PHOENIX -- Cincinnati’s Wild Card chase got a little sweeter on Friday with the addition of the club’s No. 24 prospect, Zach Maxwell, better known in Reds Nation as Big Sugar.
Maxwell, a 24-year-old right-handed reliever with an electric fastball, started turning heads last season with 58 strikeouts in 39 1/3 innings for Triple-A Louisville. Then he grabbed the spotlight in May when he hit 101 mph while closing out the Reds’ win over the Brewers in the Spring Breakout game and giving a Roman emperor style thumbs down in celebration.
The moment caught fire on social media, spawning countless memes and immediately endearing him to the Reds faithful.
“I’ve been tagging all of [the social media memes],” said Maxwell, who is the first player from the Reds’ 2022 Draft class to earn a callup. “I tend to see them because friends and family send them to me. I laugh at them. I think they’re funny. I send them to my girlfriend, she thinks they’re funny.”
Maxwell followed up that literal Spring Breakout with a solid season at Louisville that has been especially dominant of late. He left the Bats with a 0.96 ERA in nine August appearances, striking out 13 in 9 1/3 innings.
“I haven’t really changed anything, just gone out there and attacked hitters,” he said. “Good things happen when you throw it over the plate. That’s all I want to do, nothing’s really changed.”
The 6-foot-6, 275 pounder has a fastball that MLB Pipeline graded out as 70. His four-seamers have averaged 99 mph this season, with an average vertical drop of only 10.8 inches.
For context, that little of a vertical drop would give him a top 15 rising fastball in MLB. And when you factor in the 99 mph average velocity, he’s alongside names like Mason Miller and Ryan Helsley.
Maxwell is a mountain of a man with a catchy nickname and social media clout to match, but he knows The Show is a different deal, and he’s eager to prove himself against the best of the best.
“I gotta pitch well first, right? Can’t think too far ahead,” Maxwell said. “Just keep throwing the ball well, keep doing what I’ve been doing. Nothing changes, it’s still baseball, just a bigger stadium.”
Manager Terry Francona cosigned that plan.
“If [young pitchers] get in the mindset of just ‘I’m gonna pound the zone,’ they’re probably going to be OK,” he said. “Now, that’s easier said than done, but if they get to that point, it’s going to be exciting. In our game, consistency is such an important thing.”
With the Reds sitting 1 1/2 games behind the Mets for the final National League Wild Card spot, Francona is hoping Maxwell can provide a spark out of the bullpen.
“Every time somebody gets called up, we’re excited,” Francona said. “We also know he’s not a finished product, but he’s been on a nice roll and hopefully it’ll translate into helping us.”
Francona said he greeted Maxwell by calling him “Cornbread,” a reference to NBA legend Cedric “Cornbread” Maxwell, whose number was retired by the Celtics when Zach was 2 years old.
“He looked at me like I had six heads,” Francona said. “I said, ‘You don’t know who that is?’ He said no.”
Well, Tito, that’s probably just as well, because this Maxwell already has a nickname.
Maxwell said he has learned to fully embrace the Big Sugar moniker, which began thanks to a broadcaster on the ACC Network during one of his appearances for Georgia Tech.
“I was throwing in a game in college and the guy who was doing the TV call called me a ‘big hunk of sugar’ and that immediately got shortened down to Big Sugar,” Maxwell said. “It’s good by me, I don’t hate it.”
Maxwell didn’t appear in Friday’s 11-inning loss, but he was still eager to meet up with his biggest fan -- figuratively and literally -- after the game. Making the trip along with his grandma from Georgia was Maxwell’s father, Tom, a 6-foot-10 former Idaho State basketball player.
“He’ll be here tonight,” Maxwell said before the game. “So I’m kind of excited to see him afterwards and let him know what it all means to kind of go full circle with him.”