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Krall: Reds Have Not Declared Themselves Sellers

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July 23: Reds president of baseball operations Nick Krall pushed back on Morosi’s report, telling Gordon Wittenmyer of the Cincinnati Enquirer that he’s had conversations with the majority of the league but has “not gone down one road that specific.”

Krall’s comments came on the heels of a Cincinnati victory over Atlanta last night. That win kept the Reds within four games of a Wild Card spot in the National League, albeit in an extraordinarily tightly bunched race. Though they’re only four games back, the Reds would need to vault past the Giants, Cubs, D-backs, Padres, Pirates and one of the Mets or Cardinals in order to move into Wild Card position. The Cubs are actually a half-game up on the Reds in the standings, and their own president of baseball operations, Jed Hoyer, publicly conceded just last night that his focus will be on 2025 and beyond.

The next few days will likely be pivotal for the Reds as they chart their course for the remainder of the season. They have two games left against the Braves, followed by three road games against the Rays. They’ll host the Cubs on the evening of July 29 — their final game before the July 30 deadline.

July 21: Back in early July, when the Reds were 41-45 and just a few games out of the NL Wild Card race, club GM Brad Meador suggested that the club was not yet ready to commit to a strategy for this year’s trade deadline. Flash forward to today, and fallen to a record of 47-53 after getting swept by the Nationals coming out of the All-Star break. It appears that recent performance may have been enough for the club to officially set course, as Jon Morosi of MLB Network reports that the club has begun to inform rival clubs that they are willing to part with players on expiring contracts.

It’s hardly a surprise that Cincinnati would limit any sell-off to rental pieces. After all, the club has an exciting core of young talent led by star shortstop Elly De La Cruz and right-hander Hunter Greene that figures to keep the Reds in the playoff conversation in the coming years, and this season has been complicated by injuries to key pieces such as Matt McLain, Christian Encarnacion-Strand, TJ Friedl, Brandon Williamson, and Graham Ashcraft. By maintaining that core of players as well as veteran pieces under longer-term control such as Jonathan India and Jeimer Candelario, the Reds can remain fairly well positioned to load back up for the 2025 campaign this winter and make another attempt at returning to contention.

The Reds’ list of pending free agents is a relatively short one, but it nonetheless has some interesting names. Right-hander Frankie Montas, whose $20MM mutual option for 2025 is all but certain to be declined, is perhaps the player with the most name recognition that the club could look to move. Righty Nick Martinez has a $12MM player option for 2025 and could also be made available, while outfielder Austin Slater (who the Reds acquired from San Francisco just two weeks ago), lefty Justin Wilson, and right-handers Buck Farmer and Lucas Sims will each see their contracts run out at season’s end.

According to Morosi, the Orioles are among the clubs to have interest in Cincinnati’s rental pitchers, including Montas and Martinez. The fit between Baltimore and either of those two pieces is somewhat obvious, as the Orioles have lost starters Kyle Bradish, John Means, and Tyler Wells to season-ending surgery this year. That’s left them to put together a patchwork rotation filled out by Dean Kremer and Albert Suarez behind front-end duo Corbin Burnes and Grayson Rodriguez. At least one more playoff-caliber starter would make plenty of sense for the Orioles, and they would likely benefit from adding additional depth beyond that as well.

Whether Montas, 31, constitutes a playoff-caliber starter at this point in his career is up for debate. The righty has struggled badly with the Reds in 89 innings (18 starts) this year, posting a 4.85 ERA and 5.04 FIP which are both roughly 15% worse than league average. While Montas has allowed three runs or fewer in 12 of his 18 starts this year, blow-up starts have been a fairly frequent occurrence for the righty, including a combined 12 runs allowed in 11 2/3 innings in his last two starts against the Nationals and Rockies.

