The Reds and infielder Michael Chavis have agreed to a minor league deal, reports Kiley McDaniel of ESPN. The CAA Sports client also receives an invite to big league camp in spring training.
Chavis, 30, returns to North America after a brief stint overseas. He signed with the Chunichi Dragons of Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball in July. However, he hit just .171/.267/.352 in 38 games for the Dragons.
The Reds have overlooked that small-sample disappointment and brought him aboard via a non-roster pact. Chavis was once a notable prospect, getting selected by the Red Sox in the first round of the 2014 draft. He had a breakout season in 2017 when he launched 31 home runs in the minors. Baseball America ranked him as the #85 prospect in the league going into the 2018 season.
He made a major league debut with a bit of a splash in 2019, hitting 18 home runs in just 382 plate appearances, but with some asterisks. That was the juiced-ball season, so Chavis was one of 151 players to reach the 18-homer mark that year. He also struck out in 33.2% of his plate appearances.
The strikeouts would continue to be a problem and bumped his stock down. In the coming years, he would bounce from Boston to Pittsburgh and Washington while continuing to whiff. He currently has 1,186 big league plate appearances on his statsheet with a 31.9% strikeout rate in those. His 5.4% walk rate is also subpar. Despite launching 42 home runs, his .238/.283/.401 batting line translates to an 80 wRC+, indicating he’s been 20% below average overall.
For the Reds, there’s no real harm in bringing him aboard via a minor league deal. For what it’s worth, his minor league production has been more viable. Dating back to the start of 2024, he has 740 Triple-A plate appearances, only striking out 22.3% of the time. He slashed .270/.339/.483 in that sample for a 103 wRC.
He can also provide plenty of defensive flexibility. He has big league experience at the three non-shortstop infield positions as well as the outfield corners.
The Reds have a lot of moving parts in their position player mix. Matt McLain could be the second baseman but he missed all of 2024 while injured and then had poor offensive results in 2025. Sal Stewart has second base experience in the minors but the Reds utilized him at first and third in the big leagues. Though he performed well down the stretch, he still has just 58 big league plate appearances. The hot corner should be locked down by Ke’Bryan Hayes after he was acquired at the deadline in 2025. If Stewart takes over at first, that could push Spencer Steer to the grass, the same way that Gavin Lux and Noelvi Marté have been largely pushed from the infield to the outfield. Steer, Lux and Marté were all around league average at the plate in 2025. Christian Encarnacion-Strand is also in the corner infield mix but is coming off two straight challenging seasons.
Chavis gives Cincy a bit of experience depth behind that group and can step in if there are openings due to injuries or underperformance. Chavis still has an option remaining, meaning he could be easily sent back to the minors if he gets a 40-man spot at some point.
Photo courtesy of Brad Mills, Imagn Images
Ice Horse returns to the States.
AAA roster filler at this point, but ever team needs to fill AAA rosters.
They need to fill the main roster first lol
Pirates legend
14 Hrs a few years ago for the Buccos.
Meh and double meh! BTW, Bah humbug as well.
The usual throw something at the wall and hope it sticks.
Not everyone can be the Pirates and have big budgets. We have to align our spending to our resources. Words I never thought id say.
Christmas came early! I’m playin, but happy holidays fellow baseball fans
Help is on the way
The next Red Sox masher. Oops.
I remember when he homered in his 2nd game in Pitt and some RS fans were complaining that we traded away a future HOFer.
.171/.267/.352 in 38 games for the Dragons — Outlook from that looks dismal – I hope he has lined up a fallback plan
Although last year he hit a little better with same team in a much smaller sample size of 12 games for JPWL
I bought a copy of Alf for sega masters system from Michael at a garage sale in like 2013. Nice guy
Thank you. This might be my favorite comment I have ever read on here. Hahahahahaha
Positively Regal!!
Good for Chavis
It’s clobbering time!!
I can’t remember what that’s from
Ben Grimm as The Thing in Fantastic Four.
CM Punk also does this as a tribute to The Thing.
Don’t chase the dead
The Shield
Merry Christmas NATION!!! Can anyone tell me, how high did Chavis get on Boston prospect rankings when he was coming up… Just another example that the most overrated word in English dictionary is potential….
#1 in 2018 and 2019 according to MLB.com
mlb.com/milb/prospects/2018/redsox/
That’s more an indictment of the Red Sox prospect pool at the time than how prospects are ranked, in my opinion.
Chavis was impressive as a high school kid. He played ball about a mile from my home at the time in East Cobb Co…. at the time, it was easy to imagine him as a fixture of fenway after having watched him play so much, it would’ve really been something to have a local kid become something in boston…. alas, not meant to be
And they went dumpster diving, with the front office giving fans a great big FU.
Reds signed INF Michael Chavis to a minor league contract with an invitation to spring training. Michael Chavis first 14 games in the show with the Red Sox (2019): 12 runs, 6 HR, 13 RBI, 2 SB, 9 walks, and a 1.236 in 48 AB. Michael Chavis May 12-May 25, 2019: 6 runs, 4 HR, 12 RBI, and an .856 OPS in 53 AB. Michael Chavis June 11, 2019-July 5, 2019: 14 runs, 5 doubles, 5 HR, 17 RBI, and an .855 OPS in 92 AB. And the rest was history. He turned 30 y/o in August.
My brother has his baseball card from 2023. Nice to see him get a contract
Congrats to your brother. What does your brother’s contract say? Does the contract grant him full oenership of his baseball card?
Reword this. Nice to see Michael Chavis get a contract.
My brother got the baseball card @ Astros game where they had a promotion of baseball cards to the first 10,000 fans, I forgot the card was had 2022 stats but not 2023.
My brother is fine.
Thought this guy would be delivering Amazon packages by now.
😂😂😂
What a day to be a Reds fan! They are finally showing that they are going to compete w the big boys and spend some cash. For them to throw this money at Chavis says “2026 is the year”. This is a guy who was the 85th ranked prospect 8 years ago, so you know he will cost a pretty penny. Talent aint cheap. Now we fill the seats and help repay the ownership group and exec of the year Nick Krall.
Was that what the press release said?
I laugh to not cry my friend. Merry Xmas
Same to you, my friend! 🙂