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Brandon Leibrandt

Reds Sign Garrett Hampson, Josh Staumont, Brandon Leibrandt To Minors Contracts

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The Reds signed utilityman Garrett Hampson, right-hander Josh Staumont, and left-hander Brandon Leibrandt to minor league deals in December, as per each player’s official MLB.com profile page.  Hampson’s deal was also announced today on the Reds’ official X feed, with the added detail that Hampson has been invited to the club’s big league Spring Training camp.

This is Hampson’s second go-around in Cincinnati, after appearing in nine games for the team in 2025.  Hampson began the season on a minor league deal with the Diamondbacks and made the Opening Day roster, but was then released in May.  Cincinnati inked Hampson to a MLB deal a few days later but designated the utilityman near the end of June, with the Cardinals then claiming Hampson away on waivers.  Hampson has been a free agent since he was DFA’ed again and then released by St. Louis in September.

Over 62 games and 91 plate appearances spread out over his three teams, Hampson hit just .143/.250/.169.  It was a tough showing even for a player who carried a modest .240/.301/.362 career slash line into the 2025 season, though Hampson’s versatility has been far more important than his bat in carving out an eight-year MLB career.  Hampson has played at least eight games at every position on the diamond besides catcher, with the bulk of his coming as a second baseman and center fielder.  Even over just those nine previous games with the Reds, Hampson appeared at second base, third base, shortstop, and center field.

Cincinnati already has a number of multi-position players on the roster, so Hampson may have a tricky time winning a spot on the Reds’ roster.  Hampson is also out of minor league options, while Staumont has one option year remaining and Leibrandt has two.

Staumont is back for what is technically his second season with the Reds, though a preseason injury kept Staumont from getting any game action in either the majors or minors.  Staumont had pitched in each of the previous six big league seasons, posting a 3.97 ERA over 192 2/3 innings with the Royals and Twins.  Once a key leverage reliever and potential future closer for Kansas City, Staumont’s production started to drop off in 2022 as injuries impacted his career, culminating in a thoracic outlet syndrome surgery in 2023.

After averaging 98 mph on his fastball in 2020, Staumont’s velo dropped to 94.3mph by the 2024 season, and his strikeout numbers also sharply dropped off.  Control had been an issue for Staumont even in his best years, so it is anyone’s guess as to how he’ll now look entering his age-32 season and after a full year away from pitching.  The Reds already have first-hand knowledge of Staumont’s health situation, however, and a minors deals represents no risk for the team in bringing Staumont to camp and seeing what can still contribute.

Leibrandt is yet another former Red, as he posted a 9.95 ERA over 6 1/3 innings (two appearances) for the team in 2024.  This brief stint and five games (nine IP) with the Marlins in 2020 represent Leibrandt’s entire MLB resume, and the rest of his career has seen the southpaw pitch in the minors, with independent league teams, and with the Chinese Professional Baseball League’s CTBC Brothers in 2025.

Leibrandt had good results over approximately half a season in the CPBL, posting a 1.94 ERA and 5.37% walk rate over 83 1/3 innings with the Brothers, albeit with a 16.45% strikeout rate.  This was enough to get Cincinnati’s attention for another contract, and Leibrandt figures to act as Triple-A rotation depth.

Yankees Release Brandon Leibrandt To Sign In CPBL

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The Yankees announced that they have released left-hander Brandon Leibrandt to sign with the CTBC Brothers of Taiwan’s Chinese Professional Baseball League. That move was previously reported by CPBL Stats.

Leibrandt, 32, signed a minor league deal with the Yankees in the offseason. He logged 41 Triple-A innings over nine starts and one long relief outing, allowing 2.85 earned runs per nine. He probably got a bit of help from his .245 batting average on balls in play and 87.8% strand rate, but his 22.7% strikeout rate and 8.6% walk rate were both solid figures while his 50.5% ground ball rate was quite strong.