Bleak as his recent performance has been, Montas isn’t far removed from a stretch of mid-rotation success with the A’s from 2018 to 2022 where he posted 3.70 ERA and 3.61 FIP in 99 appearances. With that being said, it can’t be ignored that Montas underwent shoulder surgery back in February of last year. Since his return from going under the knife, his peripherals are those of a completely different pitcher. He’s struck out just 18.7% of batters faced after entering 2023 with a career 24.3% strikeout rate, and after allowing free passes to just 7.8% of opponents through the end of the 2022 season he’s watched his walk rate balloon to 10% since undergoing surgery. Even with those flaws, however, Montas’s track record as a quality mid-rotation arm could still certainly attract interest from pitching-hungry suitors.

Martinez, however, could prove to be the better fit for the Orioles’ needs. The right-hander has found a niche as one of the best swingmen in the game over the past three seasons with San Diego and Cincinnati, and this season the 33-year-old boasts a solid 3.88 ERA with an even stronger 3.15 FIP. While his 18.9% walk rate isn’t anything to write home about, he’s limited walks to a clip of just 3% this year while surrendering just six home runs in 72 innings of work. Martinez has been used primarily in relief this year, although he made five starts for the Reds early in the season and demonstrated the ability to move between the rotation and bullpen with relative ease during his time in San Diego. The veteran righty would offer the Orioles pitching depth for both the bullpen and rotation down the stretch, possibly working out of the rotation for the remainder of the regular season before moving into the bullpen during the playoffs.

Of course, Baltimore is far from the only club that could be interesting in the Reds’ available rentals. The Dodgers, Astros, Red Sox, and Padres are among the other teams known to be in the market for starting pitching, while virtually every contender is typically on the prowl for rental bullpen help this time of year and could have interest in either Martinez in a relief role or a rental bullpen arm like Wilson, Farmer, or Sims.

Edwin Ríos Elects Free Agency

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Infielder Edwin Ríos recently elected free agency, per his transactions tracker at MLB.com. He had been designated for assignment by the Reds last week and was sent outright to Triple-A Louisville after clearing waivers, but he instead exercised his right to return to the open market.

Ríos, 30, started the year on a minor league deal with the Reds and had a nice run at Triple-A. He got into 50 games for the Bats and hit 11 home runs while drawing walks at an 11.8% clip. He also struck out in 28.6% of his plate appearances but his .243/.340/.486 batting line still translated to a solid wRC+ of 108.

He was called up by Cincinnati a few weeks ago but didn’t get much playing time, which has been a theme of his career. The Reds gave him just ten plate appearances in five games during his two weeks on the roster. The Reds acquired Austin Slater from the Giants and also welcomed players like Stuart Fairchild and Jake Fraley back from absences and Ríos got squeezed off.

Players with at least three years of service time or a previous career outright have the ability to elect free agency rather than accept another outright assignment. Ríos qualifies on both of those counts and now used that right to look for a new gig on the open market.

Ríos has always hit well in the minors and also had a nice start to his major league career with the Dodgers. In 2019 and 2020, he slashed .260/.338/.634 in the big leagues with Los Angeles but was limited to 139 plate appearances on a fairly crowded roster. In 2021, he was limited to just 60 trips to the plate and struggled to a line of .078/.217/.137 but then bounced back in 2022. Though he still only got 92 plate appearances, he hit seven home runs and slashed .244/.293/.500 in those.

By the end of 2022, he had 20 homers in just 291 trips to the plate and a .219/.299/.492 batting line that translated to a 112 wRC+. But he qualified for arbitration by crossing the three-year service mark and the Dodgers decided not to tender him a contract. He signed with the Cubs and continued hitting well in the minors but slashed just .071/.235/.214 in the small sample of 34 plate appearances he got at the major league level. He exhausted his final option season last year and was outrighted off the roster in the middle of the campaign.

Since the start of 2018, Ríos has hit .272/.347/.511 and a produced a 110 wRC+ in almost 1400 Triple-A plate appearances. Despite that consistently strong work and his encouraging showing with the Dodgers in the majors a few years ago, he still hasn’t cracked 100 plate appearances in any individual MLB season. Defensively, he provides a bit of versatility since he has lined up at the four corner spots at the major league level.

