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Eduardo Salazar

Reds Outright Alec Mills

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July 4: Per Charlie Goldsmith of the Cincinnati Enquirer, Mills has cleared waivers and accepted an outright assignment to Triple-A.

July 2: Per a club announcement, the Reds have made a series of roster moves. Cincinnati has designated right-hander Alec Mills for assignment and optioned right-hander Eduardo Salazar to Triple-A. In corresponding moves, the club has recalled outfielder Stuart Fairchild to the majors and activated right-hander Derek Law from the 15-day injured list.

Mills debuted with the Royals back in 2016 but has spent most of his time in the big leagues with the Cubs to whom Kansas City traded him the following year. From 2018 to 2020, Mills served as a solid swingman for Chicago, posting a 3.87 ERA and 4.59 FIP in 116 1/3 innings of work highlighted by a no-hitter against the Brewers during the shortened 2020 season. Since then, however, Mills has struggled mightily at the big league level. In 136 2/3 innings of work in the 2021-22 seasons, Mills posted a brutal 5.66 ERA, 26% worse than league average by measure of ERA+, with a 4.95 FIP. Those numbers prompted the Cubs to outright Mills off the 40-man roster last November, a move that resulted in Mills entering free agency.

He went unsigned throughout the offseason before eventually landing with the Reds on a minor league deal back in May. He posted a 4.09 ERA in 11 innings with the club in the minors before being selected to the roster prior to yesterday’s game against the Padres. Mills entered the game in the seventh for what proved to be a disastrous performance as the righty allowed five runs (two earned) on four hits (including a home run), a walk and a wild pitch while hitting a batter and failing to record a strikeout. Going forward, the club will have seven days to trade, release, or pass Mills through waivers. If passed through waivers, the club can assign him outright to Triple-A, though since Mills has been previously outrighted in his career he could opt to reject that assignment and test free agency.

Salazar, 25, made his MLB debut with the Reds earlier this year. In 12 1/3 innings of work this season, the righty has struggled to an 8.06 ERA and 4.66 FIP. He’ll return to the minors, where he’s posted a 4.03 ERA in 22 1/3 innings split between the Double-A and Triple-A levels, to serve as bullpen depth going forward.

Fairchild, 27, slashed .237/.331/.404 in 184 plate appearances while chipping in eight stolen bases and covering all three outfield spots prior to his demotion late last month. He hit well during his brief stint in Louisville, slashing .240/.296/.680 with three home runs in just 27 plate appearances. Fairchild figures to slot back into the club’s outfield mix alongside TJ Friedl, Jake Fraley, Will Benson, and Nick Senzel going forward.

Law, 32, returns to the club after missing six weeks with an elbow sprain. Prior to his trip to the IL, Law was one of Cincinnati’s more effective relievers this season, with a 2.57 ERA in 21 innings of work. That performance is somewhat belied by a 5.09 FIP thanks to Law’s elevated 14.3% walk rate compared to a 22% strikeout rate. Still, Law seems likely to join the club’s late inning mix ahead of closer Alexis Diaz alongside the likes of Buck Farmer and Lucas Sims.

Reds Select Jake Wong, Designate Randy Wynne

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The Reds announced that they have selected the contract of right-hander Jake Wong and recalled righty Eduardo Salazar from Triple-A Louisville. In corresponding moves, righty Levi Stoudt was optioned to Louisville while righty Randy Wynne was designated for assignment.

Wong, 26, was drafted by the Giants and spent his entire career there prior to this season. In December, the Reds took catcher/outfielder Blake Sabol from the Pirates in the Rule 5 draft and flipped him to the Giants for cash or a player to be named later. About a week later, the Reds announced that Wong would be the PTBNL from that Sabol deal.

The right-hander had pitched in the lower levels of the Giants’ system in 2018 and 2019 but then missed two entire seasons. The minor leagues were canceled by the pandemic in 2020 and then Wong spent all of 2021 on the injured list. Last year, he tossed 97 2/3 innings at High-A over 25 appearances, including 17 starts, with a 4.52 ERA. His 10.3% walk rate was a bit high but he struck out 25.3% of opponents and got ground balls at a 53.3% clip.

