it was more of like he would just get super upset when things would go his way like things like that. And you know towards the end of the year it was more like you know he truly believed in himself and like his you could tell that his confidence was up and everything and you know he wasn’t getting too mad and he was honestly like as a as a pitcher you love when your catcher talks to you you know between innings like at least I do. I love when they communicate what they see and I just think he was starting to do that towards the end of the year and it was it was really nice to see because in the beginning of the year he didn’t do it at all. you know, it’s it almost seemed like he was a little lazy in that aspect, but you know, just the way he grew in that aspect of the game, it was it was pretty awesome to watch cuz, you know, he’s only a 19-year-old kid and Yeah. Yeah. It’s crazy. So, I think that was that was really impressive just seeing that like from him and I think that made him a lot better and made him more fun to throw to. Yeah, that’s awesome. And then uh anyone else that kind of stood out for you on Daytona that you want to shout out or just that impressed you um playing with him all season? Yeah. Uh Ty Floyd was really fun to play with. He wasn’t there that long. Unfortunately, he got hurt, but he was he was someone that I really looked up to. Um I got the chance to live with him, too, so that was pretty cool. He was Oh, nice. a great dude. I think he was just a great mentor because he’s kind of been through it all, you know, at LSU. And that was that was pretty cool. um just learning from him and you know getting advice and you know all that stuff and he’s just a great dude. I really enjoyed my time with him. Awesome. Yeah, he’s unfortunately been kind of hit by the injury bug since the Reds drafted him but he started out this year. Unbelievable. Yeah. Um so you mentioned obviously you said the bus ride was fun after you guys beat St. Lucy um in the playoffs. What what was it kind of like u making the playoffs and making it to the championship game? Obviously you guys lost in the championship, but um pretty awesome run that you guys had um the second half of the season. Yeah, I mean from where we I think the guys who were there all year kind of knew that we we had a shot to make it and unfortunately the first half the year didn’t go very well. I think we might have been in third or maybe in fourth place and you know just wasn’t wasn’t the best but we knew that talent was there. Like you could look at our roster and you’d be like wow like that’s a good roster. we just unfortunately weren’t putting it together. And then second half came around and you know we got Tyson Lewis who was pretty good. He he helped us a lot. Lantigua uh Alcantra and uh you know just getting those people definitely helped and you know I think when they came the the mood kind of changed like I you know we we’re we’re a winning club now. We can we can win and it’s it’s going to be pretty fun. And then, you know, we made the playoffs with a week left and hung out for a little bit and then unfortunately dropped the first game to St. Lucy at home which sucked. You know, we did all we could just defensively weren’t there. Had a couple errors. I think we gave up two 300 runs and then, you know, we just kept playing our game, doing what we had done all year. Um, I think our bullpen was incredible. I don’t think we gave up a run that entire entire series out of the bullpen. maybe maybe one or two. But that was a really fun series just, you know, seeing seeing the guys come together and just win like that and getting super hype after and, you know, spraying champagne or I say it’s always it’s always so much fun seeing the celebrations or what not on Instagram. Yeah, half the guys probably aren’t even old enough, right? Yeah, it wasn’t even it was like apple cider or whatever. But I think it was just a cool moment because you know that that team they had our number all year and then we were able to go out and go out and beat them when it mattered. Yeah. No, that’s very cool. Um all right, a couple just a couple just random questions here. Um kind of keep it light, but did you have a uh who were you a who were you a fan of, I guess, as a baseball player growing up? And then um did you have a favorite player specifically? Yeah. Uh, pitching wise, I like Jake Arriad a lot growing up. I grew up a Cubs fan. So, okay. You know, really just anyone on that Cubs team from 2014 to 2018 when when I really liked him. Um, Jake Aretta, Anthony Rizzo, Chris Bryant, kind of all those guys were my favorite. Kyle Hendris. But, uh, you know, just being from LA, I really liked Matt Kemp growing up. You know, it’s okay. It’s why I wear number 27. He’s just he was my favorite growing up. used to have one of those big stickers of him hanging up in my room somewhere and I think that was that was my favorite player growing up was him but and then it slowly turned to the pitching side and I think Jake Jerretta was you know when I was like all right I want to be a pitcher. Yeah, that makes sense. Speaking of did you play did you were you when you were in high school did you play in the field as well still or did you by that time did they pretty