Despite that cromulent performance, his path to big league playing time in the Bronx was steep. Despite several injuries, the Yankee rotation is in decent shape. They have Max Fried, Carlos Rodón, Clarke Schmidt, Will Warren and Ryan Yarbrough. They could get Marcus Stroman and JT Brubaker back soon, as both are on rehab assignments. Luis Gil is tossing bullpens and could be on his own rehab assignment in the coming weeks.

Leibrandt was therefore likely to be stuck in the minors but will head overseas instead. Presumably, he’ll be getting a bit of a pay bump while being able to explore the other side of the globe. It’s also possible that he could be exposed to scouts from other Asian leagues and earn himself future opportunities if he performs well. His major league track record currently consists of 15 1/3 innings with a 5.28 ERA.

Photo courtesy of Nathan Ray Seebeck, Imagn Images

Yankees Sign Brandon Leibrandt To Minors Deal

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The Yankees signed Brandon Leibrandt to a minor league contract, according to the left-hander’s profile page at MLB.com.  The Reds designated Leibrandt for assignment and outrighted him off their 40-man roster at the end of October, upon which Leibrandt opted to become a minor league free agent.

A sixth-round pick for the Phillies back in the 2014 draft, Leibrandt made his MLB debut in the form of nine innings and five appearances with the Marlins in 2020.  That cup of coffee marked his last trip to the Show until this past season, when Leibrandt tossed 6 1/3 innings over two appearances with Cincinnati.

In between those two big league stints, Leibrandt pitched in the minors with the Marlins and Cubs, and he spent the entire 2023 campaign and the start of the 2024 season outside of affiliated baseball, pitching with the Atlantic League’s High Point Rockers.  Leibrandt had a 2.70 ERA over 80 innings with the Rockers, which was enough for the Reds to give him a look on a minor league deal last May.

Leibrandt is turning 32 in December, so he’d be a late bloomer if he can unlock something at this stage of his career and catch on as a reliable big league pitcher.  However, the Yankees have had a solid recent track record at getting results out of unheralded pitchers, and Leibrandt’s seven percent career walk rate in the minors is a hint that he might possess MLB-caliber control.  There’s no risk for the Yankees in bringing Leibrandt to Spring Training and seeing what he can offer as a southpaw depth arm for the bullpen.

Brandon Leibrandt Elects Free Agency

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Left-hander Brandon Leibrandt cleared outright waivers and elected free agency, according to his transaction log at MLB.com. Cincinnati had designated him for assignment on Monday as one of the corresponding moves to reinstate Christian Encarnacion-Strand and Matt McLain from the injured list. The Reds also designated Amed Rosario on Monday; there’s no formal resolution on his DFA but he’ll be a free agent as soon as the World Series ends so it’s irrelevant.

That wasn’t necessarily the case for Leibrandt, who would’ve been under club control if another team had claimed him. It always seemed likely he’d go unclaimed and return to the market in search of another minor league deal. The 31-year-old cracked the roster as a depth arm at the end of August. He pitched twice at the big league level, surrendering seven runs across 6 1/3 innings. Leibrandt’s only other MLB experience came as a member of the Marlins during the pandemic season. He has allowed nine runs over 15 1/3 career frames, walking nine batters while striking out eight.

Leibrandt was pitching in the independent ranks when the Reds signed him to a minor league deal in May. He pitched reasonably well as an organizational depth starter with Triple-A Louisville. Leibrandt turned in a 4.41 ERA across 83 2/3 innings in a hitter-friendly environment. He struck out a league average 22.7% of batters faced against a 6% walk rate. That could earn him another minor league contract.

Reds Designate Brandon Leibrandt, Amed Rosario For Assignment

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The Reds announced that infielders Christian Encarnacion-Strand and Matt McLain have been reinstated from the 60-day injured list. To open 40-man roster spots for those two, they designated left-hander Brandon Leibrandt and infielder Amed Rosario for assignment. Gordon Wittenmyer of the Cincinnati Enquirer relays on X that the moves were necessary because McLain and Encarnacion-Strand are technically on rehab assignments in the Arizona Fall League and they reached their maximum rehab time, therefore needing to retake spots on the 40-man roster.

