The Reds have agreed to a minor league deal with infielder/outfielder Mark Mathias, per the team’s transaction log at MLB.com. He’ll presumably head to big league camp this spring. Mathias is repped by Apex Baseball.
The 29-year-old Mathias split the 2023 season between the Mariners, Pirates and Giants organizations, reaching the big leagues with the latter two of that trio. In a small sample of 72 trips to the plate, Mathias batted .226/.333/.258. He’s a career .246/.317/.391 hitter with six home runs and seven stolen bases in a total of 199 big league plate appearances. Mathias has walked at a healthy 9.5% clip in that time against a higher-than-average 26.1% strikeout rate.
Mathias hasn’t had much big league experience, but he’s a lifetime .288/.383/.454 hitter in parts of three Triple-A seasons totaling 919 plate appearances. He’s logged more than 3000 career innings at second base and more than 1000 frames at third base, with additional cameos at shortstop, first base and the outfield corners.
Cincinnati is already loaded with infield options, with Elly De La Cruz, Matt McLain, Noelvi Marte, Jonathan India and Christian Encarnacion-Strand all in the mix. Jack of all trades Spencer Steer can play virtually any infield or corner outfield spot as well, though he may be ticketed for left field to begin the upcoming season. TJ Friedl and Will Benson are slated to handle center field and right field, respectively, and the Reds also have former top prospect Jose Barrero and outfielder/DH Jake Fraley in the mix for playing time.
Mathias doesn’t have a clear path to a prominent role with the team, but he provides some defensive versatility with a decent track record at the plate both in Triple-A and in the big leagues.
The latest Matt Reynolds signing by Po Boy.
lol you comment on every article on here related to the Reds with this goofy ‘Po Boy’ nickname you have made for Krall…please try your best to come up with something different as it makes absolutely no sense…Krall is not the owner. Krall does not have autonomy to set the budget for the team. Krall would not be the ‘po boy’ in this scenario as he is an employee of the Reds. Further, the Reds have been more active than many teams so far this off-season. If I am missing something in this goofy nickname, please enlighten me. This is a minor league signing and shouldn’t bother or upset anyone. If being a fan makes you this miserable then maybe it is time to search for a new hobby.
Then why comment on it? Just scroll past. In terms of the Reds, they haven’t won a play-off series since 1995. That is 28 years. I think the Red’s deserves criticism.
I am not in any way saying ‘don’t criticize the Reds’….you have not, nor will you ever see me post that. The Reds have done many things to deserve criticism, and if the other poster directed that criticism at the right person and it made sense then, yes, I would probably give it a thumbs up and scroll right on by. However, the ‘po boy’ name for Krall is on every reds post and it makes absolutely no sense…and because of that, I felt like commenting and will most likely do so again when the inevitable ‘po boy’ comment arrives with the next Reds related post.
Sounds like a you problem. If you don’t like him being criticized, too bad because several think it is deserved.
I really don’t think this is true at all, I don’t ever see people bashing Krall as he has done an incredible job turning this team around. You are generally the main person I see trashing Krall and, honestly, I wouldn’t even care about it…if it made sense. Saying that he has made bad trades, or signed the wrong guys, or extended Bell, any of those would be valid opinions and no problem…but ‘po boy’ does not make sense as he isn’t the one with the money!
I didn’t promote him from the kid GM to Po Boy, Bob did.
So ‘po boy’ is just your name for the president of baseball operations? And rather than direct your anger at Bob, you just have vitriol towards the president of baseball operations…no matter who it is?? Krall was perfectly fine as the GM (or ‘kid’ GM) but it is the job title of pres of baseball ops that comes with ‘po boy’??? I am just trying to find any semblance of logic here…if I can make sense of it, I’ll just move on when you post this stuff in the future.
If you have been around long enough, and it sounds like you wasn’t, you would know Bob gets plenty of criticism from these quarters and many others, and I used the kid GM title for quite a while here.
I have no issue at all with Bob receiving criticism if that is whom you have been attempting to criticize on every post then I apologize, but it certainly hasn’t been clear. And, you didnt ever provide any answer so from now on I am just going to assume ‘po boy’ is just your way of shortening president of baseball operations.
Don’t bother sjcourtney. At best he’s a troll and at worst he thinks he’s smart and cute
He’s on here baselessly criticizing literally everything the red do (and don’t do). Despite Krall getting credit for his work universally across the industry, this guy always thinks he knows better. Just mute him
You realize they need to stock Louisville/Chattanooga/Dayton/Daytona, right? MINOR league signing. Louisville doesn’t have a ton of depth with the promotions and guys electing free agency and IF a spate of injuries happens in Cincy he’s at least spent time in MLB as opposed to calling up Arroyo or someone else not ready
why?
Louisville Bats had a winning record in 2023 (for the first time in a long while). Many would like to see that repeated in 2024. Bats roster is depleted by promotions and players declaring free agency. Reds need to make a bunch of these AAAA signings.
Louisville needs players, too, and Mathias is a quality depth option. That’s a solid signing on a minor league deal.
Krall = DA
Guy’s a permanent minor leaguer. His career minors BA is .267. Garbage time!
Wow the winter meetings is really yielding huge deals so far. I don’t know what’s more dull mlb free agency is watching a jets game
Yo, does anyone know the RSS feed link for MLBTR?
If this was a steakhouse it’d be a Damon’s, you forgot they were still around.
OK
That is what the reds need is for more infielders when they have the surplus of them. unless Mathias is specifically going to play OF only.
Reds with no spend Bob, krill is just Bob’s fall guy when it comes to money. Winning is not the number 1 payroll is.
I don’t think that guys should be referred to as “utility players” just because they play a bunch of positions. “Utility” implies usefulness. Mathias plays a lot of positions, all at a mediocre or below level. Luckily this is not overshadowed by his hitting, which is also usually not impressive.
Is it me or just about every minor league signing gets met with “book those WS tickets/who dat/expecting someone Shohei” comments?
a) as people pointed out, all teams need to stock the minors so you need these type of players
b) you are reading a website that reports every single thing that happens. If you are only interested in big signings, why don’t you read ESPN/CBS/whatever instead?!
🙂