29 clubs passed on the chance to grab Ríos from the Reds, so he’s likely looking at a minor league deal in the coming days or weeks. With the trade deadline coming up on July 30, it’s possible that some new opportunities might open up for him. If he finds a role anywhere, he is out of options but has less than four years of service time and could theoretically be retained via arbitration beyond this season.

Reds Notes: Suter, Friedl, Kiermaier

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The Reds announced earlier today that they’ve placed left-hander Brent Suter on the 15-day IL due to a partial tear of his left teres major muscle. As noted by Gordon Wittenmyer of the Cincinnati Enquirer, the club had at least some concern that the injury would prove serious enough that Suter would be out for the remainder of the 2024 campaign. Fortunately, Suter himself told reporters (including those at Bally Sports Cincinnati) that his current timeline is not quite that bleak. The lefty’s expected shutdown time is between four and six weeks, though he’ll of course have to build back up to game-ready form after that.

While that timeline leaves the door open for Suter to return sometime in September, the news is nonetheless a major blow to the Reds’ relief corps. The bullpen has been a major strength for Cincinnati this year, as the club’s 3.44 collective bullpen ERA is the sixth-best figure in the majors while their 3.65 FIP ranks seventh. Suter has been a huge part of that success as the 34-year-old has posted a solid 3.68 ERA in a whopping 51 1/3 innings of work this year. That means Suter has accounted for just under 15% of the total innings thrown by the Reds bullpen this year, an innings total that leads the team.

With both Suter and right-hander Carson Spiers having recently hit the IL in Cincinnati, it wouldn’t be a shock to see the club pursue bullpen reinforcements in the coming weeks. Reds brass indicated earlier this month they had not yet committed to a strategy for the trade deadline this year, though it’s worth noting that the club did swing a trade for outfielder Austin Slater just days after those comments, suggesting an openness to adding to the big league roster on at least some level. A look at MLBTR’s Top 50 Trade Candidates For The 2024 MLB Trade Deadline reveals a number of interesting relief arms available, ranging from star A’s rookie Mason Miller to White Sox reclamation project Michael Kopech.

The Slater deal isn’t the only indication that the Reds could be looking to add this summer. According to Wittenmyer, the club “touched base” regarding Blue Jays center fielder Kevin Kiermaier when the club put him on waivers earlier this month, though of course no deal has come together to this point. Kiermaier would offer the Reds a quality defensive center fielder who could act as a lefty platoon option for right-handed bats Slater and Stuart Fairchild, although it’s worth noting that Kiermaier has struggled badly (53 wRC+) at the plate this year. A stronger offensive fit Wittenmyer suggests for the Reds would be Nationals outfielder Lane Thomas, though he cautions that such a fit would depend on the price of acquiring 28-year-old.

While the Reds’ dearth of quality options in the outfield makes it an easily identifiable place where the club could improve its stock this summer, they may be on the verge of adding impact to the outfield mix internally. According to MLB.com’s Injury Tracker, center fielder TJ Friedl is slated to head out for a minor league rehab assignment tomorrow with the hope of returning to the lineup in Cincinnati for this weekend’s series against the Rays. Friedl has been limited to just 26 games by injuries this year but is only one season removed from a 4-win campaign in 2023 where he posted a strong 116 wRC+ while slugging 18 home runs, stealing 27 bases, and playing strong defense in center across 138 games. That 20/30 potential in center field is tantalizing, and it’s easy to see how Friedl could help to transform the club’s outfield mix if he’s finally healthy after dealing with a fractured wrist and a hamstring strain this year.

Reds Designate Edwin Ríos For Assignment

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The Reds announced today that outfielder Stuart Fairchild has been activated from the 10-day injured list with infielder Edwin Ríos designated for assignment as the corresponding move. The club’s 40-man roster count drops to 39.

