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By Steve Adams | at
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bravesfan1993
Dumb move by the Reds if it is indeed a spot start. This would start his clock… They could surely find someone else serviceable enough to make one start. I don’t understand the logic here.
Steve Adams
“Starting his clock” is inconsequential if he’s only getting three days of Major League service out of the move. If they option him back to Triple-A right away, there’s no harm done.
As long as he falls shy of 172 days of service this season, he’ll be controllable for an extra season, and if he’s delayed until mid-to-late June, they’ll still avoid Super Two designation.
bravesfan1993
Agreed. But he’s on the roster now. So he will get at least three or four games of service time… If they option him back, and then must wait for the proper time to call him up.. They may be dealing with a grievance.
Steve Adams
No more so than if they’d just waited until late April or mid-June in the first place. If anything, they’d be able to point to giving him a spot start and using it as evidence that they weren’t overly concerned with service time manipulation.
I don’t see any real grievance potential here. Teams wait every year to call up minor leaguers on the first day possible that delays free agency, and grievances aren’t filed. Stephenson’s case is less extreme than that, and he has 55 mediocre innings at AAA under his belt anyhow. There’s no clear-cut evidence that he’s completely MLB-ready.
redsfanman
Stephenson was already on the 40 man roster, and they’ve already burned an option (for this season) to option him to AAA during the spring. He’ll make his start and return to AAA, out a mere 3 or 4 days of service time. The service clock doesn’t continue after he returns to AAA, it stays at 3 or 4 until he gets promoted back.
With DeSclafani and Moscot due back soon they won’t need Stephenson for the 10 days he needs to spend in AAA before being recalled.
depressedtribefan
I don’t think the Reds are too concerned with that. With the way their pitching staff has been injured the past few years, it was almost inevitable that he would start at some point this year at MLB level. I think their logic behind it was let’s start him now, see how he does, and hopefully he does good enough to stay up all year.
bravesfan1993
That’s understandable if they keep him up. But if not, I believe it could cause issues in the future. Just my opinion, however.
slasher016
That’s not how it works. It’s all out service time (days on roster.) It doesn’t matter if he’s on the team in April, if he’s not on the team in May. Yes they could lose a year of control if he stays up all year, but that is highly unlikely with a whole slew of starting pitchers on the DL to start the year for the Reds (Desclafini, Moscot, Bailey, Lamb, Lorenzen.)
depressedtribefan
I understand how it works, but with the luck they have with pitching lately, they could potentially keep him up all year if he fares well in his first start…You’re actually helping my argument with all those guys on the DL.
thecoffinnail
Unless at least 2 other pitchers have a drastic injury and all of their other pitchers on the DL stay injured for the entire year there is zero chance he gets 172 days of service time. This is a non-argument,
Okie_baseball
Bummer. I wonder if this means that the Cleveland talks fell through? I would not mind throwing Rua + 1 their way for a another starter. Bauer has too much upside probably but they have some depth in the rotation, I could deal with one of the other guys. Tomlin maybe? They could use Rua too.
disgruntledreader 2
Fuentes started in RF for the Royals last night and went 0-for-3.