8:01pm: It’s a minor league deal with an invitation to MLB spring training, C. Trent Rosecrans of The Athletic tweets.
5:53pm: Outfielder Dwight Smith Jr. announced Monday on Twitter that he has signed with the Reds (h/t: Roch Kubatko of MASNSports.com). It’s presumably a minor league contract for Smith, whom the Orioles outrighted in late August.
Smith, now 28, became a professional when the Blue Jays chose him 53rd overall in the 2011 draft. He went on to post impressive numbers with the Blue Jays from 2017-18, but that came in a small sample of plate appearances. The Blue Jays then traded Smith to the division-rival Orioles for international pool money prior to the 2019 campaign.
Rebuilding Baltimore gave Smith a chance to establish himself as a regular in his first year with the organization, and while he did hit 13 home runs and steal five bases, he could only muster a .241/.297/.412 line across 392 plate appearances. Smith followed up with a .222/.306/.365 mark with a pair of homers in 72 trips to the plate in 2020.
Now that he’s a member of the Cincy organization, Smith will join a team with a crowded outfield. Nick Castellanos, Jesse Winker, Shogo Akiyama, Nick Senzel and Aristides Aquino are among those in the mix for the Reds.
Nice to see Bob Castellini open up the purse strings to hammer out this deal.
The rebuild begins.does krall know only 3 outfielders can start any game
Settle down, turds. Depth pickup, will be in AAA Louisville
@joe: “settle down turds?” Really. Why use derogatory terms to address your fellow baseball fans? How hard is it to say, “settle down fellas….?”
Settle down Karen
Nah. Reds are blowing it up. Already said they are trying to cut payroll cause they lost too much money this year and spent too much in the off-season. Hence why they are shopping Sonny and a few others already. Gave the fans one semi exciting season and back into the basement now
“Your starting shortstop of the Louisville Bats, Dwight Smith Jr.!” – Thom Brennaman
That would be better than what he normally says
Perfect
Don’t you have to be good before you do a rebuild? Lol. Maybe I missed something.
No? Most teams that do a rebuild are pretty awful prior to said rebuild.
Gotdamn it’s exhausting being a Reds/Bengals fan
Or just generally being associated with Ohio.
must be rough being from the same place that produced the Paul brothers
dang
At least they have Stipe Miocic
At least your not North Dakota
I hear Helltown, Ohio is nice this time of year.
You ain’t lying’!
Yet Dwight Smith Sr. remains unsigned.
Jays have been linked to Sr. This offseason. Using Winter meetings to “lay the groundwork” to sign impact players like Dwight Smith Sr.
Had to trade Iglesias to afford the big guns.
Looks like Smith is gonna try for a triple in that pic
Well, the Reds may have lost Trevor Bauer, Anthony DeSclafani, Robert Stephenson, Archie Bradley, Raisel Iglesias, Curt Casali, and Freddy Galvis, and may trade away Sonny Gray and others, but at least they now have a solid sixth outfielder (Sorry Dwight, nothing personal).
Signed, Disgruntled Fan who was rooting for the Reds to become competitive.
How many of those guys are actually good?? Bauer, Iggy, and Archie and a bunch of mediocrity
I’m a pretty big Curt Casali fan.
It’s less about who they are losing than it is about their general direction, which appears to be selling.
Casty is on his way out….
Good for Dwight. Keeping the dream alive
Last year the Reds were the sneaky pre-season pick in many polls to win the NL Central. Now, they are tearing it down and starting another rebuild? C’mon man. That ain’t necessary. NL Central is ripe for the taking. Reds should be adding pieces not shipping them away.
Anyone remember when his father first came up, along with Jerome Walton…they were so hot that their upper deck rookie cards were going for 15-20 dollars? Then the sophmore jjnx came and by season 2 their 15-20 cards were a buck…almost as bad as joe charbeneau