The Reds announced that they have selected the contract of catcher Austin Wynns. In corresponding moves, they have optioned outfielder Jacob Hurtubise and designated outfielder Conner Capel for assignment.
It’s unclear why the Reds have added a third catcher to their roster, as they already have Tyler Stephenson and Luke Maile on the team. It’s possible that something is up with Stephenson, as he has only been in the starting lineup twice since Saturday, serving as the designated hitter in one of those two.
This is pure speculation but he has been hit on the hand by a pitch a few times this year, which could be part of the problem. Back on June 6, x-rays on his hand came back negative, per C. Trent Rosecrans on X. But he has hit .111/.250/.185 since that date, perhaps suggesting something is amiss.
Whatever the reason, the 33-year-old Wynns has been added to the roster. In the offseason, he was signed to a major league split deal that would pay him $950K for time spent on the major league roster and $300K in the minors. He was later designated for assignment and passed through waivers. As a player with between three and five years of service time, he could have elected free agency but doing so would have meant forfeiting that money.
He therefore reported to Louisville and gets back to the majors today. He has a pretty tepid batting line of .226/.273/.324 in his major league career and his work at Triple-A this year has only been slightly better at .252/.310/.408. But he has received solid grades for his defense in recent years, with Statcast being particularly fond of his work controlling the running game, as he comes in the top ten on their catcher throwing leaderboard since the start of 2021.
To get Wynns onto the roster, the Reds have bumped off Capel. The 27-year-old was selected to the roster in early May but only appeared in five games before being optioned back down. He has been in pretty good form in Louisville, having hit eight home runs and drawn walks in 16.7% of his 192 plate appearances. He is slashing .226/.361/.439 at that level for a 109 wRC+ despite a .248 batting average on balls in play.
The Reds will now have a week to trade Capel or pass him through waivers. He is in his final option year so perhaps he will garner interest from a club with a 40-man roster spot available and a need for outfield depth. If he were to pass through waivers unclaimed, he has a previous career outright and would therefore have the right to elect free agency.
That’s a Castellini needle mover.
Should be an issue with Stephenson, another roster move may be in the way, is Marte due tu return this weekend already?
Marte cannot return until the 27th of June after his suspension is complete. The other issue is that during his rehab (which is allowed) on the AAA team he has been going through the motions. His elevation rate is too low so far and needs more time to ge back into proper hitting shape. So, the Reds may decide to give him more time to improve. He will be back with the team because he plays pretty good D at 3rd base and has a better ‘eye’ than most of the players on the ML team right now (so less strikeouts/higher average).
I believe the Reds will need to open a 40-man spot for Marte immediately after the 80-game suspension ends, even if they decide to keep him in AAA on an optional assignment.
Doomed.
Friendl can’t stay healthy. McClain and Marte back will be too little too late. CES likely won’t see the field this year
Just bad break after bad break
Don’t give up! We are only 74 games into a 162 game season!!
True. Most of it seems to be with the hitters. The offense is anemic right now as a result. Losing Friedl, McClain, CES, Marte (all of whom were expected to start) coupled with the non productivity of De La Cruz, Steer, Benson, India and Stephenson will short circuit any offense. , Some guy was on here saying hitting ‘245 with minimal offensive production is acceptable all while making 15 million a year. I would respond with “on what planet”. . Saying all that, I think the Reds had a good plan entering the season. They made a FA move or two that I would not have, but the team was staffed to succeed. Who could have foreseen all the injuries and collective non production by the hitters. There is roughly half the season left, so let’s see if things turn around.
Friedl is back and playing tonight
Tbf, .245 is about league average these days
Benson has been a black hole, but the rest you mentioned have been about treading water, unfortunately with almost a complete dearth of slugging though
He’s talking about Candelabra who’s hitting 251. But sure let’s go nice again use BA as a monitor on production. A lot of these posters can’t wrap their heads around how bad hitting is this year.
He has a 789 OPS. Only Cruz at 770 is close but he sucks too according to this poster. Steer and Benson have regressed no doubt. Those other 2 cannot be blamed unless you expect Cruz to be Eric Davis 86-87. If he’s not. He already sucks.
Candelabra has been the only thing consistent since May. At 15M his offense. At this rate and what the hitting in the league is now. That’s not sucking.
Not sucking but a long way from being worth 15 million a year. Yeah, it is all relative compared to the rest who are mostly under performing. The bottom line is the offense is pathetic. Like I said, some of that is due to injuries. Both will lead to you getting beat on a regular basis.
