The Reds announced this afternoon that southpaw Justin Wilson has exercised a player option to return to Cincinnati in 2022. He’ll lock in a $2.3MM salary.
Wilson signed a fairly complex deal with the Yankees last offseason. Guaranteed a $2.85MM salary for 2021, Wilson could either opt-in to next year’s $2.3MM salary or decline the option. Doing so would’ve forced the team to decide whether to exercise a $7.15MM option or buy him out for $1.15MM.
There’s no chance the Reds — who acquired Wilson alongside Luis Cessa in a midseason deal — would’ve exercised their end of the pact. Not only has Cincinnati signaled a clear desire to shed payroll, Wilson is coming off the worst season of his career. The veteran southpaw hadn’t posted an ERA higher than 3.66 during any year from 2017-20, but that mark spiked to 5.29 as Wilson’s swing-and-miss plummeted. After consistently punching out close to or more than 30% of opposing hitters over the past half-decade, he fanned just 19.5% of batters faced this past season and generated whiffs on a tiny 8.6% of his offerings.
To his credit, Wilson did post a 2.81 ERA in sixteen frames with Cincinnati after the trade. That’s obviously far better than his 7.50 mark in pinstripes, but his peripherals were generally unimpressive with both clubs. The 34-year-old will try to right the ship and again cement himself as a trustworthy high-leverage arm in a return run at Great American Ball Park.
Reds Owner screaming and punching the air right now
They had to know this was a likely outcome when traded.
So Justin Wilson literally had the exact same contract as Gardner got right?
@destined..And your panties are wet over 2.3 mm ?
No doubt the Reds had put Wilson on waivers just like they did with Miley and Barnhart. But on this case there were no takers.
i dont believe they think this is terrible. he pitched well here, can be a deadline trade chip if they struggle, as everyone looks for left handers and they have to have someone down there to pitch. also they traded barnhardt, i dont think they put him on waivers.
I’m assuming Barnhart was put on waivers and the Tigers offered the minor leaguer in trade.
What did Reds get for Barnhart? Anything significant? I bet Yankees could of offered more in hopes to replace Sanchez. Or possibly one for one Sanchez for Barnhart
They got rid of Barnhart because of the money. Why would the Reds ever take Sanchez back, who will make $7M in arbitration in 2022? Basically the same money owed to Barnhart. Stephenson is their #1 catcher, so they’ll want to pay his backup significantly less than $7M+.
This is what happens when a small market team that doesn’t have a good young inexpensive core takes the advice of some writers and posters here on MLBTR – spend and go for it!
They get some spurts for a few years, but don’t really go anywhere. Now to compete they need to spend even more money……which they don’t have. So they wind up having to get veteran players off the roster because their salaries and other expenses are going up beyond the revenues the team takes in. If the Yankees and Dodgers don’t have to take a bank loan to make payroll, no other team should.
The Reds have a lot of work to do this off-season. Losing Castellanos creates a huge hole to fill. They are stuck with Moose’s contract, and there’s no telling i Suarez will ever be the player he was a few years ago.
Love India and the new version of Votto. Not sure Framer is the answer at SS beyond this year, if at all. I like Stephenson, but they’ll lose something defensively without Barnhart.
Can Nick Senzel ever stay healthy enough to show why he was the overall #2 pick in the draft? nd to a lesser degree, Winker, too (Health, i.e.). Will ownership pinch pennies and dump Gray and Miley?
2022 isn’t looking very bright. Third place, tops.
Reds should take a look at the Guardian’s Andres Gimenez for their SS position. Excellent defense and mediocre bat, but could probably get him dirt cheap.
Excellent target. I don’t think he will be dirt cheap. I’m not sure CL would even put him on the market. They aren’t great, but Rosario & Gimenez are pretty decent up the middle, at really cheap prices.
That said, I prefer the up-the-middle GG types over the more expensive Silver Slugger types.
The exodus continues. I expect the reds to call teams saying if you want Luis Castillo in a trade you have to take Mike Moustakes also. Or if you want Sonny Gray you have to take Shogo Akiyama. Maybe they think if they gut the club then Joey Votto will drop his no trade clause and they can get his contract off the books. Bring back Marge Schott. Despite all her faults at least she put a world series winning team on the field
They should’ve traded all those guys at the trade deadline. They weren’t, and aren’t, a bad team. But they were unlikely to make the playoffs. The core of their next winning team will be India, Senzel, Winker, Stephenson, and likely Greene and Lobodo. And not Gray, Castillo, and Suarez Knowing that Castellano was likely opting out, the Reds could’ve gotten a nice return for him as well.
Seeing what MN got for Berrios, and the Cubs got for Kimbrel and Baez, there is little doubt in my mind that the Reds could’ve gotten a huge return for their veterans, and then gotten a whole lot better in 2023.
$2.3 million is a pretty substantial bill for renting a dumpster