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Nate Jones Makes Reds’ Opening Day Roster

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Right-hander Nate Jones has been told he will make the Reds’ 30-man roster on Opening Day, as reported by multiple sources (including The Athletic’s C. Trent Rosecrans).  Once Jones’ minor league contract is officially selected by the team, he will lock in the prorated portion of a $1.5MM salary for the season.  Another $1MM in incentives was originally available in Jones’ deal, and he’ll now aim for the prorated version of those bonuses as well.

Simply staying on the field for the entire season (even an abbreviated season) might count as enough of a bonus for Jones, given all of the injury problems he had faced throughout his career.  Apart from a season of 70 2/3 innings in 2016, Jones hasn’t cracked even the 30-inning threshold since 2013, including a campaign of just 10 1/3 frames for the White Sox in 2019 before forearm surgery prematurely ended his year.

However, Jones has shown excellent form when healthy, with a career 3.12 ERA, 2.89 K/BB rate, and 9.8 K/9 over 291 1/3 innings.  All of that work has come in a White Sox uniform, though Jones was dealt to Texas last summer as part of a trade that also saw the Rangers acquire $1MM in international spending funds.  Now in his age-34 season, Jones is hoping to contribute to an intriguing Reds bullpen that also includes such names as Raisel Iglesias, Michael Lorenzen, Amir Garrett, and Robert Stephenson.

Reds Add Derek Dietrich To 60-Man Player Pool

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The Reds have added utilityman Derek Dietrich to their 60-man player pool, per a team announcement. He’ll report to their satellite location at Prasco Park. Dietrich told reporters he tested positive for coronavirus, necessitating the waiting period.

Dietrich had been with the organization this spring as a minor-league invitee. He carried a .174/.259/.478 slash line with two long balls in 27 plate appearances of Cactus League action.

Since he’s not slated to work out initially with the team’s anticipated active roster players, it seems rather unlikely that Dietrich has a shot at earning a MLB job to open the year. But the seven-year veteran, who’ll soon turn 31, would be on call if a need arises during the season. In 2,438 career plate appearances at the game’s highest level, he carries a .246/.334/.427 batting line.

Reds Sign Draft Pick Jackson Miller

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8:12PM: Miller will receive a $1.29MM bonus, as per Jim Callis of MLB Pipeline (Twitter link).  This puts the Reds just under their bonus pool limit with $6,100 to spare.

6:02PM: The Reds have completed their draft signings by reaching an agreement with 65th overall pick Jackson Miller.  The 18-year-old catcher announced the news himself on his Twitter feed.

Terms of the deal aren’t yet known, though the 65th overall pick comes with a slot value of $1,025,100.  Since the Reds have already signed five of the other six members of their draft class, they have plenty of room remaining ($1,296,100) in their $8,552,100 draft pool to give Miller an above-slot bonus.  Cincinnati could even offer more than that $1,296,100 figure if the team doesn’t mind paying a 75 percent tax on the overage for exceeding the draft pool limit, though topping the pool by more than five percent would be penalized with the loss of a future first-round pick.

The Athletic’s Keith Law described Miller as having “an advanced feel to hit,” albeit without yet much power in his left-handed swing.  Law ranked Miller 62nd on his list of 2020 draft prospects, with other pundits like Baseball America (99th), MLB Pipline (104th), and Fangraphs (123rd) not being quite as high on the 18-year-old.  As a catcher, the scouting reports noted some room for improvement, but plenty of promise for Miller to become at least an average defensive backstop.  Miller had committed to Wake Forest, but he’ll now begin his pro career as the Reds’ potential catcher of the future.

Devin Mesoraco Joins University Of Pittsburgh Coaching Staff

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Devin Mesoraco has joined the University of Pittsburgh baseball team as a volunteer assistant, per Kendall Rogers of d1baseball.com. Presumably, this means the former catcher’s playing days are done.

