The Reds and left-hander Joe La Sorsa are in agreement on a minor league deal with an invite to major league spring training, reports Ari Alexander of KPRC 2. The southpaw will make the league minimum $780K in the majors and $180K in the minors.
La Sorsa, 27 in April, had a very brief stay on the open market. The Nationals designated him for assignment and then put him on release waivers. The report of this deal came out less than two hours after the announcement that he had cleared waivers and become a free agent.
He has thrown 50 1/3 innings in the majors over the last two years, allowing 4.47 earned runs per nine. His 19.2% strikeout rate has been subpar but his 6.4% walk rate a couple of ticks better than average. He has done a decent job of limiting damage in that sample, with Statcast having his average exit velocity, hard hit rate and barrel rate all a bit better than the rest of the league.
His minor league production has mostly been similar to that major league work. Over 2023 and 2024, he logged 92 2/3 innings on the farm with a 2.82 ERA, 18% strikeout rate and 6.2% walk rate. His 2022 numbers were a bit more unique. He logged 73 1/3 minor league innings over 40 appearances that year with a 2.33 ERA, 31.4% strikeout rate and 3.6% walk rate.
Even if he can’t get those huge strikeout numbers back, he can perhaps be useful on account of his strong control and ability to stay off barrels. The Reds project to have three lefties in their bullpen, including recent trade acquisition Taylor Rogers as well as Brent Suter and Sam Moll, though there’s nothing wrong with more depth. If La Sorsa gets added to Cincinnati’s roster at any point, he has a couple of option years and less than a year of service time, meaning he can potentially provide cheap depth with roster flexibility.
Another day, another lefty pickup by the Reds. Rogers, Miley, La Sorsa, all in the last few days.
Nice pickup. Couple option years means he can come up in a pinch and go back without chances of losing him. Flexibility.
THE REDS AGAIN! THEY ARE RUINING BASEBALL AND HAVE TOO MANY PLAYERS ON THEIR ROSTER! THE SYSTEM IS BROKEN! THE REDS NEED TO BE FINED OR THE CBA NEEDS TO BE ADJUSTED TO KEEP THEM FROM SIGNING ALL THE LEFT HANDED PITCHERS!
See how stupid that sounds?
Yeah you sound like a dodger apologist. The team actually did ruin baseball by manipulating the rules in their favor to overload their squad with elite talent.
My statement isn’t stupid at all and I don’t have to type it out in all caps to point out the obvious. It’ll play out over the next 3 seasons when dodgers when all 3 WS with this roster they built by using more funds than any other teams have, deferring salaries, and signing elite players they only have access too
Dodgers ruined baseball and manfred is a noob for enabling them to do so.
Does that really sound stupid to you ??
@big
UNTIL THE DODGERS DO THINGS OTHER TEAMS CANNOT, SIT DOWN IN YOUR SOY AND ENJOY THE SHOW
Excellent points Big wifffa. Chris takes are always a bit off even without all the caps.
@bob
COPE HARDER
If theres asterisks next to records and awards in modern day baseball – dodgers earned em all !
It does sound stupid that you think you drew an equivalence there
It’s actually does, because the comparison isn’t similar
Are the reds collecting lefties ?
If they are, I’m absolutely here for it!
Reds under DJ and Krall have been collecting pitching and along with their scouting and coaching have become pretty good at it. They still need a couple bullpen upgrades, but those should come later in February. Reda are a pitching first organization.