The Reds suffered a large number of significant injuries in 2024, with McLain and Encarnacion-Strand two of the biggest losses. McLain underwent left labrum surgery in March and was hoping to come back around August. But he suffered a stress reaction in his rib cage while trying to make his way back and ended up missing the entire season.

Encarnacion-Strand played 29 games but may have been playing hurt as he put up a dismal .190/.220/.293 line in that time. He was hit by a pitch on his hand in April and an X-ray revealed an old fracture that CES couldn’t figure out how he suffered. He went on the IL in May with a right ulnar styloid fracture and eventually underwent surgery in June. That procedure came with a three-month timeline and he wasn’t able to return in the remainder of the regular season.

Both players missed significant time in 2024 but apparently got healthy as the season was ending, so the Reds sent both to the Glendale Desert Dogs of the Arizona Fall League to get some reps before the winter sets in. The Dogs played their first game on October 8 and rehab assignments come with a 20-day maximum for position players. It seems that MLB views their time in the AFL as a rehab assignment, so they had to be reinstated from the 60-day IL today with their rehab window closing.

The moves are largely technicalities, as both players would need to be reinstated from the injured soon regardless. There’s no injured list from five days after the World Series until spring training begins, so all players on the 60-day IL need to be reinstated soon anyway. This rehab formality just forced the Reds to do it slightly ahead of schedule.

Of the two players they bumped off, Rosario was slated to be off the roster soon anyway. He signed a one-year deal with the Rays for 2024, eventually getting traded to the Dodgers before landing with the Reds via waivers. There’s no reason for any club to claim him now, as 28 of the 30 clubs are eliminated. He wouldn’t be postseason eligible with the Yankees or Dodgers since it’s after the September 1 cutoff date. As a veteran with more than six years of service time, he has the right to reject an outright assignment. He’ll soon hit free agency, a few days earlier than anticipated.

Leibrandt, 32 in December, could have been retained for next year as he has less than a year of service time but seemingly wasn’t in Cincinnati’s plans. He signed a minor league deal with the club in May and got added to the roster at the end of August. He stuck on the 40-man for the final month of the season but was mostly on optional assignment. He only got into two major league games this year, allowing seven earned runs in 6 1/3 innings.

He was fairly serviceable in the minors this year, with a 4.41 ERA in 17 Triple-A starts. He had a 22.7% strikeout rate and 6% walk rate. However, he was pitching independent leagues last year and at the start of 2024. As a journeyman sliding towards his mid 30s, he was surely viewed as a temporary option on the club’s roster this year as they dealt with numerous pitching injuries.

As a player with a previous career outright, he has the right to elect free agency as opposed to accepting another outright assignment. Most clubs are facing roster crunches in the coming days, so he’ll presumably clear waivers and return to the open market shortly.

Reds Select Alan Busenitz

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The Reds announced that they have selected the contract of right-hander Alan Busenitz. Left-hander Brandon Leibrandt was optioned in a corresponding active roster move. The club already had a 40-man roster vacancy.

Cincinnati got stomped by Atlanta yesterday, eventually losing 15-3. Starter Julian Aguiar allowed seven of those runs, lasting four innings. After Yosver Zulueta came in and allowed one run in one frame, Leibrandt entered and covered the final four, allowing another seven runs. Leibrandt threw 80 pitches in that mop-up duty and was surely going to be unavailable for a few days, so the club will swap him out for a fresh arm.

Busenitz, 34, signed a minor league deal with the Reds in the offseason and this is the second time they have selected his contract. The first was August 23, a day in which the club deployed a bullpen game against the Pirates. He was one of seven pitchers to take the mound for the Reds that day, completing one inning but allowing four runs, three of them earned. He was designated for assignment the next day and later cleared waivers, getting outrighted back to Triple-A Louisville.

His results have naturally been much better at that level. He has a 4.07 earned run average for the Bats, often tossing multiple innings at a time, as he’s logged 66 1/3 frames in his 49 outings. His 21.6% strikeout rate, 7.9% walk rate and 44.5% ground ball rate are all pretty close to par.