much only have you pitching? Uh, I played like my sophomore well my freshman year was co so I played I played a little bit my sophomore year and mainly just pitched. We had other guys who could play in the field. Started my junior year and I remember I took a ground ball up the finger and I was just like, “All right, I’m done with this.” Like I don’t want to do this anymore. Yeah. Just focus on what you’re good at. Like I didn’t I didn’t even want to hit. And then so I just stuck to pitching and I hit my senior year and actually hit pretty well because just because we needed it I guess. and then uh just pitched and pitched and daged. That was it. Nice. All right. So, you’re stranded. If you were stranded on a desert island and you could only bring one teammate from this year’s team, um who would you take? And then who wouldn’t who would you not who would you least want to likely uh take? I probably would have taken Ty Floyd. That dude’s from Georgia. He’s he’s I figured that was going to be your uh who you were gonna say after your answer earlier. He’s the most wilderness guy I’ve ever ever met. I mean, dude taught me how to fish, so that was pretty cool. Uh, who I wouldn’t want to take? Um, I don’t know, maybe like Tristan Smith or Beny. They just don’t strike me as people with that much of a survival instinct, but both great people. Nice. Um, if you could face one major league hitter, um, if you had a chance just to hit face one major league hitter, um, who would you pick? I think it’s got to be Shi. I mean, you figured you’d say Otani or Judge. Yeah. Yeah. I think you, you know, you always want to go after the big dog and Yeah. Yeah. Unfortunately, the Reds got to face him. Yeah. A couple weeks ago. Yeah. I think it’d be fun no matter what. All right, a couple more before we wrap up here. This has been great. Um, appreciate you. Appreciate you again, um, joining me. Yeah, of course. Do you have any kind of goals for yourself this off seasonason? I’m sure you have internal goals or whatnot. Um, and then going into the next season and kind of what what are some things that you’re kind of trying to work on going into um, I guess it’s your third season um, that you’ll really be pitching? Yeah, I think just, you know, the obvious goals of trying to get in the best shape possible, um, taking care of myself, eating well, just doing all those things to, you know, keep myself healthy and give myself the best physical chance. But I think just working on the mental game too, you know, taking time to like actually relax so that, you know, when the season comes, it’s just go go go. Um, and then I think when it comes to the actual season, just, you know, trying to move up the levels as fast as I can, do what I can to be able to help the big league club and, you know, hopefully get my walk rate down a little bit. That’s another goal. But yeah, all good stuff. Yeah, it’s just I think this is all stuff that will come with time, too. Just, you know, staying the course and doing what I’ve been doing, you know, especially as of recently. I think my last month and a half of the season were, you know, probably the best I’ve thrown in my pro career. So, I think just building off that and continuing to, you know, to succeed, I think that will help me a lot. Yeah, for sure. That’s that’s obviously um building off building off the strong, you know, outings is is huge. And then one thing I wanted to ask, I meant to ask it up above and I skipped past it, but being obviously a starting pitcher where you guys throw every um it’s usually not even every five days, it’s once a week in the minor, right? It’s like every sixth day or something. Yeah. So um do you guys have do you guys do anything like while you’re um you know like during the days on the days you’re not pitching like do you guys do you guys ever get to go play golf or anything? I don’t know if you’re a golfer, but do or do you is it it mainly pretty much you’re still on the same schedule as everybody else? Yeah, you’re still you’re still on the same schedule. You got to you got to throw, you got to work out, you know, do your recovery, all that stuff and condition, but you know, you you find times to go out and golf or do something with the with your boys. But yeah, you know, you’re still you’re still at the field from, you know, 1 until 10 every day. even even when you’re not pitching, you know, you’re still there. Still doing, you know, your your preparation for the week shows how well you’re going to throw. It’s what our coach would always say. He’s like, your preparation through the week is is the most important part. So, you know, just you got to take that stuff seriously because it definitely definitely helps. Yeah, for sure. So, what um what does offseason look like typical typically for I know you hit on a little bit of like some of your goals and what you’ll do in the offseason. Um, but do do like the Reds kind of give you a plan um after the season or like do you have your own coaches on the side? Um, how’s that kind of all work and like what’s the throwing program type of stuff um like in the offseason? Yeah, they give you a player plan, which is, you know, what they think what they want you to work on, stuff like that. And then they give you a