Mesoraco came highly-touted to the majors, from his selection at number fifteen overall in the 2007 draft, to his years as a top prospect in the Cincinnati Reds’ organization. He made his debut with the Reds in 2011 at the age of 23. Though he struggled over an 18-game sample, that did nothing to lessen the excitement over their presumed catcher of the future.

Before the start of the following season, Mesoraco was named the Reds’ number one prospect by Baseball America and a consensus top prospect in baseball. Baseball America had him as the #16 overall prospect in baseball prior to 2012 and Fangraphs had him at #15. Kevin Goldstein at Baseball Prospectus was slightly less bullish, but even he put Mesoraco at #24.

It was a tough era to be a top catching prospect, however (Jesus Montero, Travis d’Arnaud, Yasmani Grandal, Gary Sanchez, Wilin Rosario, Austin Hedges, Ryan Lavarnway, and Derek Norris were some of the other highly-regarded catching prospects). By the time Mesoraco was set to take over behind the plate in Cincinnati, he’d already suffered through a number of ticky-tack injuries. A high-character player, hopes were still high that he’d develop into a franchise catcher.

Though he didn’t quite reach those heights, he put together respectable major league career that lasted 8 seasons – all but the final 66 games taking place in Cincinnati. He largely struggled at the dish, but it all came together for a 26-year-old Mesoraco in 2014. That season, he appeared in 114 games and hit .273/.359/.534 with 25 home runs and 80 RBIs, making his lone All-Star appearance.

Injuries continued to play a part in Mesoraco’s career, however, and he only twice appeared in more than 100 games. In May of 2018 – his final season – the Reds traded Mesoraco to the Mets for another battered former top prospect in Matt Harvey. He did a nice job finishing that season for the Mets, hitting .222/.306/.409 with 10 long balls. If indeed this is it for Mesoraco, he’ll finish with a .232/.309/.406 line and 58 home runs, totaling 4.6 rWAR.

NL Central Notes: Cubs, Castellanos, Holt

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The Cubs were among the many teams experiencing delays in COVID-19 testing, as today’s results from this weekend’s batch of tests were late to arrive, writes Steve Greenberg of the Chicago Sun-Times. The delay proved to be brief, and general manager Jed Hoyer told the media this afternoon that all of the team’s tests came back negative. That’s obviously good news for the organization, though they’ll need to continue with caution and Hoyer acknowledged that they’ll likely be faced with positive results at some point.

With that in mind, Hoyer understandably opted not to discuss the possibility of extensions for core players or any trade that might eventually be on the horizon (Twitter link via Mark Gonzales of the Chicago Tribune). “At this point, our focus is on making sure this season is operating effectively,” Hoyer said. The Cubs have a number of potential extension candidates — Javier Baez and Kris Bryant among them — and could very arguably use some rotation help following Jose Quintana’s injury. There are obviously more pressing issues for the Cubs and other teams at the moment as they prioritize health-and-safety protocols in the buildup to this year’s shortened season.

More from the NL Central…

  • The designated hitter will be implemented in the National League for at least the 2020 season, but Reds slugger Nicholas Castellanos made clear this week that he hopes to remain in the outfield on a regular basis rather than serve a a primary DH (link via John Fay of the Cincinnati Enquirer). “I don’t want to DH,” Castellanos plainly stated. “…I like being in National League where I get to play defense every day. A goal of mine is to become a better and better defender every year that I play – every game that I play is probably a more appropriate answer.” Castellanos went on to note that he’d of course play wherever skipper David Bell asked him to on a given day, and he spoke optimistically about the Reds’ chances in 2020. At least occasional time at DH seems likely for Castellanos and others, though; the Reds have him, Jesse Winker, Nick Senzel, Shogo Akiyama, Aristides Aquino, Phil Ervin and Scott Schebler all in the mix for outfield reps.
  • Brewers infielder Brock Holt tells Tom Haudricourt of the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel that like many other players, he’s not particularly comfortable playing in 2020. However, Holt also feels that given his contractual status — he’s on a one-year deal after facing a surprisingly tepid market in free agency this past winter — he has little choice but to suit up if he hopes to continue playing. “If I didn’t play, it would be hard for me to find a job next year,” says Holt, who is making the difficult decision to leave his pregnant wife and child in Texas for three months rather than bring them to Milwaukee. “…If I was in a different situation contractually, it’s definitely something I would have considered with my wife being pregnant.”