Ríos, 30, was just added to the roster a couple of weeks ago. He received 10 plate appearances in five games but recorded just one walk and one hit, a single, while striking out four times. That’s a fairly meaningless sample size but he may have been squeezed out by forces beyond his control. In addition to Fairchild’s return from the IL, Jake Fraley has returned from a stint on the family medical emergency list and the club acquired Austin Slater from the Giants. On top of that, Rece Hinds has slashed an absurd .423/.464/1.192 in his first seven major league games.

The Reds gave Ríos a couple of starts at first base and a few pinch-hitting opportunities but it would have been hard to get into the lineup with those developments in the outfield. Spencer Steer had been playing some left field but might now be pushed to spending more time at first base, splitting that spot and designated hitter with Jeimer Candelario as the outfield is manned by Fraley, Fairchild, Slater, Hinds and Will Benson. Candelario can also play third but the club has Noelvi Marté getting regular run there.

Since Ríos is out of options, the Reds had to cut him from the 40-man roster entirely to squeeze him off the active roster. Prior to getting called up, Ríos got into 50 Triple-A games with some success. He hit 11 home runs and was drawing walks at an 11.8% clip, though he was also striking out 11.8% of the time. His .243/.340/.486 batting line translated to a 108 wRC+.

The Reds will have a week to trade Ríos or pass him through waivers. Since the waiver process takes 48 hours, that leaves five days for them to explore any trade interest. Players with more than three years of service time or a previous career outright have the right to reject outright assignments in favor of free agency, with Ríos qualifying on both counts.

Prior to this stint with the Reds, he had played with the Dodgers and Cubs. This is his sixth straight season getting MLB time but he’s never been able to stick around for more than 32 games in any individual year. Overall, he has 335 plate appearances over 135 games with 21 home runs and a batting line of .202/.290/.455 for a wRC+ of 100.

Reds Sign No. 2 Overall Pick Chase Burns

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The Reds announced this evening that they’ve officially signed second overall pick Chase Burns. MLB Pipeline’s Jim Callis reports (on X) the the right-hander received a $9.25MM signing bonus. While that’s a bit shy of the $9.79MM slot value, it’s the largest signing bonus in draft history. Burns edges past the $9.2MM which Paul Skenes secured as last year’s first overall pick.

It’s possible that record will only stand for a few days. Burns is the first player from this year’s top 10 to sign. First overall pick Travis Bazzana (and potentially #3 selection Charlie Condon) could land a loftier bonus in the coming weeks. That won’t be of much concern to Burns, the first pitcher to come off the board last week. While Burns was widely expected to be the top pitcher selected, he was a slightly surprising pick at #2. Condon and West Virginia infielder JJ Wetherholt — who “slipped” to the Cardinals at #7 — were marginally ahead of Burns on most public rankings heading into the draft, largely because of the heightened injury risk for pitchers.

ESPN’s Kiley McDaniel and Keith Law of the Athletic each had Burns as the #5 player in the class. FanGraphs slotted him sixth, while Baseball America ranked him fourth. All four publications had Burns and Arkansas lefty Hagen Smith as the top two pitchers in some order.

Burns was a high-profile draft prospect as a high schooler back in 2021. Teams weren’t willing to meet his asking price at the time, leading the 6’3″ righty to the University of Tennessee. Burns had two strong seasons in Knoxville and transferred to Wake Forest for his draft year. He started 16 times for the Demon Deacons, firing 100 innings with a 2.70 earned run average. Burns fanned nearly half the batters he faced and easily led Division I pitchers with 191 strikeouts. Smith was second in the nation with 161 punchouts. He kept his walk rate to a 7.7% clip and finished his college career with a 40% strikeout rate against a 7.6% walk percentage.