This year, the Reds have essentially moved Wong to full-time relief work, as his only start was 2 2/3 innings. On the whole, he’s tossed 34 1/3 innings over 17 appearances split between Double-A and Triple-A, but has struggled in his first taste of the upper levels of the farm. He has a 7.60 ERA this year between those two stops, striking out 22.6% of opponents but walking 13%.

Despite the poor results so far this year, the Reds have called him up since they need fresh arms. In their three-game set against Atlanta over the weekend, they allowed 24 runs and none of their starters lasted longer than four innings, leaving relief corps to absorb 16 2/3 frames over that series. They now have a three-game series in Baltimore before their next off-day and have called up Wong and Salazar to help them push through.

In order to get those arms onto the roster, the Reds have bumped Wynne off of it. He himself was added as a fresh arm just yesterday and made his major league debut. He tossed 2 1/3 innings, allowing three hits, a walk and one earned run without registering a strikeout. Despite that respectable showing in his first big league game, he’s quickly been bounced due to the club’s overtaxed pitching corps.

The Reds will now have a week to trade Wynne or pass him through waivers. Prior to getting called up, he tossed 31 2/3 innings in Triple-A this year with a 5.12 ERA, 12.9% strikeout rate, 5% walk rate and 31.8% ground ball rate.

Reds Select Eduardo Salazar, Designate Silvino Bracho

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The Reds announced Wednesday that they’ve selected the contract of pitching prospect Eduardo Salazar from Triple-A Louisville and designated righty Silvino Bracho for assignment in a corresponding move.

Entering the 2023 season, the 25-year-old Salazar was a generally nondescript prospect in the Reds’ system. He’d never cracked the organization’s top 30 at Baseball America and only drew a cursory mention as a potential multi-inning reliever in Eric Longenhagen’s 2022 overview of the Reds’ system over at FanGraphs — due largely to a velocity spike and improvement on his breaking ball.

Following a move from a starting role to short relief, Salazar has flipped the narrative surrounding him in a substantial way in 2023. He’s combined for 17 2/3 innings of 0.51 ERA ball between Double-A and Triple-A, whiffing a massive 35.2% of his opponents against an outstanding 4.2% walk rate. Salazar hasn’t given up a home run this season and has induced grounders at an enormous 63.2% rate.

Cincinnati relievers rank 10th in the Majors with a 3.72 ERA and are fourth in total innings pitched (193 2/3), thanks largely to a young starting rotation that has struggled to keep runs off the board and pitch deep into games. Reds starters have a 6.29 ERA that ranks second-worst in baseball, and only the Rays — who’ve frequently used openers and bullpen games — have gotten fewer innings from the rotation.

Much of the relief corps’ success is attributable to strong performances from Buck Farmer, Ian Gibaut, Alex Young and especially closer Alexis Diaz. The Reds have also gotten nice contributions from Derek Law and Kevin Herget. On the whole, it’s a collection of journeymen, many of whom are experiencing their first taste of MLB success in simultaneous fashion. That coalescence has proven to be a godsend for the Reds and manager David Bell, but Salazar will hope to join Diaz as a homegrown product and success story for the team’s scouting and player development departments.

Bracho, 30, held opponents scoreless in three of his four outings — the lone exception being a three-run appearance against the Yankees in which he only recorded two outs. Overall, he pitched 5 1/3 innings with the Reds and only allowed two hits, though he walked more batters (five) than he struck out (four).

In 99 1/3 career innings, most of them spent with the D-backs, Bracho has a 4.89 ERA with a 23.7% strikeout rate against a 9.1% walk rate. He’s typically been homer-prone in his career (1.72 HR/9), but he had some success with Arizona in both 2015 and 2019. The Reds will have a week to trade Bracho, pass him through outright waivers, or release him. He has more than three years of Major League service time, so even if he goes unclaimed on waivers, he’d have the right to reject an outright assignment in favor of free agency.

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