The Reds announced Monday that they’ve re-signed right-handed reliever Derek Law to a minor league contract and invited him to big league camp this spring. Cincinnati non-tendered him back in November.
Law spent the final two months of the 2022 season with the Reds organization after spending much of the year with the Tigers’ Triple-A affiliate, where he’d pitched to a 3.23 ERA in 39 innings. The 32-year-old righty pitched to a 4.08 ERA with a 19% strikeout rate, 8.9% walk rate and 49.1% ground-ball rate in 17 2/3 innings for Cincinnati after being selected to the big league roster in August.
This past season was the sixth in which Law, a ninth-round pick by the Giants back in 2011, has spent time in the Majors. He debuted with a sensational 2.13 ERA, 23.4% strikeout rate, 4.2% walk rate and 50.3% grounder rate in 55 innings with the 2016 Giants, though he’s yet to replicate that standout performance in any of his subsequent MLB efforts. In 201 innings as a big leaguer, Law carries a 4.21 ERA with strikeout and walk rates that are a bit worse than league-average (21.9% and 9.8%, respectively).
Law’s 2022 season had at least one substantial change from his prior work, as he leaned on a newly implemented cutter as his primary pitch. Nearly half of Law’s pitches were cutters despite the fact that he’d never thrown the pitch during a Major League outing before the 2022 season. He’ll continue to hone that new offering in his return to the Reds, hoping to parlay that into another opportunity in the Cincinnati ’pen.
The Reds should have ample opportunity for Law and other non-roster invitees this spring. Alexis Diaz is locked in as the team’s closer, with righties Lucas Sims, Tejay Antone, Tony Santillan and Buck Farmer and lefty Reiver Sanmartin among the options behind him. However, both Santillan and Sanmartin posted ugly numbers on the season. Antone missed the entire 2022 campaign following Tommy John surgery, while Sims was limited to just 6 2/3 innings due to a back injury. Law will join names like Alex Young, Tayron Guerrero, Silvino Bracho and Alan Busenitz as non-roster invitees hoping to force their way into the big league bullpen picture.
He was decent at times last year. Not overpowering but gets guys out, which is the main thing.
Law is filthy
A lot of household names in that bullpen…
If you household consists of terrible major league pitchers.
You got my sarcasm, cat!
Had a good season for AAA Toledo where he closed out games and picked up 15 saves before his call up. Didn’t fare well in Detroit though.
Saying Sanmartin put up ugly numbers does not paint the whole picture. He started the season in the rotation and got shelled, ultimately inflating his entire line.
Once he moved to the bullpen midseason, he pitched 40.2 innings of 3.32 ERA
Beat me to that point. Local coverage of players is always better, as they actually know the teams that they are reporting on. Not just clicking through a few stat tables to form an opinion.
And beat me to it as well. He pitched very well out of the BP.
Article never mentioned Fernando Cruz.. That’s definitely a slight. Fernando was great last year for Louisville and for the Reds. Gibaut & Young also likely to make the Reds BP.
However bad the Reds are, don’t ever expect Adams to say anything positive or do any research on them. Every Reds fan knows Sanmartin had a great year as a reliever, and that Adams missed at least three key names for the bullpen.
If you are going to write about a team, do your research or don’t bother.
LOL, I misread the headline and thought that Derek LOWE was coming out of retirement to chase some of this off season’s insane money. He should consider it.
I saw the headline about Mark Leiter Jr. And thought is he still pitching? Lol
@Bobcastelliniscat Not a bad idea for a sitcom 😛