throwing throwing schedule. I start throwing again on Monday. Um, I think it’s like the 16th or something, I don’t know. And then uh they give you a weightlifting schedule which you can do. You can do your own one if you want which is what I’m doing just with a trainer in town. So I’m doing that and then you know it’s it’s the same thing every day. Wake up, work out, throw, hang out. I mean it’s it’s pretty easy but stuff like that to you know get the get the day done and hopefully get back to season soon because you know I’m excited for it. Yeah, I was gonna say and then just to wrap it up, I guess kind of hit on that point, but like when when do you kind of hear um of like getting close to spring training of okay, we’re we’re getting close to, you know, kicking off and we got to head back out to Arizona, like when do you kind of hear about like uh all that stuff and what’s kind of going to come up for you for the season, I guess. Yeah, they they send a a report date uh for pitchers and catchers. It’s usually around like February 14th. Um, so I mean I think you kind of you kind of find out about the you you know the general time and then I’d say you find out probably like a week before when you’re going. Nice. Yeah. So you kind of they kind of give you Yeah. a time around and then you’re like, “Okay, we got to get out there.” Um, is there any one one final question on just on the spring training side of things? That’s I think spring training is always interesting to me because you have so many you have obviously major league spring training but everybody’s out there whether it’s low A, high A, double A, triple A. Is there anything um I guess interesting like that happens on the back fields that like just a normal fan would never think about out there um that you that comes to your mind or just just again it’s just an interesting aspect that’s it’s so different because people think of spring training they think of the major league guys playing in the games but um for anyone that’s ever been to spring training I’ve been out there to Arizona a couple times and it’s like on those back fields there’s everything going on you know there’s so many different games going and so many um different levels of players. Yeah, I mean, you know, we’re out we’re out there grinding, too. It’s it’s not just the big league club. You know, all those guys in the big league clubs, they were they were on the back fields at one point, too. You know, doing what we’re doing, just, you know, just trying to get better every day. You know, doing those doing those, you know, drills that, you know, you probably don’t want to be doing, but, you know, you’re out there doing them. And I wouldn’t say it’s anything that like you you wouldn’t expect. You know, it’s the the stuff you’ve been doing all your life pretty much. the basic stuff, bunt coverage and pitch and field. I always love that growing up. BFPs, it’s it’s all the basic stuff. You know, you’re just you’re just doing it maybe at a little higher higher speed, but you know, you’re still still doing everything that you know, you’ve been doing since you were 10. Yeah, for sure. Sure. And that’s that’s when I saw we went on the back fields um a couple years ago when I was out there and it’s literally like you said like you literally go out there and you watch pitchers do PS and it doesn’t matter if you’re like the number one prospect or you know nonranked prospect like you’re out there grinding and you’re doing the things that your high school coaches taught you or your little league coach has taught you. Um it’s kind of cool to see because you appreciate you like just everyone’s always still working on the little things. So yeah, doesn’t matter who you are, you’re you’re out there you’re out there grinding with everybody else. Yeah, for sure. Well, cool. This has been amazing. I appreciate the 30 minutes um that you took here. Um we’ll be we’ll be all watching you for sure next year and hope you continue to uh grow and get better. So, uh thanks for joining. Thanks for joining me and like I said, we’ll be watching and hopefully hopefully you continue to climb up the ladder. Yep. Thanks for having me. Yeah, absolutely. All right, as everybody uh thanks for watching. Um, as always, if you made it this far, appreciate if you’d like, subscribe, comment, do all the fun things. But, um, we’ll have we have a couple more interviews lined up throughout the off season. But again, thanks to, um, Cole for joining us today. And as always, I leave you with a go Reds.
Welcome back to Cincinnati Reds Daily!
In this episode of Queen City Reds, Greg sits down for an exclusive 1-on-1 interview with Cincinnati Reds No. 27 ranked prospect, Cole Schoenwetter — one of the most intriguing young arms in the organization.
Cole opens up about:
⚾ His journey from California to the Reds organization
🎓 The decision to sign instead of going to UC Santa Barbara
💪 Adjusting from high school to pro ball
🧢 What the offseason looks like for a minor league pitcher
🚌 Bus-ride stories, favorite teammates, and playoff moments
🔥 His goals heading into the 2026 season
If you’re a Reds fan or love following up-and-coming prospects, this is a can’t-miss interview.
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