The Reds are out of contention but Busenitz can give them another relief option as they look to trudge through the final days of the season. He is out of options, so it’s possible he could be back on the waiver wire if the club needs to adjust its pitching staff yet again. The Reds don’t have a starter announced for Sunday’s game, so another bullpen game or spot start could be upcoming.

Reds Designate Davis Wendzel For Assignment

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The Reds announced that they have selected the contract of right-hander Rhett Lowder, a promotion that was previously reported, while also appointing righty Yosver Zulueta the 27th player for the double-header. In corresponding moves for Lowder, they optioned left-hander Brandon Leibrandt and designated infielder Davis Wendzel for assignment.

Wendzel, 27, was acquired from the Rangers in a cash deal at the end of July after Texas had designated him for assignment. He was sent to Triple-A Louisville, where he has slashed .233/.327/.279 in his 101 plate appearances, production that translates to a 66 wRC+.

With the trade deadline in the rear-view mirror, the Reds will have to place Wendzel on waivers in the coming days. Though his recent output wasn’t great, he could garner interest based on his larger track record. Prior to the deal, he had hit .289/.384/.492 in 151 plate appearances for Triple-A Round Rock, leading to a 117 wRC+.

He also hit 30 home runs for the Express last year and drew walks at a 14.1% clip. His .236 /.361/.477 batting line only translated to a 101 wRC+ in the heightened offensive environment of the Pacific Coast League, but that may have been held back by a .259 batting average on balls in play. His BABIP corrected to .298 with Round Rock prior to the deal, roughly average, which helped nudge his wRC+ up.

At a minimum, Wendzel provides defensive versatility, with the ability to play all four infield positions. He also has a full slate of options and just a few days of service time, meaning he wouldn’t need an immediate roster spot and comes with years of club control. Despite the offensive downturn since coming to the Reds, he had been hitting pretty well at the Triple-A level in 2023 and in the first few months of 2024.

The overall package could perhaps entice some club to put in a claim. He doesn’t have a previous career outright, nor does he have at least three years of service time, so he would stick with the Reds in a non-roster capacity if he goes unclaimed.

Reds Designate Casey Kelly For Assignment

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The Reds announced that they have selected the contract of left-hander Brandon Leibrandt from Triple-A Louisville. Right-hander Casey Kelly has been designated for assignment as the corresponding move.

Cincinnati’s pitching staff has been quite banged up of late. Coming into August, they already had Graham Ashcraft, Brandon Williamson, Brent Suter, Ian Gibaut and Tejay Antone on the injured list. Since the month has started, Andrew Abbott, Hunter Greene, Nick Lodolo and Christian Roa have been added to the pile.

The club has already made a few transactions to bolster the pitching staff in recent days, including selecting Kelly. The 34-year-old had been pitching for the LG Twins of the KBO but got released when that club signed Elieser Hernández. That ended an almost six-year relationship, as Kelly had signed with the Twins going into 2019. He had a 3.25 ERA in that time, tossing just under 1,000 innings, but that ERA jumped to 4.51 this year and the Twins let him go.

He landed a minor league deal with the Reds in early August and made two Triple-A starts, allowing four earned runs in eight innings. He got called up to the majors a few days ago and logged 5 1/3 innings over two relief appearances, allowing three earned runs in that time.

The Reds needed six pitchers to get through last night’s game, including Kelly, and have decided to get a fresh arm into the mix. With the trade deadline now passed, Kelly will be placed on waivers in the coming days. He has a previous career outright and would therefore have the right to elect free agency if he passes through waivers unclaimed.

Taking his spot is the 31-year-old Leibrandt. He has a small amount of major league experience, having tossed nine innings for the Marlins in the shortened 2020 season. Since then, he has bounced around to various minor league and indy ball clubs.

He started 2024 with the High Point Rockers of the independent Atlantic League, tossing 19 1/3 innings over four starts with a tiny ERA of 0.93. That got him a minor league deal with the Reds in May and he has been with Louisville since then. He has logged 72 2/3 innings over 15 starts there with a 4.46 ERA, 20.3% strikeout rate, 6.1% walk rate and 39% ground ball rate.

