The Reds don't always make headlines on Day 2 of the draft, but this signing is worth pausing on. Cincinnati inked 4th-rounder Ethan Norby out of East Carolina, and according to Jim Callis, the deal is basically slot money: $630,000 against a slot value of $632,500 for the 122 overall pick.
4th-rder Ethan Norby signs w/@Reds for $630k (slot 122 value = $632,500). @ECUBaseball RHP, one of best sliders in @MLBDraft, up to 95 mph w/fastball, low release height & good shapes.
What makes Norby interesting isn't the bonus, it's the arm. Callis flagged him as having one of the best sliders in this entire draft class, a pitch that already made him a nightmare for college hitters. Pair that with a fastball that touches 95 mph, a low release height that creates deception, and what scouts call 'good shapes' across his mix, and you've got a classic fast-mover profile for player development staffs.
Norby spent three years in Greenville, working from the bullpen as a freshman before pushing into East Carolina's weekend rotation as a sophomore and junior. Over that stretch he put up a 3.91 ERA with 19 wins across 56 appearances and 38 starts, and he racked up 313 strikeouts in 239.2 innings, per East Carolina's program. That strikeout rate lines up with what Callis is describing: a breaking ball nasty enough to miss bats at every level he's faced so far.
For a program that's produced a steady pipeline of arms, Norby became one of its most decorated pitchers, picking up multiple All-American nods during his time there. Landing him for essentially slot value is a nice bit of value banking for a Reds front office that just cut a much bigger check elsewhere in this same draft, reportedly handing 1st-rounder Justin Lebron a $5 million bonus, well above his own slot number.
That's the calculus of a modern draft class: overpay where the ceiling demands it, then find value underneath to balance the bonus pool. A sub-slot or right-at-slot deal for a college arm with a plus breaking ball and a fastball that can climb into the mid-90s is exactly the kind of pick that lets a front office get aggressive at the top without blowing past its pool.
Cincinnati has now signed the bulk of its 2026 draft class ahead of the July 27 deadline, and Norby slots in as one of the more talked-about mid-round adds. Where he lands in the system remains to be seen, but if the slider translates the way evaluators think it will, he's a fast track candidate for a bullpen role sooner rather than later.