The Reds announced that they have selected the contract of right-hander Joel Kuhnel. Fellow righty Robert Dugger has been designated for assignment in a corresponding move.
Kuhnel got small bits of action with the Reds in 2019 and 2020, logging 12 2/3 MLB innings in total. In that small sample, he has a career ERA of 4.97 with a 21.8% strikeout rate and 9.1% walk rate. After the 2020 campaign, he was designated for assignment and outrighted to the minors. Last year, injuries limited him to just eight innings on the year.
This year, however, he appears to be healthy and off to a good start. Now 27 years old, he’s thrown 10 1/3 innings in Triple-A so far this season, with a 2.61 ERA. His 16.7% strikeout rate is a dip from previous seasons, but he’s got a tiny 2.4% walk rate and hefty 57.6% ground ball rate in that small sample.
As for Dugger, it will prove to be a very short stay on the Reds roster, as he was just claimed off waivers from the Rays on Wednesday. The Rays had selected his contract just before active rosters were about to shrink from 28 to 26. They threw him out out on the mound for 87 pitches of mop-up duty over 5 1/3 innings before designating him for assignment. The Reds put in a claim and treated him similarly, giving him a three-inning, 59-pitch appearance in the second game of yesterday’s doubleheader before cutting him from the roster. He’ll now likely head back onto the waiver wire and see if another team in need of arms will give him a chance.
WTH wrong with Bell and Khral? Dugger pitched better then Moreta and Diehl but they didn’t lose their job. Those two combined for 4 runs in 1 inning while Dugger pitched 3 innings while giving up 3 runs. #selltheteambob
Yeah Diehl sucks, he needs to be gone. Don’t care if he’s the only lefty in the pen
WTH wrong with Bell, Johnson and Krall? Both Moreta and Diehl combined for only 1 inning on 4 runs but they didn’t send them down or DFA but Dagger gave them 3 solid innings while giving up only 3 runs and they DFA him. Doesn’t make sense Bob! #SellTheTeamBob
Team needs cleaned top to bottom. Bell should not be manager by the end of this year. I get that they’re bad but it was a poor choice to start a bad pitcher as your opener and then panic and switch him out right away when he does what poor pitchers do (give up runs). Should have started Santillan or Hoffman since they’re both former starters and probably would have been able to give you 2-3 innings to begin the game. He punted that game away before it ever began, which is why he has no business managing.
Dugger was the original starter for the second game and for some unknown reason Bell decided to start the relief Moreta. What a stupid decision!
Hoffman is terrible, he should have been DFA last season
He’s been fine as a reliever, especially in their bullpen.
When are the reds fan going to DFA ownership and don’t go to games and and let it hit there wallet were that seems they only care about not putting a good team on the field for the hard working fan who spends there money to go see this crappy team owner ship put on the field now
Weekend games always have a little higher attendance, and the Reds stadium always has a fairly large amount of fans from opposing teams, especially divisional opponents.
It is a train wreck. There won’t be much improvement in the next few years. I didn’t renew
my MLB.com subscription and got off all of the Reds blogs.. They should pay the fans to watch instead of the fans paying them.
They haven’t done much since Castellini bought the team, it’s always build up, tear down. I agree, it isn’t worth watching them. You can see a better and my competitive game by going to a Florence Freedom game. If Castellini really hurting then so us the profit/loss statement. Since he isn’t i wondering if he moving money from the Reds so his Castellini Produce company can survive?
Yeah screw feeding people, win some damn baseball games.
Seems we just pull pitchers out of a hat. Looks like they do not know from day to day who is pitching and when they pitch. What would Dugger have needed to do to not be DFA?
Seeing as he pitched as well as any good pitcher, there was nothing he could do.. plan was probably always to just use him for that game and ditch him.. dumb.
The Reds are playing .500 ball this weekend. Just sayin’
Lol
Digger will finish his season with 19 Teams and Counting
Reds just started to rebuild. Only thing I find crazy he in the middle of each rebuild, they sign FA and trade away prospects for 2-3 year rentals. Then rinse and repeat. I have yet to see them do a full rebuild since the late 2000s and early 2010s. Bruce, Cueto, Votto, and many more, was a total rebuild that worked. Reds get close and go on a spending spree to come up short. They should follow through with this rebuild and attempt to do something in 5-7 years. It’s a long grueling road for fans, but the reward is better than spending and trading away assets.
I’ll pass on a 5-7 year rebuild to contend for 1 or 2 seasons. What Reds fans really need is a new owner that is a billionaire and not someone barely worth what the Dodgers are spending in one season.
Maybe if the Reds kept their system stocked and never do anything outrageous, they can be competitive beyond 2-3 years. They do that now with sign and trading their farm system after restocking it for 2 years. They get at best, 3 years and deal away everything. I thought the Pirates were bad, Reds have me second guessing that thought each year they do this.