Given the club’s aforementioned challenges with the pitching staff, they may call upon Leibrandt to absorb some innings at some point. He still has a full slate of options and less than a year of service time, so the club will be able to retain him for a long time. But since they have been rotating guys on and off the roster lately, it’s entirely possible that it will be a short stint for Leibrandt, like it was for Kelly.

Reds Sign Brandon Leibrandt To Minor League Deal

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The Reds have signed left-hander Brandon Leibrandt to a minor league deal, according to the transaction tracker on Leibrandt’s MLB.com player page.

Leibrandt, 31, was a sixth-round pick by the Phillies in the 2014 draft who made his way through the minor leagues with the club to reach Triple-A during the 2018 season, setting him up for a potential big league debut in 2019. Unfortunately, those plans were scuttled when the southpaw missed the entire campaign due to injury, prompting the Phillies to release him prior to the 2020 season. Leibrandt was picked up by the Marlins in July 2020 and made his big league debut the following month.

Leibrandt would go on to pitch nine innings for the Marlins during the shortened 2020 campaign across five appearances. His results were solid enough as he allowed just two runs in that time, but his peripherals told a different story. Leibrandt walked a whopping 19.4% of batters faced during his brief stint in the big leagues while striking out just 8.3%, leaving him with a lackluster 4.86 FIP during his time in the big leagues. He has not appeared in the major since.

The southpaw was outrighted off the club’s roster following the 2020 campaign but remained in the organization during the 2021 season, pitching at the Double- and Triple-A levels to a combined 5.68 ERA in 21 appearances, including 18 starts. Leibrandt remained in affiliated ball for the 2022 season on a minor league pact with the Cubs before heading to the independent Atlantic League to pitch for the High Point Rockers, with whom he’s remained since. In 80 innings with the Rockers, Leibrandt has impressed with a 2.70 ERA and a 23.8% strikeout rate, while walking just 8% of batters faced.

That performance has clearly intrigued the Reds, who are now bringing Leibrandt into the organizational fold as upper-level pitching depth. The club is fairly deep in upper-level pitching options on the rotation side of things with the likes of Connor Phillips and Lyon Richardson available for spot starts as needed, although it’s possible Leibrandt could offer the Reds a multi-inning arm from the left side out of the bullpen if his strong results in the Atlantic League can translate to affiliated ball.

Atlantic League’s Kentucky Wild Health Genomes Sign Moises Sierra, Brandon Leibrandt

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The Kentucky Wild Health Genomes of the independent Atlantic League recently signed outfielder Moisés Sierra and left-hander Brandon Leibrandt, according to the league transactions log. Both players have some big league experience, with the former having appeared in parts of four MLB seasons.

The bulk of Sierra’s big league work came in the first half of the last decade. A fairly well-regarded prospect during his days in the Blue Jays farm system, he debuted with Toronto in 2012 and would spend parts of the next three seasons north of the border. Sierra had some success during a 35-game stint in 2013, when he hit .290/.369/.458. He didn’t produce much at the plate in any other season, however, and he hit .243/.296/.383 in 449 plate appearances overall from 2012-14.

Sierra returned to the big leagues for 27-game run with the Nationals in 2018, but he’s otherwise bounced between various Triple-A affiliates and foreign pro leagues. The righty-hitting outfielder owns a .277/.342/.421 line in parts of six Triple-A seasons. He spent some time in 2020 with the Chunichi Dragons of Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball and played with the Mexican League’s Tecolotes de los Dos Laredos last year. He hit .300/.385/.462 over 226 plate appearances there and will now try to work his way back into the affiliated ranks with the Genomes.

Leibrandt doesn’t have the same level of experience in the majors, but his MLB time was more recent than that of Sierra. The Florida State product made five outings and tallied nine innings of relief for the 2020 Marlins. Leibrandt spent last season in the upper ranks of the Miami system, combining for a 5.68 ERA over 88 2/3 innings between Double-A Pensacola and Triple-A Jacksonville. The 29-year-old has had more success in past stints at the minors’ top level, where he owns a 3.61 ERA in parts of three seasons.

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