NL Notes: Camp Delays, Dodgers, Cardinals, Gallegos, Health Updates, Senzel, Hamels

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Expect delayed arrivals to camp to become somewhat of a recurring story early in training camp as players attempt to clear the many hurdles to return to play. The Dodgers, for instance, will be missing a few players at the start of camp, though manager Dave Roberts wasn’t able to name specific players, per J.P. Hoornstra of the Southern California News Group. Likewise, the Cardinals will be missing reliever Giovanny Gallegos, who is delayed in his return from Mexico, per Anne Rogers of MLB.com. The Cardinals have not given a specific reason for his delay, per The Athletic’s Mark Saxon. Rather than speculate on reasons for the holdup, let’s check in on some health updates from around the league…

  • Nick Senzel’s had a banged-up rookie season, appearing in 104 games with a .256/.315/.427 slash – but he’s ready to go for his sophomore campaign. His first season ended early when a torn labrum required Senzel to get shoulder surgery. That injury is fully recovered now, but only just now, as Senzel reported having throwing pain as recently as a month ago, per Bobby Nightengale of The Enquirer. Senzel may not have a steady defensive home when play begins, but he figures to be an everyday presence in the Reds’ lineup regardless, especially with the DH now in play.
  • Cole Hamels was never going to get a full Spring Training, not once a shoulder injury took him out of commission for a few months. The 36-year-old knows that the four-week leadup to the newly-rebooted 2020 season isn’t exactly the same, not at his age, but he plans to be ready to contribute, per Mark Bradley of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Said Hamels: “It’s not as if I’m going to go out there expecting to pitch seven to nine innings. There’s going to be a gradual buildup process, and there’s going to be guys who will be able to piggyback on you, like in a high school or a college season. All that really matters is putting up zeroes. If you can put up two or put up five zeroes, that’s really helping the team, more so than (other pitchers) having to pick up and try to eat a lot of innings.” 

Amateur Draft Signings: 7/2/20

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Let’s round up the latest draft signings …

  • The Reds have inked Christian Roa to an at-slot deal, MLB.com’s Jim Callis reports on Twitter. The Texas A&M righty takes home just over $1.5MM to go pro. Fangraphs’ Eric Longenhagen was rather bullish on his outlook, grading Roa the 34th-best player available. It seems the Reds were also optimistic that Roa’s growing velocity would stick as he enters the Cincinnati system.
  • Two more Giants draft picks have gone under contract, with the team announcing the under-slot signings and Callis covering the bonuses (Twitter links). Supplemental second-rounder Jimmy Glowenke, a middle infielder out of Dallas Baptist, went for $600K ($953,100 slot value). Fifth-rounder Ryan Murphy, a right-hander from Le Moyne, secures $25K ($379K slot value). Glowenke placed 110th on the Baseball America board on the basis of his strong hit tool, reasonable power outlook, and solid defensive chops.
  • The Diamondbacks inked fourth-rounder A.J. Vukovich to a $1.25MM bonus, per Jonathan Mayo of MLB.com (Twitter link). That’s well north of the $483K pool allocation. He had been slated to head to Louisville to play third base, but will instead enter the Arizona system. MLB.com ranked Vukovich as the 86th-best player in the draft pool, explaining that the athletic youngster has existing and projectable power.
  • The Pirates also went over-slot, locking up third-round choice Nick Garcia, Callis reports via Twitter. He lands a $1.2MM bonus after being taken 79th overall ($780,400 slot value), thus completing the Pittsburgh draft business. The Bucs obviously felt the Chapman University righty was worth a little extra coin. Most draft pundits graded him as a late-second round talent. BA was highest at #56, citing the D-III performer’s “stuff, delivery, youth and fresh arm.”
  • Joining the Angels is David Calabrese, who secured the $744,200 slot value associated with his third-round selection, Callis tweets. The Canadian high-school outfielder will forgo his commitment to University of Arkansas. He could just be the steal of the draft, if the analysis of Keith Law of The Athletic proves correct. Law was far higher on Calabrese than the rest of the draft pundit cohort. Calabrese is quite youthful and exceptionally fast, making for an intriguing blend of baseline characteristics. Law believes that Calabrese has the makings of a quality hitter and could grow into some pop.

