Haughton’s Peyton Stovall One of the Reds Top Prospects

It's always nice to see locals from the Shreveport-Bossier area succeed at the highest levels. Whether you're talking about Seth Lugo, Dak Prescott, Terry Bradshaw or the numerous other celebrities or athletes from our neck of the woods who have reached the highest levels of their professions.

One guy I'm particularly happy to see succeed is Haughton, Louisiana's own Peyton Stovall. Stovall has had quite the journey to get where he currently is. Back in 2021, he was projected to be a 1st round draft pick in the MLB Draft. But, for one reason or another, he opted to go the College route and signed up to play ball for the Arkansas Razorbacks.

At the college levels, when he was on the field, he was excellent. However, bad luck and the injury bug hindered his college career a bit. He had a good Freshman year and got some post season honors. His sophomore year was cut short by injury. His junior year was also shortened by injury. However, despite missing 12 games, he still put together a really solid season and was named 3rd team All-American and 2nd Team All-SEC.

In the end, he was drafted by the Cincinnati Reds in the 4th Round of the 2024 MLB Draft. Not exactly the 1st round draft pick I'm sure he expected, but he got drafted by a team known to develop solid baseball players - especially now with future Hall of Fame Manager Tito Francona in charge.

Currently, Stovall is the 27th ranked prospect in the Reds system. However, if he keeps performing at a high level in 2025, he could be climbing the ranks pretty quickly.

He only played in 16 games of A ball in 2024, so kind of hard to get a full grasp on how he's going to handle the world of professional baseball, but in limited time he showed some really positive signs.

In those 16 games, he hit .235 with an on-base percentage of .355 with 6 RBIs and 4 stolen bases. Again, very limited action, but those are all positives in a small sample size. With the Reds moving on from Jonathan India in the off-season, there's the potential that that job could be his in the future if he performs.

Can he meet the challenge and rise to the occasion? Only time will tell. But, very early in his pro career, he's showing some pretty positive signs. Hard work with good results can go a long way when trying to find an opportunity.