Yeah, that would be me. The MLB average BA this year is something like .241. Candelario had a terrible April, but has been hitting ever since April 28th. His OPS since then is in the 900 to 1000 range.
He’s worth every bit of 15 mil. The Reds would be hurting without him. I’ve been having this debate since January. Got better things to do with my time on a beautiful Saturday afternoon.
Baseball is getting hard for me to be concerned about. The IL is becoming so action packed I may just as well be watching “The Walking Dead”
I used to be able to watch BB on the main channels, now you have to pay for it. I’ve actually gone back to the radio for BB info.
All in all bad break after bad break becomes all our teams montra, live with it
Some of the zombies in that show move better than some of the players.
I was a catcher and I can say three cat hers on the roster is crazy, unless you have a guy like Farm Dog who played virtually every position.
They just can’t say a guy is hurt and put him on the IL. Instead they operate a man down for a week or more.
Idiocy, but I am sure the altar worshippers will buy the excuses hook, line, and sucker as usual.
Same here on being a catcher as a kid. You are right, three catchers really hurt the team but we know Bell loves that supposed flexibility even though it’s not.
The team runs a pretty poor media relations side of the game too. Seems like they intentionally want to keep all moves hidden away from everyone. Plus then they go a week being short=staffed to save an option or something???
I am one you would bemoan as a worshipper
I do not get this move
I truly believe you are just incapable of seeing anything positive with this organization out of principle
All these things can be true
Stephenson has to be nursing an injury. And the Bell bashing about roster moves is uninformed and knee jerkish. I missed where Bell got promoted to GM.
A lot of altar worshippers on here. I wonder how far or what levels they played at (if any level at all above little league). These young sabermetric cats are something else.. I would love to coach against them. While they are digging into their stat sheets, I would be whipping their a$$$e$. There is a place for sabermetrics but there is also a ton of over analyzing.. There is an old saying “you can analyze until you are paralyzed.”
Analysis paralysis, we used to call it.
I am a proponent of smart drafting and thorough development/coaching.. If you are good at both, success will usually follow. That is true for any sport and any level of play. The problem is that most people/organizations aren’t really good at both. Injuries can also derail you, but that is not the norm.
I think Stephenson’s wife is expected to go into labor any day now. That could be the reason.
There’s a paternity list for that.
I realize that. However, after looking into it further, it seams she’s not due until later in the summer.
R the reds being pitched inside and hit on purpose because Bell will not retaliate
I think it is more like hitters are crowding the plate more because of all the armor they let them wear. I have seen it on all sides.
Makes as much sense as any of the comments above.. Most people who comment here presume Castellini, Krall, Bell, DJ, etal are clueless and everythng else follows from that idiom. Fact is Reds are 10-7 in June and have allowed a total of 58 runs in those 17 games. Not too shabby with the injuries they have. Hurtubise needed to go back dwn. He can’t lay at this level hitting the ball in the air. Capel better off moving on. BTW whether it’s Stephenson’s hand or he’s about to receive a family addition; this is why Krall got Wynns.
To elaborate, Reds have a young, dynamic, talented pitching staff and Wynns will help them-even if only for a while.
Rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic
“tepid” is an interesting choice of words to describe the hitting of Wynns. I would call it normal or average for this roster. Team BA is .225. And yes, that metric matters, stats nerds. A .25 increase in BA, which would move them to about #9/#10 in the metric will increase run production by a half run or so per game. That translates into a significant increase in wins when you have reasonably good pitching like this team has.
So the problem is to answer why this team sucks at hitting so badly with nearly half the season gone while they burn up pitching to stay in games.
.250 in Triple A and .225 in the bigs is nothing to write home about.
Too little contact and too many strikeouts is the biggest thing the eyeballs see. No productive outs.
The bullpen will be burned out again by July with no real fifth starter and an inconsistent veteran one.
The Reds are Einstein’s definition of insanity for going on 34 years now.
No real 5th starter? Most teams would be thrilled to have Ashcraft for that role. Despite your dead horse beating, the starting pitching has been very good.
That is true for the most part. Especially since Lodolo made it back. The relief pitching hasn’t been awful.. The hitting has and that is our downfall. Enough of the .245 BA being league average. All that proves is hitting is down on most teams. That doesn’t score enough runs to win consistently..
Lodolo is becoming a bonafide ace. Glad he is pitching today, we need the series win.