Reds' Draft pick injured in fatal wreck

Mason Felt, the Reds' fifth-round pick in this year's Draft, was critically injured and his father, Richard, was killed Saturday morning in a one-car accident outside Ozona, Texas.

Felt, 18, was driving a 2004 Ford pickup truck east on Interstate-10 that drifted onto the shoulder, a police dispatcher told the San Angelo Standard-Times. He overcorrected and crossed both lanes of traffic into the median before overturning, the newspaper reported.

Felt's condition improved Monday to critical but stable, a Reds spokesman told MLB.com.

A left-handed pitcher out of Hebron Christian Academy in Dacula, Ga., Felt grew up in nearby Hoschton. His high school coach, Heath Kennedy, told the Gwinnett Daily Post that Felt was returning from Arizona, where he had been rehabbing his shoulder following Tommy John surgery that kept him from pitching last season. His father had flown out west to ride back with him.

Richard Felt was 51. Selected by the Montreal Expos in the first round of the 1980 January Draft, he pitched in the Minor Leagues for the Dodgers and Twins from 1980-85. The Standard-Times reported that he was not wearing a seat belt and died at the scene.

Rob Butcher, the Reds' director of media relations, told MLB.com on Sunday that the team has been in contact with police, the hospital and Felt's mother, who arrived at the hospital Sunday.

Felt committed to attend Oregon State but signed with the Reds for a reported $317,800. He is currently assigned to the Rookie-level Arizona League Reds.