The Reds announced today that they’ve designated right-hander Jose De Leon and outfielder Mark Payton for assignment in order to clear 40-man roster space for right-handers Edgar Garcia and R.J. Alaniz, whose contracts have been selected from Triple-A Louisville. Cincinnati also formally placed righty Michael Lorenzen on the 10-day IL due to a hamstring strain — as manager David Bell first announced yesterday — and optioned lefty Cionel Perez to Louisville.
De Leon, 28, was one of the game’s top pitching prospects but had his development derailed by injuries, most notably Tommy John surgery early in the 2018 season. The Reds picked him up from the Rays in a deal that sent cash back to Tampa Bay, and he’s tossed 24 1/3 innings for them dating back to 2020. De Leon has whiffed 43 of the 126 batters he’s faced in that time (34.1 percent), but he’s also been clobbered for 29 runs in that time. Control has been a problem, as evidenced by a 17.6 percent walk rate and a pair of hit batters in that time.
Cincinnati took Payton, now 29, out of the A’s organization in the 2019 Rule 5 Draft but returned him to Oakland in early July last summer. The Reds thought highly enough of Payton to eventually acquire him in a trade, but he’s yet to produce much in limited chances. Payton has logged just 44 plate appearances since 2020, hitting .175/.250/.200 in that time. He’s hitting .281/.331/.446 in Triple-A this season and has a career .296/.368/.508 slash in parts of five seasons at that level.
Garcia, 24, signed a minor league deal with the Reds last December. He’s pitched in parts of two big league seasons with the Phillies and Rays but struggled to a 6.17 ERA in that time. Garcia has been sharp in Triple-A this season, however, pitching to a 3.38 ERA with a 29.6 percent strikeout rate, a 13.2 percent walk rate and a massive 70.4 percent ground-ball rate. Garcia has spent parts of three seasons in Triple-A and compiled 3.28 ERA in 57 1/3 frames.
Alaniz will be returning for his second stint with the Reds, who non-tendered him this past offseason. Alaniz has just 15 2/3 innings of work at the MLB level and has yielded 16 runs in that time. Like Garcia, though, he’s been quite effective down in Louisville this year, working to a 2.25 ERA with a very strong 31.5 percent strikeout rate against a 7.1 percent walk rate.
Payton back to oakland book it
Hopefully de Leon also
Front office and ownership for the Reds are a disaster. All they have done is peddle junk back and forth all the way back to the off season. No quality players added via trade or free agency.. It remains to be seen if they will even try to sign Castellanous.
I see they designated 2 players for assignment, put one on the IL, and optioned one to the minors (thats 4) but only called up 2. Do they like playing short handed?
The two players they DFA’d were on the 40 man but not on the 26 man. If they are playing shorthanded today it’s in AAA while those two are on waivers.
Thanks for clearing that up!
Who are you the GM for since you’re so critical of others?
Nobody?
Go figure!
By that standard you couldn’t even criticize Fred wilpon or Jeff loria, most of us didn’t run a team better than those two:)
They would never in a million years sign him if they refuse to sign a $1M reliever
I wonder who is going to give DeLeon his next chance. Someone is bound to fall for his previous high prospect ranking instead of looking at what he does on the field.
he could provide ‘Zona or PIT with innings.
Technically, so could you. And I don’t think the outcome will be much different.
He’s pitched every year since 2016 with the exception of 2018 and his career high in IP is 18. I don’t think it’s wise to expect innings out of the guy.
Can spin it however they want, so to speak
i think FZ/Giants will claim him. Seems like a FZ type project.
He’s a former reds pitcher he’ll go pitch well for them this season with Cueto, Desclafani, Gausman, and Wood.
His stuff is filthy he just can’t hit his spots with any measure of consistency. Which is essentially what pitching is all about. Fix that one MAJOR flaw and he can be highly effective. I’ll continue to pull for the guy because when you watch him you can see it, like greatness is right there it just hasn’t clicked into place yet.
The issue is that he has been with very advanced pitching dev orgs like the dodgers and reds (kyle boddy). If he was with orgs which never develop pitching (rockies, pirates, red Sox…) I might be more optimistic but if the dodgers and reds couldn’t figure it out who can?
Someone will pounce on DeLeon.
Why? He’s about to turn 29 and is burning his final option year. If he was worth anything the Reds (who have a terrible bullpen) wouldn’t be passing him through waivers.
Maybe he’ll find the fountain of youth.
I see yinz. Well done.
Phillies should take a flyer better than most in their pen send him to AAA and lets see
García actually signed a major league deal in the offseason
De Leon looked legit coming up through the Dodgers system. Got hurt after being traded, 33 strikeouts in 18 innings says there might be something left
K’s clearly aren’t the problem, it’s the homeruns and 6 walks per 9 innings pitched that’s the problem.
I’m surprised De Leon ended up busting. He was such a stud coming up.
Andrew Friedman is on line 2…