With that level of dominance, it’s not surprising that prospect evaluators suggest Burns has a top-of-the-rotation ceiling. Reports credit him with an upper-90s fastball that can run as high as 100 or 101 MPH. That pitch and his wipeout slider have each gotten 70 or 80 grades on the 20-80 scouting scale. Burns’ curveball and changeup are a bit behind the fastball/slider combination and scouting reports point to some effort in his delivery, but there’s not much question about his ability to stick as a starter. Both Law and McDaniel note that he could move quickly through the minors.

Cincinnati selected another Wake Forest righty, Rhett Lowder, in the top 10 a year ago. They’re hopeful that duo will join Hunter Greene, Nick Lodolo and Andrew Abbott as part of a homegrown starting staff. There’s injury risk with any group of young pitchers and the Reds will need more than five starters on an annual basis, but that quintet could be the nucleus of one of the sport’s best rotations if things break right over the next couple seasons.

Reds Sign Patrick Weigel To Minor League Deal

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Right-hander Patrick Weigel, who’s spent the bulk of the season pitching with the Mexican League’s Saraperos de Saltillo, has signed a minor league deal with the Reds, as first announced by his now-former club. Weigel was assigned to Double-A Chattanooga and tossed a perfect inning with one strikeout on Sunday.

Weigel, who turned 30 last week, pitched in a pair of big league seasons in 2020-21. The former seventh-round pick ranked as one of the Braves’ top organizational pitching prospects for years, climbing as high as the system’s ninth-best prospect on Baseball America’s 2017 list and ranking within BA’s top 20 Braves prospects each year from 2017-21.

Despite being a prospect of some note for more than a half decade, Weigel has just 4 2/3 innings at the big league level under his belt. He yielded four earned runs on six hits and seven walks with nine punchouts in that tiny sample. He’s posted sterling numbers throughout the lower and middle levels of the minors but stumbled a bit upon reaching Triple-A, where he carries a career 4.68 ERA, 21.1% strikeout rate and 13.4% walk rate in 209 2/3 innings across parts of four seasons.

Weigel’s run with Atlanta came to an end in 2021, when the Braves traded him to the Brewers alongside fellow righty Chad Sobotka in the deal that netted current shortstop Orlando Arcia. Weigel was cut loose following that 2021 season and has since pitched for the Mariners’ Triple-A affiliate and for the Kansas City Monarchs of the independent American Association in addition to this year’s stint in Mexico.

He’ll need to pitch his way into bullpen consideration for the Reds, but Sunday’s spotless frame was a good start — and his work in a very hitter-friendly Mexican League setting was intriguing as well. Weigel tossed 37 2/3 innings and worked to a sharp 2.87 earned run average while fanning 28.3% of his opponents against a tidy 7.9% walk rate.

Reds Select Tony Santillan

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The Reds announced this morning that they’ve selected the contract of right-hander Tony Santillan. To make room or Santillan on the 40-man and active rosters, outfielder Nick Martini was transferred to the 60-day injured list while right-hander Carson Spiers was placed on the 15-day IL with a right shoulder impingement.

It’s far from Santillan’s first stint in the majors with Cincinnati. The 27-year-old was a second-round pick by the club back in 2015 and made his debut with the club back in 2021, when he was one of the club’s top relievers. In 43 1/3 innings of work that season, Santillan posted a strong 2.91 ERA (162 ERA+) despite a somewhat lackluster 4.62 FIP in 26 games. While Santillan struck out an excellent 29.5% of opponents, his 11.1% walk rate and his seven homers allowed both weighed that down somewhat.

Those issues, combined with a back strain that sidelined Santillan for much of the 2022 campaign and the early part of the 2023 season, left the right-hander on the outside looking in of the club’s bullpen mix going forward, however. Over those two injury-marred seasons, Santillan struggled to a 5.09 ERA with a 4.52 FIP, 19.3% strikeout rate, and 14.9% walk rate while pitching just 23 total frames in the majors. His work in the minors last year wasn’t much better, as he was torched to the tune of a 7.88 ERA in 35 appearances at the Triple-A level last season.

