The Reds have selected the contracts of top prospects Elly De La Cruz and Noelvi Marte, as well as Brandon Williamson, Levi Stoudt, Lyon Richardson and Ricky Karcher. As a result, they’ve DFA’d Aristides Aquino, Jeff Hoffman, Art Warren, Derek Law, Jared Solomon and Kyle Dowdy.
De La Cruz and Marte are certainly the most notable of the prospects added. De La Cruz is Cincinnati’s top overall prospect, and ranked 14th overall by MLB.com. Still just 20, De La Cruz made it as high as Double-A in 2022. As he has for most of his young career, De La Cruz mashed there, hitting .305/.358/.553 with eight home runs in 47 games while mostly appearing at shortstop. The Reds have been aggressive in moving their top prospect through the minors, and if he continues to rake into Triple-A next year, it won’t be long before he’s donning a Reds uniform.
Marte, 21, came across in the Luis Castillo deadline blockbuster. He hit .293/.397/.443 with four home runs in 30 games at High-A, and would seem likely to start next year at Double-A. He played shortstop during the minor league season, but has been exclusively at third base in the Arizona Fall League. While Marte is a bit behind De La Cruz, Reds fans can certainly start to dream of the pair of them playing infield in the not-too-distant future.
Of the other prospects added, Brandon Williamson is the only top ten prospect in their system, per MLB.com. He’s a left hander who made 13 starts at Triple-A, pitching to a 4.39 ERA. There’s a good chance he features at some point in 2023 in the big leagues. Elsewhere, Stoudt and Karcher are both pitchers who featured at Triple-A in 2022, while neither had dominant results, there’s a chance both would have been called upon anyway as pitching depth. Richardson is a hard-throwing right hander who’s struggled with injuries of late, but even though he’s not pitched above High-A, the Reds clearly feel his arm has enough talent to avoid risking losing him in the draft.
Aquino is the most high profile of the players cut loose by the Reds. He hit a staggering 14 home runs during August in 2019 for a .320/.391/.767 line in that period, but hasn’t hit much since. In 2022, he posted a line of just .197/.246/.363 while striking out more than a third of his plate appearances. Hoffman pitched to a 3.83 ERA across 44 2/3 innings out of the bullpen. Both players were arbitration eligible and non-tender candidates, so it’s not surprising to see them cut loose to open up valuable 40-man spots.
Solomon, Law, Dowdy and Warren all pitched a handful of innings each out of the Reds’ bullpen, but none had much success, and all seemed like near-certain DFA candidates as the Reds look to make room for their young prospects.
Aquino fell off a cliff
Not really. He just played way over his head for like a month. The biggest problem is that he seemed to be turning a corner in the last couple months of 2022. He was arguably the best defensive corner OF in the league. Just seems they could have gotten something out of him.
Reds never get anything out of players like this. They go under developed then go on and become long time big leaguers once they leave the reds organization. Siri is latest and aquino will be next
Aquino was DFA’d this past season and nobody claimed him so I find it hard to believe anybody would have given the Reds something for him when nobody wanted him when they could have had him for nothing.
He played a lot better after getting called up again following that DFA. I agree they wouldn’t have gotten much, but even a little is better than nothing. Then again, maybe no one even offered a little.
Pitchers adjusted to Aquino and he’s never been able to counter. But of all the many marginal outfielders on the Cincinnati roster, he’s been the likeliest by far to provide an occasional highlight at the plate or in the field. Maybe some other team can help Aquino more than the Reds could.
AA has been DFAed three times and nobody claimed him.
Aquino has been DFAed three times and nobody claimed him.
Sorry for the double drop..lol
Atlanta or Tampa should sign Hoffman to an AAA contract. He needs to be somewhere they put effort into tapping into a guy’s psyche to get the best out of him. He’s actually has a lot of moxy, but has gotten lost with injuries and being in bad ballparks to pitch in, plus poor coaching teams. If he can find his confidence again, he can be at least a serviceable bullpen piece…
Reds pitching development is actually pretty good. Several of their development guys have been poached/promoted by other organizations and several players that have been brought in from other orgs have noted how progressive their system is, most notably Lucas Sims after coming over from ATL. Not that Atlanta struggles with developing arms but that’s one thing the Reds have made HUGE bounds in
Great to see Cruz get called up!
Reds don’t sit on their players. That’s what cubs and cards do
He’s not getting called up.
He’s being added to the 40-man roster, not being called up. Expect that in 2024.
He’ll be in Cincinnati in 2023…if he rakes in the Spring what are they gonna do, run Barrero out there?
They would probably have Farmer at SS first unless he sets the world on fire the entire spring training. Early on you face a lot of A and AA pitching so it is easy to look good.
Barrero will be the starter. If(when) he’s struggling around midseason then they could call up EDLC if he’s showing enough or use whatever backup (NOT FARMER) SS they have to get them through. Farmer should be non-tendered or traded this year because he’s 32, has limited value (avg-poor defense, mediocre bat), and won’t be on the next Reds contender. He plays hard and plays everywhere but he doesn’t play well
Reds should re-sign Aquino to a minor league deal but convert him to a pitcher. He has a great arm and could probably be a great reliever ala Kenley Jansen. Has value as a defensive replacement and occasional pinch hitter off the deep end of the bench against leftys. Could be a nice swiss army knife if used creatively.
Someone will get ahold of Aquino that knows how to coach and turn him into less of a liability. Has good power, great arm strength just can’t hit or run the bases, both can be fixed.
I don’t know how you figure. He’s had 10 years of pro coaching and sacrificing of chickens to Jobu and still can’t hit. He needs to go play overseas.
Aquino was in the minors longer than they imagined, with a reputation of too many strikeouts. Then one spring training, they changed his stance and he started to rake for about a year and a half. He got called up and carried that over in the bigs for an amazing month.
However, as often happens, the league figured him out. Successful big leaguers make an adjustment continually for that, see none other than his teammate Joey Votto for someone who constantly tinkers. Even Jonathan India had to do that this season.
But Aquino did not, and does not show an indication that he easily does so. More than likely that’s why the organization gave up on him finally after hoping for longer than most would that he would regain that form that got him the name Punisher for all too brief a period.
If EDLC comes into camp and rakes he won’t go to Louisville, why should he? The Barrero experiment needs to be done and over with. The kid couldn’t hit water if he fell out of a rowboat…
I agree that if he does what he does in Spring Training, he should make the team. But, they don’t want to start his “clock” for arbitration. Plus, he still (as they like to say) has some holes in his swing with too many strikeouts. Yet, it seems K’s are more acceptable nowadays.
I also don’;t understand how he is not a top five overall prospect in all of the MLB. He is a blast.
Barrero has the same problem as Aquino. He can’t hit the outside breaking ball and won’t lay off of it.
I don’t see De La Cruz making the jump from AA right away. They do that with pitchers but not position players historically. I suspect Farmer will be back at SS temporarily until he’s ready (if he’s not dealt, a caveat on all vets now). But if De La Cruz hits .400 or something like that in the spring, why not?
Dude, Barrero has 298 MLB plate appearances. While I’m not optimistic about his long-term future give him AT LEAST half of a season.