Outrighted: Smith, Centeno, Brennan
As teams finalized their 40-man rosters yesterday in advance of the Rule 5 draft, here are a few more outrights…
- The Athletics outrighted right-hander Josh Smith, as per a team announcement. Oakland just claimed Smith off waivers from the Reds earlier this month. The 29-year-old righty has 92 1/3 career big league innings under his belt, posting a 5.46 ERA, 7.6 K/9 and 1.66 K/BB rate for the Reds over the last two seasons as both a starter and reliever.
- The Twins placed catcher Juan Centeno on outright waivers as part of their roster moves today, the club announced. Centeno hit a respectable .261/.312/.392 over 192 PA with Minnesota last season, easily the most playing time he has received during his four years in the bigs.
- The White Sox have outrighted right-hander Brandon Brennan to Triple-A, Dan Hayes of CSN Chicago reports on Twitter. A fourth-round pick for the Sox in the 2012 draft, Brennan has a 4.94 ERA, 1.90 K/BB rate and 6.5 K/9 over 347 2/3 pro innings, none above the Double-A level.
A’s Claim Right-Hander Josh Smith From Reds
The Athletics announced that they’ve claimed right-hander Josh Smith off waivers from the Reds.
Smith, 29, has picked up 92 1/3 innings for the Reds over the past two seasons but struggled at the Major League level, yielding a 5.46 ERA with 7.6 K/9 against 4.6 BB/9 and a 40.5 percent ground-ball rate. His numbers did take a step forward in 2016 thanks largely to improved control (3.9 BB/9 in 59 2/3 innings), though the resulting 4.68 earned run average is still fairly pedestrian. Smith averaged just under 91 mph on his heater this season while appearing in 32 games (two starts), and he does own a more encouraging 4.28 ERA with 7.1 K/9 against 3.2 BB/9 in 290 1/3 innings in Triple-A over the course of his professional career.
Smith does have minor league options remaining, so if he survives the offseason on Oakland’s 40-man roster, he won’t need to make the team right out of Spring Training and can function as a minor league depth piece.
Reds Make Several Roster Moves
The Reds have selected the contracts of three Triple-A right-handers — Dayan Diaz, A.J. Morris and Josh Smith — and transferred both starter Anthony DeSclafani and outfielder Yorman Rodriguez to the 60-day disabled list, per a club announcement.
DeSclafani, the closest thing to a household name the group offers, has missed the entire season so far with an oblique issue. The 26-year-old had a positive bullpen session earlier this week, however, and could make his way back to the team’s injury-plagued, subpar rotation sometime soon. DeSclafani was solid last year, his first full big league season, in totaling 184 2/3 innings of 4.05 ERA/3.67 FIP/3.97 xFIP pitching.
Rodriguez (hamstring) has also been out for all of 2016, but the out-of-options 23-year-old was expected to push for a roster spot with the Reds during the spring. Rodriguez signed with the Reds as a 16-year-old in 2008 for $2.5MM, then a record bonus for Venezuelan amateurs. In 2,546 minor league plate appearances, Rodriguez has hit .261/.314/.399 with 50 home runs. He got his first (and only) taste of the majors in 2014, collecting 29 PAs in 11 games.
The Reds are the fourth organization for the 27-year-old Diaz, who hasn’t yet pitched in the majors. Diaz has posted mostly sterling numbers across 10 minor league seasons, however, with a 2.04 ERA, 9.1 K/9 and 4.1 BB/9 in 344 innings.
Like Diaz, Morris also looks poised to make his big league debut. The 29-year-old was a fourth-round pick of the Nationals in 2009 and also spent time with the Cubs and Pirates organizations before joining the Reds this season. He has worked as both a starter and reliever in the minors, amassing 472 1/3 innings of 3.22 ERA ball to accompany a 7.1 K/9 and 2.8 BB/9.
Smith, finally, tossed 32 2/3 innings in nine appearances (seven starts) with the Reds in 2015 and put up a nice K/9 (8.27), but he offset that with control problems (5.79 BB/9) and an unpalatable 6.89 ERA. Smith has fared better at Triple-A this year, compiling a 3.86 ERA, 7.29 K/9 and 2.79 BB/9 in 42 innings (eight starts).