Despite that rough performance, the Reds nonetheless re-signed Santillan to a minor league deal this past offseason, and that decision has largely paid off. The righty has looked much better at Triple-A this season than he did a year ago, posting a 3.49 ERA with a 3.87 FIP in 38 2/3 innings of work as a single-inning reliever. While his 13.2% walk rate is still elevated as ever, his strikeout rate has bounced back in a big way to compensate: he’s fanned 30.5% of opponents this year. That high strikeout rate was a big part of what made him so successful in 2021, and given that it’s hardly a surprise that the Reds would be interested in seeing what he can do at the big league level.

Making room for Santillan on the Cincinnati roster is Spiers, who has emerged as a quality middle relief arm for the Reds this year after struggling in his first taste of big league action last season. The 26-year-old posted an ERA north of 6.00 in 13 innings of work in 2023 but has emerged looking far better this season with a solid 3.83 ERA and even more impressive numbers under the hood while swinging between the rotation and bullpen this year. While Spiers has only struck out 20.5% of batters faced this year, an excellent 4.5% walk rate has left him with a 3.51 FIP and a 3.86 SIERA, both of which are well above average marks. Fortunately, Spiers told reporters (including Charlie Goldsmith of the Cincinnati Enquirer) this afternoon that his injury figures to be only a short-term issue and that he expects to miss just one start.

As for Martini, the outfielder’s transfer to the 60-day IL is hardly a surprise given the fact that he underwent surgery on his thumb earlier this week. Martini’s timetable for return isn’t entirely clear, though he’s expected to be able to return before the end of the year. That return now won’t come until after September 5, 60 days after he was first sidelined by the injury. In 163 trips to the plate with the Reds this year, Martini has slashed a lackluster .212/.272/.370.

Reds’ Graham Ashcraft Diagnosed With Elbow Strain

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July 12: Manager David Bell told reporters on Friday that Ashcraft won’t be back until September at the earliest (X link via Charlie Goldsmith of the Cincinnati Enquirer). The Reds could move him to the 60-day injured list at some point given that timetable.

July 11: The Reds optioned righty Graham Ashcraft to Triple-A Louisville earlier in the week, but they’ve now rescinded that transaction and instead placed Ashcraft on the major league 15-day injured list due to elbow discomfort. As Charlie Goldsmith of the Cincinnati Enquirer explains, Ashcraft reported elbow discomfort after being sent down. The team’s medical staff examined the right-hander, discovered the strain, and recommended a platelet-rich plasma injection. He’s been shut down from throwing entirely for the next two weeks as the team waits to see how his elbow responds to the treatment.

It’s been a tough couple months for the 26-year-old Ashcraft, who entered the season locked into a rotation spot but was sent to Triple-A for a reset in early June on the heels of some notable struggles. He returned after three weeks when the Reds placed Nick Lodolo on the IL due to a blister issue on his pitching hand.

Ashcraft started the season well, tossing seven starts (39 1/3 innings) of 3.86 ERA ball with a below-average 18.6% strikeout rate but a sharp 7% walk rate and strong 51.2% grounder rate. He struggled greatly over his next six trips to the mound, however, posting a 7.71 ERA in 28 frames with a diminished 14.9% strikeout rate.

It’s not clear to what extent the elbow was bothering Ashcraft earlier in the season, but it’s worth pointing out that the big righty averaged 95.2 mph on his sinker over his first seven starts but has checked in at an average of 94.1 mph since. He’s also lost about a half mile per hour off his cutter and 1.4 mph off his slider, on average.

The Reds aren’t providing a timetable right now, as Ashcraft’s return (and any further treatment) hinges on the outcome from the PRP injection. For now, the club hasn’t indicated that a major absence is a consideration or concern, but elbow strains in general are an ominous development for any pitcher. Ashcraft has crossed over the two-year threshold in MLB service this season, meaning he’s under club control for at least four more years — through the 2028 campaign. However, he’ll still have multiple option years remaining beyond the current campaign, so it’s possible that future optional assignments to Triple-A could push that free-agent window back even further.

