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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.

Reds Recall Rece Hinds For MLB Debut, Outright Levi Jordan

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The Reds made a handful of moves before tonight’s series opener with the Rockies. Cincinnati recalled outfield prospect Rece Hinds in his first MLB promotion. They also brought up righty reliever Yosver Zulueta from Triple-A Louisville. In corresponding moves, the Reds optioned right-hander Graham Ashcraft and placed outfielder Stuart Fairchild on the 10-day injured list (retroactive to July 7) with a spinal disc injury.

Hinds is in the starting lineup tonight in right field. He’ll hit eighth and likely take his first big league at-bat against Colorado starter Ryan Feltner. The righty-hitting corner outfielder has been on Cincinnati’s 40-man roster since the start of last offseason. The Reds selected his contract to keep him out of the Rule 5 draft. He has been on optional assignment to Louisville all year.

Initially drafted as a third base prospect, Hinds was a second-round pick out of high school back in 2019. Evaluators have long been intrigued by the massive raw power he packs into a 6’4″ frame, but Hinds’ stock has dipped since he entered pro ball because of longstanding contact questions. The 23-year-old has punched out in nearly 35% of his plate appearances over parts of five minor league campaigns.

Strikeouts have again been a concern this season. Hinds has fanned at an untenable 38.4% clip through 328 trips to the plate in Louisville. While he has connected on 13 home runs, his .216/.290/.409 slash line in Triple-A is below average. The Reds remain intrigued by Hinds’ pure power potential, but it’s fair to expect a lot of swing-and-miss in his initial look at MLB pitching.

Cincinnati has tried to find a reliable righty-hitting outfielder to take some at-bats from lefties Jake Fraley and Will Benson. Fairchild has teed off on lefties at a .308/.388/.473 clip over 103 plate appearances, but he hasn’t produced at all against right-handed pitching (.127/.188/.203 in 86 PAs). He’s now out for an indeterminate amount of time, perhaps contributing to the decision to bring in Austin Slater in a late-night trade with the Giants. (Fraley is also currently away from the team tending to a family matter.)

On the pitching side, Zulueta steps into the bullpen and pushes Ashcraft back to Triple-A. It’s the second time this season that the Reds optioned the righty, who opened the year in the rotation. Ashcraft started three times since being recalled on June 26, allowing 10 runs in 15 innings. The Reds could soon welcome Nick Lodolo back from his stint on the 15-day injured list. Manager David Bell told reporters that rookie right-hander Carson Spiers will hold his rotation spot behind Lodolo, Hunter Greene, Andrew Abbott and Frankie Montas (X link via Charlie Goldsmith of the Cincinnati Enquirer).

In other Reds news, Cincinnati announced that utilityman Levi Jordan went unclaimed on waivers. He was outrighted back to Louisville. The Reds designated Jordan for assignment last week when they called up Edwin Ríos. A former 29th-round draftee, Jordan earned an MLB call in late June and appeared in seven contests. He picked up his first hit, a double off Daulton Jefferies, over 10 at-bats. He’s hitting .302/.384/.443 on the year in Triple-A.

Reds Acquire Austin Slater

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The Reds and Giants have swung a late night deal with just over three weeks to go until the trade deadline. Per an announcement from both clubs, the Reds have acquired outfielder Austin Slater from San Francisco in exchange for left-hander Alex Young. Cincinnati is also receiving cash considerations as part of the deal. The Giants optioned Young to Triple-A following the transaction.

Slater, 31, has been in the Giants organization for more than a decade. His professional career began when he was selected by the club out of Stanford in the eighth round of the 2014 draft, though he wouldn’t make his big league debut with the club until his age-24 season in 2017. Slater was largely a part-time player during his first few years in San Francisco, and he amassed just 544 plate appearances in the majors between 2017 and 2019. In that limited playing time, he posted a decent .254/.335/.368 slash line that was good for a 92 wRC+ while splitting time between all three outfield spots, first base, and even making brief cameos at both second and third base.

The shortened 2020 season saw Slater break out in a big way, as he posted an excellent 150 wRC+ for the Giants while appearing in 31 of the club’s 60 games that year while playing mostly right field and DH for the club. That offensive explosion earned Slater a larger role in the following years, and while most of his playing time still came against left-handed pitching he fashioned more of a proper platoon role for himself as opposed to the reserve outfield role he had been utilized in previously. Slater took to the increased responsibilities quite well, and between the 2020 and 2023 seasons the lefty masher hit a solid .259/.352/.421 (118 wRC+).