Reds Outright Seven Players
Here are the day’s outright assignments:
- The Reds have announced that seven players were outrighted off the club’s 40-man roster (h/t to C. Trent Rosecrans of the Cincinnati Enquirer, on Twitter). On the chopping block were pitchers Nate Adcock, Collin Balester, David Holmberg, and Josh Smith, outfielders Brennan Boesch and Jason Bourgeois, and infielder/outfielder Kris Negron. Adcock, Balester, Boesch, and Bourgeois have all seen reasonably frequent MLB action but have bounced around quite a bit in recent years. Negron has appeared in each of the last three seasons in Cincinnati, compiling a .220/.296/.353 batting line over 270 plate appearances. Holmberg was acquired as part of the pre-2014, three-team deal that sent Heath Bell (from the Diamondbacks) and Ryan Hanigan to the Rays. He’s functioned as a depth starter, walking nearly as many batters as he’s retired via strikeout over his 58 1/3 MLB innings with Cincinnati. Smith made his MLB debut last year, allowing 25 earned runs in 32 2/3 innings of work, but found himself squeezed out by Cincinnati’s recent influx of young, upper-level pitches.
Reds Pitcher Making Ends Meet With Second Job
When you think of the lifestyle of a professional baseball player, you think of big houses and Olympic-sized swimming pools. You rarely think of those players building pools in someone’s backyard. Reds pitcher Josh Smith has had to do just that to make ends meet as he chases his big league dream.
Players taken in the early rounds of the draft typically get sizable signing bonuses and don’t have to moonlight at a second job. Smith’s journey to the minors, however, was decidedly different.
The right-hander cut his teeth at Lipscomb University as the No. 2 pitcher in the rotation next to ace Rex Brothers. Brothers, the Friday night pitcher, would go out and throw in front of scores of major league scouts. By Saturday, when Smith would take the mound, the scouts were off to check out their next prospect. Smith may not have had the same upside as Brothers, but he was a very strong pitcher in his own right and deserved far more attention from scouts, in the estimation of agent Alex Esteban. Brothers became a first round selection of the Rockies while Smith wound being selected in the 21st round by Cincinnati in 2010. Brothers got a signing bonus just shy of seven figures upon signing his deal. Smith got roughly $1K.
Bonuses for later round picks are extremely low and the minors don’t pay very well from year-to-year either. Smith, who earns less than $10K per year in salary, quickly figured out that he needed to take on a full-time job in the offseason. Longtime pitching coach Tracy Valentine, a former minor leaguer himself, also ran a pool construction business and had a need for a physically strong employee who could haul bulky, cumbersome bags of cement from the truck to backyards. That position, while greatly appreciated by the pitcher, didn’t give Smith the hours or pay that he needed to make ends meet.
“I don’t need side cash,” Smith told Valentine. “I need a job.”
With that, Smith began actually building the pools and earning a bit more cash. To line his pockets further, Smith also helped coach some of Valentine’s pupils, including Diamondbacks 2014 first-round choice Touki Toussaint.
“He came to us when he was like 14 or 15 and I was like, ‘Who is this kid?,‘” Smith said. “Back then he was a shortstop and I asked him if he ever thought about pitching and he said no. I told him, if you ever change your mind, let me know. I told him that he needed to be a pitcher because he had a cannon.”
Smith still helps to guide young arms and build pools in the offseason, even though he has reached Triple-A and is knocking on the door of the Reds’ major league roster. His particular offseason job might be unique, but it’s a lifestyle that is not at all uncommon for minor leaguers, Smith says.
“My old college teammate Caleb Joseph is in the bigs now with the Orioles, but when he was in the minors, he would come home and work at the local country club as a caddy and a waiter. Some guys do construction, some work in restaurants. Everyone does what they need to do in the offseason to make ends meet,” Smith explained.
In April, it became evident that Smith’s hard work both on and off the field was paying off as the Reds called him up to the majors.
“My manager, Delino DeShields, called me and said, ‘Pack your stuff, you’re meeting the Reds in Chicago.’ I didn’t believe him, but he told me he’d never pull a joke like that and that he wished he could see my face when I heard the news,” Smith said. “I was actually playing Call Of Duty with a bunch of my Louisville teammates and I told them on the headsets that I had to go and get myself packed.”
“The funny thing is,” Esteban added. “He was playing with like 100 other teenagers who had no idea what any of them were talking about.”
When Smith landed in Chicago, Esteban was there to pick him up from the airport and drive him to meet the team. The right-hander had a million things going through his mind on his way to the hotel. What’s it going to be like to pitch in a big league game? How will I adjust to playing in front of tens of thousands of people in the stands? But, there was one pressing concern that stood out above the others.
“I was wondering,” Smith said to Esteban. “Do you think they’ll put me in the video game?”
Unfortunately, Smith didn’t make it into the video game or the actual game during that stint. The Reds sent Smith back down to the minors after the three-game set in Chicago without having thrown a pitch. Still, the experience was a milestone for the 27-year-old and he knows that he’ll get another opportunity when the Reds are in need of a long reliever or spot starter. Once he gets to the majors and sticks on the roster, he could wind up with a big swimming pool to call his own.