The Reds have signed righty Ross Ohlendorf to a Major League deal, Zach Buchanan of the Cincinnati Enquirer tweets. The Reds have announced that it’s a one-year deal. Ohlendorf is a client of Jon Fetterolf.
The 33-year-old Ohlendorf opted out of his minor-league deal with the Royals earlier this week. He figures to provide help for a Reds bullpen that lacked stability behind closer J.J. Hoover.
Ohlendorf missed a chunk of the 2015 campaign due to a groin injury but pitched decently when healthy, posting a 3.72 ERA, 8.8 K/9 and 3.3 BB/9 in 19 1/3 innings with the Rangers and also showing a good strikeout rate in 36 2/3 innings in Triple-A. It was his first big-league season since 2008 spent primarily in the bullpen, and he experienced the bump in velocity typical of starter-to-reliever conversions, throwing his fastball at an average of 93.8 MPH. Ohlendorf has played parts of eight seasons in the big leagues, also appearing with the Yankees, Pirates, Padres and Nationals.
They need more bullpen pieces. Especially a lefty!!!!
absolutely..I’m not totally sure why we let Manny Parra go..especially considering how much was wasted waiting for Sean Marshall’s old ass to get “healthy”..but somebody’s gonna have to step up..
DD will do the Red Sox like he did the Tigers, kill the bullpen and the farm teams. Good luck
And you posted that under this article why?
Good to see that the Reds are using the 30 million they’ve saved this offseason wisely.
It’s a necessary move to bridge the gap to the corps of young middle relievers they traded for last year and in the off-season!
Considering they are rebuilding, did you really expect them to maintain payroll? I will guarantee they aren’t expecting the fans to buy the same amount of tickets.
Awesome let’s start printing those World Series tickets!!! Said no Reds fan ever
Good veteran arm. I wonder if an innings eater until Bailey returns, then swingman? Not familiar with the Reds much
Bailey now expected back in early may… Moscot dealing with a strain and likely to miss the first few days of the season… Lorenzen out at least a few more weeks with elbow pain… Lamb maybe back from back surgery in late April… Robert Stephenson and Cody Reed held back by service clock issues…
Brandon Finnegan and Tim Melville are now the top candidates for the final 2 spots in the rotation… joining DeSclafani, Iglesias, and Simon.
Currently they’re having some trouble filling out their rotation, and the makeup of the bullpen is totally unknown. Smart money seems to be on Ohlendorf filling a bullpen spot, since he isn’t even stretched out for the rotation. If he did make the rotation, over Tim Melville, it’d probably only be for a couple of starts. The bullpen seems far more likely, but they’ve made confusing statements after the signing suggesting he’s a rotation candidate.
I’m pretty familiar with the Reds, and unclear where exactly Ohlendorf fits in.
he will definitely be in the bullpen. a veteran on a (what i can only imagine) affordable one year deal. he does well/ok and he can be traded at deadline kind of like how the Braves had Jim Johnson last year.
Bailey is progressing very well, and once he comes back in May it will be Bailey / Disco / Iglesias / Simon / Finnegan. I would assume Melville holds down a spot until Bailey is back.
The BP will be a dumpster fire, but we aren’t under the pretense of contending anyway, so meh.
I’m interested to see if Moscot will be any good personally.
Called it! Boo-yah!