With Ashcraft squarely out of the rotation picture for the time being, righty Carson Spiers will get an extended look as he aims to secure a starting job alongside Hunter Greene, Nick Lodolo, Frankie Montas and Andrew Abbott. The 26-year-old Spiers carries a 3.64 ERA, 17.9% strikeout rate and 5% walk rate through 42 innings — five relief appearances and four starts.

Reds’ Nick Martini Undergoes Thumb Surgery

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Reds outfielder/designated hitter Nick Martini underwent surgery yesterday to repair ligament damage in his thumb, manager David Bell informed the team’s beat (X link via Gordon Wittenmyer of the Cincinnati Enquirer). A firm timeline for his recovery wasn’t provided, but Bell noted there’s still a chance Martini could return before season’s end.

Martini was placed on the injured list over the weekend due to an issue in his left thumb. He suffered the injury when he jammed his thumb on a headfirst slide into second base the day prior. The 34-year-old Martini got out to a blistering start in 2024, ripping a pair of Opening Day homers and batting .290/.303/.677 through his first 11 games. He then fell into a prolonged slump before being optioned to Triple-A Louisville on May 7.

Martini has twice been optioned to Louisville this season, and both times he’s laid waste to upper-minors pitching. In 60 plate appearances, he’s delivered a .340/.467/.681 batting line with four homers and as many walks as strikeouts (11). That certainly suggests the thumb hadn’t been bothering him prior to that ill-fated slide and that the bulk or entirety of the damage came on that one isolated play.

The overall .212/.272/.370 slash that Martini has turned in this season for the Reds is quite a ways below par, but he has a history of drawing walks and posting solid OBPs at the MLB level. In 575 MLB plate appearances, Martini is a .252/.336/.400 hitter. He’s also consistently been an OBP machine in Triple-A, where he’s slashed .295/.400/.451 in 2246 career plate appearances.

Martini will get big league pay and service time while he mends from that surgery. The injury could also give the Reds some 40-man roster flexibility, as it seems quite possible based on Bell’s nebulous recovery timeframe that he’ll require 60 days on the injured list.

Reds Sign Tony Kemp To Minor League Contract

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The Reds brought back Tony Kemp on a minor league contract. The move was announced by Cincinnati’s Triple-A team in Louisville, where the second baseman/left fielder has been assigned.

It’s the second time this year that Kemp has signed a non-roster deal with the Reds. He first joined the organization in February. The Vanderbilt product played in eight Spring Training games with Cincinnati. He didn’t make the team and was granted his release. A week later, Kemp signed a big league deal with the Orioles that guaranteed him $1MM.

The veteran’s stay in Baltimore was fairly brief. Kemp appeared in five games before being designated for assignment in tandem with Jackson Holliday’s first big league call. Kemp inked a minor league deal with the Twins after being released by Baltimore. He appeared in 46 games for Minnesota’s Triple-A team, hitting .279/.358/.436 while striking out just 12.8% of the time. Kemp opted out of that contract last week and returned to free agency.

Cincinnati still doesn’t have a path to playing time at second base. Jonathan India went on a tear in June to reestablish himself as David Bell’s leadoff hitter. India was scratched from tonight’s starting lineup with a left knee contusion (h/t to Gordon Wittenmyer of the Cincinnati Enquirer), but there’s nothing to suggest that’s more than a day-to-day concern.

Barring an injury to India, Kemp’s better path to playing time is probably in left field. The Reds are shorthanded in the outfield at the moment. Jake Fraley is away from the team attending to a family matter. TJ Friedl, Nick Martini and Stuart Fairchild are all on the injured list. Kemp has more than 2100 innings of second base and left field experience at the MLB level. If the Reds were to call him up, they’d only be responsible for the prorated portion of the $740K minimum salary for any time he spends in the majors. The Orioles remain on the hook for the rest of his salary.

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