The Reds have designated right-hander Heath Hembree for assignment in order to open a spot on the roster for fellow right-hander Tony Santillan, who has been recalled from Triple-A Louisville, per a team announcement. Cincinnati also reinstated right-hander R.J. Alaniz from the injured list and optioned him to Triple-A. Meanwhile, the Reds announced earlier in the day that infielder Mike Freeman cleared waivers and has been assigned outright to Louisville.
Hembree’s DFA comes on the heels of a catastrophic outing in which he was tagged for five runs in just two-thirds of an inning. The Reds might’ve been able to look past that meltdown had he continued pitching as well as he did throughout the month of July, but the past several weeks have been a struggle for the veteran Hembree, to say the least. He’s yielded runs in seven of his past nine outings — a total of 13 in a span of just seven innings.
That dismal slump has ballooned Hembree’s ERA to a grisly 6.38 mark, but Hembree has previously been more solid out of the Cincinnati ’pen and spent several weeks pitching quite well as their primary closer while top relievers Tejay Antone, Michael Lorenzen and Lucas Sims were on the injured list. (Antone is still on the IL.) Hembree logged seven saves and posted a 1.42 ERA with a 19-to-5 K/BB ratio from June 28 through July 24. He’d had some early struggles as well, but that strong stretch dropped his ERA into the low-4.00s and gave the impression he’d righted the ship.
Clearly, that wasn’t the case, but there’s still plenty of reason that another club might be intrigued by Hembree. Among the 321 pitchers who have thrown at least 40 innings this year, Hembree’s 38 percent strikeout rate is the game’s seventh-highest mark. He’s tied for 15th in that same set of pitchers with a 27.4 K-BB% and sits 18th with a 2.84 SIERA.
Hembree has been done in by a ghastly 51.3 percent strand rate that sits more than 20 percent worse than the league average. That’s in part due to a sky-high 2.13 HR/9 mark; he’s yielded 10 long balls in his 44 2/3 innings this season, although seven of them have come in his hitter-friendly home park. Another club with a more spacious home setting might take a look at Hembree’s K-BB profile and generally solid track record from 2015-19 and opt to place a claim on outright waivers. His contract comes with a very reasonable $800K base salary in the Majors, though he’s already unlocked another $225K of incentives on top of that base, I’m told. Hembree would be an affordable change-of-scenery candidate for a team in need of bullpen depth — be it on a waiver claim or on a new contract if goes unclaimed and reaches the market.
How many times in baseball history has a team 2 games out of a wildcard spot just DFA’d their saves leader?
He has a 38% K rate and a 3.60 xFIP. Something weird is going on here.
There saves leader has and era over 6 that’s why
I did not believe your post was accurate.
As such, I looked him up. My bad. You are correct.
So.
Yeah. Something “weird” for sure.
Ducky, don’t know if this was intentional but very self-effacing and very funny.
They’re likely banking on Lorenzen and Hembree wasn’t happy with being moved out of the closer role
Givens is the closer.
A guy that has been god awful for who knows how many appearances lately and allowed 5 ER last night has no right to be upset. Plain and simple, he sucks and they’ve gotten most of their arms back.
Not only did he give up 5 runs last night, he gave them up to the Iowa (Chicago) Cubs
Not only did he give up 5 runs last night, he gave them up to the Iowa (Chicago) Cubs
Your right on this one SN Beat me to the first comment. Must have too much time on your hands like me!
real question is why he was getting SVOs anyway.
They don’t have a true closer. Haven’t had one all year. Hembree was awesome for them for about a 3-4 week period. The rest of the time, including the last month, he has just been awful. You can’t just look at numbers and make proper conclusions if you don’t know the facts behind the numbers.
ERA of over 11.00 in the last 30 days. Put that in your xFIP and smoke it.
Outside of those rates, what’s weird about dropping a bad bullpen arm that was part of
the problem with them being a bad bullpen? Literally last night was more than enough example as to why, especially when they’re in the middle of trying to win. There isn’t time to hope this guy is serviceable
again.
Steve, as someone who watches every Reds game, his hook had been looming for a few weeks. He hasn’t been fooling anyone lately after looking serviceable for a decent stretch. If they’re not in the race then he probably has a longer leash. There are simply better options now. Good luck to him.
Baseball is crazy nowadays, one day your the closer, the next day your dfa’d.
How can You go from a closer,, a couple of days ago, to being sacked? Does not make much sense to me! Just my opinion!
Gives up 5 runs in a 14-0 game and still has to get pulled last night. Performance has been trending downward and has become very hitable and less than reliable lately. Time and patience must have been up
not really weird. 6 plus era and has been struggling badly recently. i think he hit the wall and just ran out of gas. he may resign on minors deal or may even find another major deal out there, but i think he was just over pitched and Santillan is much better for the team right now
you might be right ,but still wierd!
Probably on a plane to LA as we speak.
Saves leader or not, he’s been turrible the last few times out. Absolutely terrible. Adios!
It’s about time they DFA’D Heath Hemorrhage!
He’d be a good depth option for a team that needs strikeouts and has a pitcher friendly park as his home park is very hitter friendly. He has an 8.55 ERA in 20 IP at home with 7 of his 10 home runs allowed vs just a 4.43 ERA on the road over 22 1/3 IP.
At first I read this as, “He’d be a good depth option for a team that needs an 8.55 ERA.”
Allowing half of your inherited runners to score is a good way to get DFA’d, I don’t care how many saves you might have.
Hope the Friars pick him up lol.
Hembree has been atrocious his last few outings and was trending towards being even worse. Even if it seems like a surprise move because he led an atrocious bullpen in saves, this move couldn’t have come soon enough.
Hahaha. I swear it was less than a month ago, Yahoo Fantasy said he was a must-add.
I rarely log in, but you are all very funny today. Great work.
Nothing weird – HH has been horrible the last few weeks, totally lost his confidence. He blew chunks last night, last chance to save his job. He failed totally.
Santillan is a better pitching option right now.
It seems like just a year ago he was sucking for the Phillies…
This guy stinks and will be signed by the Mutts for depth purposes just like every other sucky pitcher out there.
He’s going back to Boston you can book it.
He’s gonna be picked up by the Padres, they need to counter LA’s pick up of Greene.
The friars are going to make him a starter.