That line goes from solid to sensational when looking exclusively at his production against southpaws, against whom he mashed to the tune of a .285/.380/.486 line with a wRC+ of 141. That production against left-handed pitching was good for 17th-best in baseball during that four year period, on par with star hitters such as Jose Altuve and Xander Bogaerts.

While the Giants leaned heavily on Slater as a platoon partner for a primarily left-handed outfield featuring sluggers such as Mike Yastrzemski, Michael Conforto, and Joc Pederson during those years, Slater’s playing time was further cut down by injury woes. Since the start of the 2020 campaign, Slater has made seven trips to the injured list for groin, hamstring, wrist, and hand issues as well as multiple concussions. Slater also required elbow surgery last offseason to remove a bone spur and relieve nerve pain.

It’s possible that lengthy list of injury issues has helped to contribute to what has been a difficult 2024 season for the 31-year-old, as he’s hit just .200/.330/.244 in 112 trips to the plate this season surrounding a month-long stay on the IL due to a concussion earlier this year. Those struggles ultimately paved the way for youngsters Heliot Ramos and Luis Matos to squeeze Slater out of playing time in the Giants outfield, as Ramos has stepped up to become a regular fixture in center field while Matos serves as a righty complement off the bench for Yastrzemski and Conforto.

In acquiring Slater, the Reds are surely hoping they can coax some of that lefty-mashing ability he flashed in previous years out of him in order to make him a quality platoon partner for the club’s many left-handed hitting outfielders. Slater’s main competition for playing time in that role figures to be Stuart Fairchild, who has slashed a lackluster .224/.298/.347 (81 wRC+) in 189 trips to the plate this year. In the short term, however, both Fairchild and Slater figure to get plenty of reps alongside Will Benson and Spencer Steer in the club’s outfield mix thanks to the absences of Jake Fraley, TJ Friedl, and Nick Martini. Fraley is currently on the family medical emergency list and will likely return within a few days, but both Friedl and Martini are on the injured list and are facing potentially lengthy absences.

In exchange for parting ways with Slater, the Giants are receiving some left-handed bullpen help in the form of Young. Once a second-round pick by the Diamondbacks in the 2015 draft, the lefty made his big league debut back in 2019 and generally struggled at the major league level in a swing role with Arizona and Cleveland. That changed in 2022, when Young was acquired by San Francisco in a cash deal with the Guardians and began pitching in a short relief role full-time. The lefty performed quite well during his first stint with the Giants and posted a 2.39 ERA and 2.96 FIP across 26 1/3 innings of work before being non-tendered by San Francisco the following November.

Young eventually caught on with the Reds on a minor league deal prior to the 2023 season and has remained with the club ever since. He posted solid results in middle relief with the club last year, pitching to a 3.86 ERA despite a lackluster 4.99 FIP. While Young’s 21.2% strikeout rate and 8.5% walk rate were both perfectly solid, he allowed a whopping ten homers during his 53 2/3 innings of work with the Reds last year.

Young has spent most of the 2024 season at the Triple-A level for the Reds, although he’s posted impressive numbers both in his two scoreless innings at the big league level and in his larger body of work in the minors. In 23 appearances with the club’s affiliate in Louisville this year, Young has posted a sparkling 1.19 ERA while striking out a solid 25.3% of batters faced. Unfortunately, the lefty hasn’t been able to get much playing time in the majors with the Reds this year thanks to the club’s deep bullpen, which features each of Justin Wilson, Sam Moll, and Brent Suter as quality left-handed options.

That made Young expendable enough that the Reds were willing to part ways with him, and it’s easy to see how the lefty could impact a Giants bullpen that has leaned heavily on Erik Miller to act as a secondary lefty reliever behind high-leverage arm Taylor Rogers. Miller, a 26-year-old rookie with a 3.51 ERA and 4.49 FIP in 41 innings of work this year, features a much more pronounced platoon split than Young has in recent years, and the spacious outfield of Oracle Park should be a great fit for Young that helps to curtail his proclivity for giving up homers.

San Francisco is also sending cash to Cincinnati in the deal alongside Slater, a fact that could factor into the club’s final luxury tax calculation later this year. Prior to the swap, RosterResource indicated that the Giants have a luxury tax payroll of just under $254MM, or just over $3MM below the second threshold of the luxury tax. Slater is making $4MM this year, while Young is earning a salary of $1.16MM. Depending on the amount of cash the Giants are including in the deal, it’s possible that the trade provides the additional benefit of offering the club additional financial wiggle room below the second luxury tax threshold.

Image courtesy of USA Today Sports.

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