Reds’ Blake Trahan Retires

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Reds shortstop Blake Trahan was invited to participate in the Reds’ training camp but instead opted to retire, GM Nick Krall told reporters including C. Trent Rosecrans of The Athletic.

Just 26 years old, Trahan will close the books on his MLB career entering a season in which he figured to be a depth option for the Cincinnati infield mix. Though he didn’t appear in an MLB game last year, he very well could have gotten another crack at the Majors this year or next.

A 2015 third-round selection from UL-Lafayette, Trahan spent his entire career in the Reds organization, breaking into the big leagues in 2018. In 11 games at the Major League level, Trahan played all over the infield and notched a 3-for-14 batting line. In his minor league career spanning parts of five seasons, Trahan hit 14 home runs and stole 56 bases in 79 attempts.

We at MLB Trade Rumors wish Mr. Trahan all the best in his future endeavors, baseball-related or otherwise.

Reds Announce Initial 60-Man Player Pool

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Today marks the deadline for teams to submit to Major League Baseball their initial spring training player pools, which can comprise up to 60 players. Players are not eligible to participate in either a spring training or regular season game until they are included in the pool. Teams are free to change the makeup of the pools as they see fit. However, players removed from a team’s 60-man (for reasons unrelated to injury, suspension, etc.) must be exposed to other organizations via trade or waivers.

Not all players within a team’s pool are ticketed for MLB playing time, of course. Most teams will include well-regarded but still far-off prospects as a means of getting them training reps with no intention of running them onto a major league diamond this season. A comprehensive review of 2020’s unique set of rules can be found here.

The Reds’ initial player pool consists of the following players.

Right-handed pitchers

Left-handed pitchers

Catchers

Infielders

Outfielders

The Reds elected to leave three spots open, naming 57 players to their pool. As C. Trent Rosecrans of the Athletic points out (via Twitter), the club elected not to bring back Derek Dietrich, Vladimir Gutierrez, Chris Okey and Blake Trahan from the first iteration of MLB spring training. Dietrich’s exclusion is particularly notable, since he hit 19 home runs in 306 plate appearances for the club last season, albeit with an odd .187/.328/.462 line (102 wRC+). He had re-upped on a minor-league deal in Februrary. Gutierrez, meanwhile, was one of four players suspended by Major League Baseball today for drug infractions.

MLB Suspends Four Minor League Players

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MLB announced today that it has suspended four minor league players in violation of the league’s Drug Prevention and Treatment Program.

  • Reds right-handed pitcher Vladimir Gutierrez has been suspended for 80 games after testing positive for a performance-enhancing substance. The 24-year-old Gutierrez played all of the 2019 season at Triple-A, starting 27 games and notching a 6.04 ERA while striking out 117 batters in 137 innings. Gutierrez received a $4.75MM signing bonus from Cincinnati after defecting from Cuba during the 2016-2017 offseason.
  • Two Dodgers pitchers have also been suspended: Juan Idrogo and Reza Aleaziz have received suspensions of 72 games and 50 games, respectively. Idrogo signed with the Dodgers during last summer’s international signing period, spending the summer in the Dominican Summer League. Aleaziz, 24, reached High-A ball last year after the Dodgers made him a 28th-round selection in 2018.
  • Twins infielder Jose Rosario will also receive a 50-game suspension after testing positive for a drug of abuse. Rosario, 18, played last year, his pro debut, with the Twins affiliate in the Dominican Summer League. He posted a stellar .422 OBP in his first foray in affiliated ball.
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