Reds Outright Joel Kuhnel
The Reds announced Monday that right-hander Joel Kuhnel has cleared waivers been assigned outright to Triple-A Louisville. Between Kuhnel’s outright and the Mets’ claim of Robel Garcia, the Reds have opened a pair of spots on the 40-man roster.
Kuhnel, 25, has pitched 12 2/3 innings with Cincinnati over the past two seasons, working to a combined 4.97 ERA with a 12-to-5 K/BB ratio and a 47.4 percent ground-ball rate in that limited sample. He averaged better than 96 mph on his heater in 2019 with a swinging-strike of 14.5 percent, though both those marks were down in 2020 — albeit in a minuscule sample of three innings (95.4 mph; 3.5 percent).
Kuhnel, an 11th-round pick by the Reds in 2016, obviously didn’t pitch much in a game setting this year thanks to the absence of a minor league season. His last extended minor league work came in 2019, when he notched a tidy 2.18 ERA with a 50-to-16 K/BB ratio in 53 2/3 frames between Double-A and Triple-A.
Reds Recall Joel Kuhnel, Place Jesse Biddle On IL
The Reds placed Jesse Biddle on the 10-day IL after injuring his left shoulder, the team announced. Right-hander Joel Kuhnel was recalled to take his roster spot.
Biddle made just one appearance for the Reds this year. He entered the game against the Milwaukee Brewers in the sixth inning on Thursday night. He walked one and struck out one to end the sixth, stayed in the game to start the seventh and surrendered a single to Avisail Garcia before retiring Christian Yelich on a groundout.
The 28-year-old Biddle joined the Reds as a non-roster invitee this winter after seeing time in the majors the two seasons prior. He debuted with the Braves in 2018, but the southpaw made appearances for the Braves, Mariners, and Rangers in 2019. His stints with all three clubs were relatively short: He made 30 appearances split between the three, working 28 innings to a 8.36 ERA/6.46 FIP. Biddle has been a reverse-splits southpaw thus far in his short career with lefties hitting .301/.384/.469 across 165 plate appearances, while he’s held right-handed hitters to a triple slash of .235/.355/.357 over 257 plate appearances.
The Reds drafted Kuhnel in the 11th round of the 2016 draft, and he made his debut last season. He is currently the Reds #27 ranked prospect by MLB Pipeline. This season he made one appearance for the Reds out of the bullpen before being optioned back to the alternate training site on August 12th. The 6’4″ thick-bodied right-hander relies mostly on a two-pitch mix featuring a 95 to 96 mph heater and slide, also occasionally mixing in a change-up or sinker. He took the hill 11 times for the Reds in 2019, working to a 4.66 ERA over 9 2/3 innings. Command has been a problem at times for Kuhnel, and he doesn’t have overpowering swing-and-miss stuff, but he nonetheless made it work while marching steadily through the Reds’ system. He put together 41 appearances with a 2.18 ERA between Double-A and Triple-A in 2019.
Reds Select Joel Kuhnel’s Contract
The Reds have selected the contract of right-hander Joel Kuhnel from Triple-A Louisville, and also called up righty Matt Bowman from their top affiliate, the club announced (Twitter link). Kuhnel and Bowman will take the roster spots of righty Sal Romano, who was optioned to Louisville, and Jared Hughes, who was claimed off waivers by the Phillies.
This will be the 24-year-old Kuhnel’s first taste of the big leagues, coming a little over three years after being the Reds’ 11th-round pick in the 2016 draft. Kuhnel pitched in both Double-A and Triple-A for the first time in 2019, quickly moving up the ladder thanks to a combined 2.18 ERA, 8.4 K/9, and 3.13 K/BB rate over 53 2/3 relief innings. MLB.com ranks Kuhnel as the 24th-best prospect in Cincinnati’s farm system, noting that “his fastball touches triple-digits with ease and he mixes in an 89-93 mph slider and a low-90s changeup.”