The Diamondbacks announced they’ve selected the contract of outfielder Josh Reddick. To create active and 40-man roster space, the team designated reliever Yoan López for assignment.
Reddick, 34, will now appear in the majors for the thirteenth consecutive season. Signed by the Astros to a four-year, $52MM free agent contract during the 2016-17 offseason, Reddick made an immediate impact on Houston’s 2017 World Series club. The veteran hit a very strong .314/.363/.484 across 540 plate appearances that year. He remained the Astros primary right fielder over the next three seasons, although he never again found the same level of productivity. Between 2018-20, the left-handed hitter slashed .258/.318/.400.
Once an elite corner outfielder, Reddick saw his defensive metrics go in the wrong direction in 2020. Each of Defensive Runs Saved (DRS), Ultimate Zone Rating (UZR) and Statcast’s Outs Above Average (OAA) agreed he had a difficult time tracking down fly balls last season. DRS rated Reddick as three runs worse than the average right fielder, while UZR pegged him at eight runs below average. Statcast, meanwhile, estimated Reddick got to five fewer plays than expected, placing him in the second percentile among outfielders league wide.
Advanced defensive metrics are shaky in small samples and Reddick rated highly as a defender as recently as 2019, so it’s possible the former Gold Glover can rebound somewhat in the grass. Still, Reddick’s sprint speeds have dropped as he’s gotten into his mid-30’s, so his peak is almost certainly behind him. Arizona is without expected starting right fielder Kole Calhoun due to hamstring surgery, though, so Reddick should add a capable bat to the corner outfield mix. He hit .245/.316/.378 with the Astros last year, albeit with a concerning uptick in strikeouts.
Reddick signed a minors deal with Arizona last month and got off to a solid start with Triple-A Reno, slashing .304/.365/.478 in 52 plate appearances. By making the MLB roster, he’ll lock in a prorated portion of a $750K salary.
López’s designation could close the book on an up-and-down tenure in Phoenix. A high-profile international amateur signee, he struggled as a starter in the minors but showed some promise after a bullpen transfer. The hard-throwing righty tossed 60 2/3 innings of 3.41 ERA ball in 2019, albeit with less inspiring peripherals. López has been rather home run and walk prone over the last two seasons, resulting in a ghastly 6.19 ERA in 32 combined frames.
To his credit, López is actually generating strikeouts and whiffs at a career-best mark so far this season. He still averages a strong 95.9 MPH on his heater. The 28-year-old also has all three minor league option years remaining, meaning any club that acquires could shuttle him back and forth between the majors and Triple-A over the next few years. Given López’s prospect pedigree, arm strength and roster flexibility, it wouldn’t be a surprise to see another club take a flyer on him in the coming days. The D-Backs will have a week to trade him or expose him to the waiver wire.
Lopez wolnt clear
Really? Surprised they went Yoan Lopez instead of Joakim Soria. Lopez is 28. Soria is 37.
Soria has a long track record of quality performance. He will have a longer leash than Lopez who struggled to live up to his prospect billing and has been unable to put up a quality effort by his late 20s
Hopefully they can get something at the deadline for Soria.
It’s not like they’re going to make the playoffs this year.
Reddick better than the average veteran on a minor league deal. If ends up getting a dfa later would suspect he will quit. Already has ten years service time so full pension awaiting him.
Reddick is a chump cheater.
Agreed! I also wonder if Reddick’s high school nickname was Blueballs? I’m just asking a question.
Cry
Kinda like how you were doing too when you guys played houston? Or is it ok now because he’s on your team?
Reddick is a good guy. Has donated a lot of money to build youth baseball parks in his home state of Georgia.
Stole a lot of money from other players by cheating too. Joc should have been a WS MVP.
I did read somewhere that he was one of the few Astros hitters who REJECTED to knowing what pitch was coming. He was offered and said No. Kudos to him if true.
I heard that rumor as well. Would be awesome if it were true.
Rejected or not, he’s not deaf. If he heard the bang he knew a fastball was coming, period. He’s going to treat the pitch as a fastball even if “he didn’t WANT to know”. He’s not going to take the pitch just on principle.
