The Reds have re-signed Connor Overton to a minor league deal, according to Baseball America’s Matt Eddy. The right-hander was outrighted off of Cincinnati’s 40-man roster in early October and entered minor league free agency, but Overton now looks to return for what will be his third season in the Reds organization.
Overton underwent Tommy John surgery last May, so he isn’t expected to be part of the Reds’ 2024 plans until around midseason. Since this was the second TJ procedure of Overton’s career, it is possible his recovery time might take a little longer than the usual 12-15 month timeframe, and it can’t be ruled out that he might need all of 2024 to rehab. The minor league deal gives Overton and the Reds some low-risk security in allowing him to rehab in a familiar environment while seeing what he can potentially contribute on the field.
Overton made only three starts and threw 11 innings (to the tune of an 11.45 ERA) in 2023, and the combination of a stress reaction in his back and a hamstring injury also limited him to 33 innings over six appearances in 2022. He has a 4.85 ERA over 59 1/3 total innings in the bigs, with the Blue Jays, Pirates, and Reds since his MLB debut in 2021.
A 15th-round pick for the Marlins back in the 2014 draft, Overton bounced around both the affiliated and independent minor leagues before breaking into the majors with Toronto. Working as both a starter and a reliever since the canceled 2020 minor league season, Overton’s numbers have been quite impressive at the Triple-A level, which is likely another reason why the Reds wanted to keep the 30-year-old in the fold. Overton’s first priority is simply to get healthy, but there is some possible late-bloomer potential if Overton can translate his Triple-A success to the majors.
In 2022 he pitched into the 7th inning with a shutout against the Pirates. How many Reds pitchers have done that in recent years? Was it a fluke? Good investment if he can shake the TJ issue.
If this signing was a Mexican restaurant it’d be Chi-Chi’s, shut down for health and safety concerns
Wow. Did you copy and past that all by yourself? Good jorb.
How did you waste this line in something besides the Chi Chi Gonzalez thread?
This is a good move for depth.
AAA depth in csse some of these injured pitchers don’t recover. Looks like they think they are done with starting pitching then. No surprise.
I don’t think that’s the case. I think they’re still looking into getting Cease, Glasnow, or Bieber. If they miss out on those guys, they may sign a cheaper 1 year guy in free agency. I think they want a top of the rotation kinda guy though and they can’t afford to pay Snell, Yamamoto, etc. Honestly, they have a lot of good, young pit chess that need to play. Hunter Greene seems like the only 100% lock. A lot will be determined in spring training. It’ll be interesting.
Hunter Greene has been hurt every single year of his professional career. As has Lodolo. Abbott broke down as the year went on as did Ashcraft. There is nothing that should resemble a lock in that rotation.
Well, I know the team and Hunter Greene is as locked in as any player on the team.
He is lo ked into a long term deal so, like it or not, he is as locked in as anyone. I just hope he learns how to pitch in year three and stays healthy.
I’m surprised what they spent money on already and hope they don’t sign Glasnow. The others maybe.
The reds do not have a lot of good young pitchers. Greene and Ashcraft have around 45 career starts both with eras close to 5 and whips close to 1.4. Lodolo a smaller sample size with 25 starts but similar numbers. They are 4th and 5th starters for most contending teams.
Spencer strider and Kyle Bradish are similar in age to the 3 above and have around 50 career starts strider with a career era of about 3.25 and whip around 1 Bradish career era around 3.75 and a whip around 1.2. Those are young top of the rotation starters.
Since we have not developed a strider or Bradish we will need to either sign 2 like then trade for 2 like then or sign one and trade for one if we expect to contend next year.
Not saying Greene and lodolo don’t have talent and won’t eventually be top of the rotation types. They are Uber talented but have yet to put it together. Hoping they pitch to their potential next year is hoping we can playi in the post season but a hope is not a plan. They are what they are until they are something different.
EDLC is also immensely talented but strikes out a ton and not figured it out yet either. The difference with him is our lineup is so deep and good that we can hide him in the lineup batting 7th or 8th between 2 good hitters and give him at bats to try to figure things out without costing us games. Running out Greene and lodolo as or top of the rotation guys without real top of the rotation types will cost us wins next year. It’s fine to let Greene and lodolo pitch in the rotation to see if they can figure it out. Most teams have mid 4 era pitchers in the back end of their rotation but we will need 2 tip end ones to go with them if we want to be in the post season.
Assuming health, all 5 of those guys are likely “locked” even if the reds come up with a top of the rotation starter. 6 man rotation would do them good.
#bringbackbauer
Does this deal move the Overton Window in baseball?
It’ll be interesting to see if they do a similar thing with Mahle but on a major league deal….
He’s apparently very close to pitching coach Derek Johnson & he may feel more comfortable going through his own rehab in an environment he’s familiar with already…
Can they open Overton’s window? 😛