I’ve heard that about other players too and frankly it just sounds like a lazy way of avoiding taking responsibility
I mean, a real stand up player would’ve told them all to knock it off and if they didn’t comply rat them out so it would’ve stopped dead in it’s tracks in the first place
Easy to say that now
Josh Reddick is one of the three players who rejected the banging. There’s a website that tracked all of the trash can bangs and breaks is down by player. http://signstealingscandal.com/players/ Reddick had bangs on 3.7% of his home ABs. Altuve (2.7%) and Tony Kemp (0%) are the others. There would be an occasional bang for Altuve, but he would go down into the tunnel and yell at the “banger”. Correa tried to defend Altuve in some interviews, but it was obviously bad optics. There’s even an article from Baseball Prospectus about Alltuve’s lack of involvement under the “analysis” section. Yes, Altuve, Kemp, and Reddick (and Verlander and Hinch and Fiers) should’ve told everyone to stop, but they didn’t. Also, these players benefitted indirectly from the banging as they came up to the plate with more runners on base which may lead to better pitches. I don’t think it’s that easy to do to just tell Beltran to stop. McCann apparently tried, but Beltran ignored him, according to the Wikipedia entry. The booing of the players is well deserved, but, for Diamondback fans, know that Reddick wasn’t as guilty as the others. It’s an interesting website to dive into, if anyone is curious. They even have the actual audio of each trash can bangs.
I read that they stopped the banging in 2018 because it was no longer effective, as other teams caught on and would change their signs up mid-game. They would get too many incorrect trash can bangs (which will really mess up your AB).
I’m curious if Blue Jay fans boo Springer (when healthy), or Mets fans boo JD Davis, or A’s fans boo Kemp, or Twin fans boo Marwin? I’m actually curious – I haven’t heard anything about it. It’s funny when I watch an Astro game and the fans boo Yordan Alvarez or Kyle Tucker, who were in the minors in 2017. At least boo the right people. I think Yordan was in low A ball at the time.
Further proof they weren’t the only team doing it.
Knowing the pitch on “only” 3.7% of AB’s can be a VERY significant advantage, depending on the game, situation, standings, etc.
“Don’t worry guys, Reddick didn’t cheat TOO often, just enough.”
I heard he didn’t cheat as well, I’m tired of the unproven bashing going down on Redick. If you can prove it, show it. If you can’t, stop trying to ruin a good ball players career!
Doesn’t make it better. He knew it was happening and let it happen because it put more money in his pocket. Guilty by association
Hope the this doesn’t take too many AB away from Josh Rojas, he’ll be fighting for playing time at 2B now with Leyba/Young and can occasionally spell Ahmed at SS like he is tonight.
I still blush every time I say his last name: “reddick”
Are you 11yo? They don’t even pronounce it like that anyway
Welcome to Cincinnati, Yoan.
Hope the Dodgers throw up and in to reddick a few times tonight
Well of course he didn’t find that same level of productivity again. He didn’t know what pitch was coming anymore!
When Reddick took 2nd at bat in Dodgers Stadium, the keyboardist play “I saw the sign” song (The Sign from Ace of Base) lol
Should’ve played ‘bangin on a trash can’ from that cartoon “Doug” as he walked up to bat.
They should’ve played “Still Alive And Well” by Johnny Winter . It takes guts to keep going against all the BS. I’m not convinced he cheated. But guilty before proven innocent by todays (lack of) standards.
Lopez put up some very impressive numbers in the minors after converting to relief full time. And even put up solid bottom line results, albeit with shaky peripherals in 2019. He’s someone I’d like to see the Red Sox take a shot on… send him to AAA, see if he can make a few small adjustments and translate that big fastball into solid K #’s in the majors. He has the ceiling (however unlikely as he may be to reach it) of a high leverage back end of the bullpen guy. And for nothing more than maybe cash considerations or a PTBNL… I’d like to see Bloom give him a shot and see what he can do. If they strike lightning in a bottle with him it’d be a huge boost to a team that’s currently in first but could certainly use some more consistency out of their bullpen.
Reddick got more cheers striking out tonight at dodger stadium than he ever did doing anything as a dodger. Lazyass cheater
That’s strange, he had 2 hrs & 9 rbi in his brief stay in 2016, are the Dodger fans stupid enough to applaud a strike out vs 2 hrs?
The Chronicles of Reddick continues!
He was very good in 2017.
Maybe Yoan can come across the tunnel and let the Dodgers fix him. He has the stuff, sometimes a pitcher just needs to hear or see a couple things from another perspective to sort things out.
I’d love to see that. His stuff is indeed impressive. A little fine-tuning might be all he needs. There’s more to pitching than just throwing the ball as hard as you can.
Reddick is Kole Calhoun with less power. He’s a far cry from his A’s days.