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Michael Siani

Cardinals Claim Michael Siani From Reds

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Both the Reds and Cardinals have announced that St. Louis has claimed outfielder Michael Siani off of Cincinnati’s waiver waire.  Siani was designated for assignment earlier this week, as part of the 40-man roster maneuvering necessary when the Reds claimed Hunter Renfroe and Harrison Bader off waivers.  The Cards also announced that Guillermo Zuniga has been moved from the 15-day injured list to the 60-day IL, thus ending Zuniga’s season.

A fourth-round pick for the Reds in the 2018 draft, Siani is a veteran of 12 big league games — nine in 2022 and three for this year’s team, with four hits over 25 total plate appearances.  Siani is known for both his outstanding defense and speed, as he has stolen 155 bases in 200 total attempts in the minors while also showing excellent glovework in center field.  With a .228/.344/.355 slash line over 2167 PA in the minors, offense is still a work in progress for the 24-year-old, even if his other tools project him as at least a bench option at the MLB level.

While it isn’t a surprise to see another team claim Siani away, Jeff Jones of the Belleville News-Democrat (X link) notes that it is a bit of a curious pickup for the Cardinals in particular, given that St. Louis already has several outfielders on the 40-man roster or on the cusp of the majors.  Of course, a team isn’t just going to pass on a player it thinks has promise, and the Cardinals might clear some space anyway in the outfield this winter.  The team is widely expected to try and trade some of its current outfield mix, likely in search of some badly needed reinforcements for the starting rotation.

Zuniga was first placed on the IL on August 25, and since he is suffering from a right forearm strain, it already looked like he probably wasn’t going to make it back before the end of the 2023 campaign.  The only hope is that the 60-day IL placement isn’t a precursor to a more serious injury like UCL or elbow damage resulting in surgery, as such a procedure could potentially shelve Zuniga for just about all of the 2024 season.  Zuniga made his MLB debut this season, appearing in two games for St. Louis prior to his forearm strain.

Reds Designate Michael Siani, Alejo Lopez For Assignment

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The Reds announced Thursday that they’ve designated outfielder Michael Siani and utilityman Alejo Lopez for assignment. That pair of moves will open space on the 40-man roster for outfielders Harrison Bader and Hunter Renfroe, whose previously reported waiver claims have now been announced by the team.

Siani, 24, made his big league debut with the Reds last year and has briefly appeared this season as well, though he has just 25 MLB plate appearances under his belt overall. He’s 4-for-24 in that time (all singles). The 2018 fourth-round pick has never provided much offense in the minors, where he’s a .244/.338/.362 hitter (including .230/.337/.360 in Triple-A), but his glove and speed are his calling cards.

Siani once ranked as high as eighth among Reds prospects at Baseball America, but his bat hasn’t come around much as he’s progressed through the system. He still draws praise for 60-grade speed — which is made evident by last year’s 52 steals — and plus-plus defense in center field, where he has both ample range and a strong throwing arm. Siani has also walked in 11.4% of his minor league plate appearances, so while his hit tool and power are lacking, he can still post respectable OBP marks and provide value both with his glove (at all three outfield spots) and on the basepaths.

While Siani isn’t an impact bat, he has the makings of a glove-first fourth outfielder and has two minor league option seasons remaining beyond the current year. That could add up to some interest on the waiver wire. The Reds will place him on outright waivers within the next five days.

The 27-year-old Lopez was just selected to the big league roster two days ago but didn’t appear in a game before being removed. He’s seen big league time in each of the past two seasons with the Reds. Lopez has hit for a solid but empty .262 average in 179 career plate appearances, getting on base at a below-average .307 clip with just a .321 slugging percentage. He has big league experience at second base, third base and in the outfield corners. He’s fanned in just 14.6% of his career plate appearances but also walked at a well below-average 5% clip.

Like Siani, Lopez will be placed on waivers within the next five days. Unlike Siani, he’s been outrighted previously in his career, so if he clears waivers he’ll be able to reject a minor league assignment in favor of free agency.

Reds Designate Tony Santillan For Assignment

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The Reds announced Tuesday that right-hander Tony Santillan has been designated for assignment. His spot on the 40-man roster will go to utilityman Alejo Lopez, who has had his contract selected from Triple-A Louisville. Outfielder Michael Siani was optioned to Louisville to clear active roster space.

A second-round pick back in 2015, the now-26-year-old Santillan ranked among the Reds’ top farmhands for several years before making his big league debut in 2021. He looked to be a potential mainstay in the bullpen after pitching 43 1/3 innings of 2.91 ERA ball with a hefty 29.5% strikeout rate. Santillan’s 11.1% walk rate was in clear need of improvement, but it was nonetheless an impressive debut campaign for a prospect whom the Reds viewed as a potentially notable part of their future.

As is so often the case, however, injuries have intervened and radically altered the equation. Ankle surgery, a stress fracture in his back and a knee strain have combined to limit the righty to just 23 big league innings since that debut. He’s posted a 5.09 ERA during that time, fanning just 19.3% of his opponents against an alarming 14.9% walk rate. Santillan has just 3 1/3 MLB frames under his belt this season and has otherwise spent the year in Louisville, where he’s been clobbered for a 9.26 ERA in 23 1/3 frames with nearly as many walks (22) as strikeouts (28).

Santillan still throws hard, averaging 96.1 mph on his heater over the past two seasons. He’s posted a solid 11.6% swinging-strike rate in his MLB career and clearly has had shown promise at times, but he’ll be out of minor league options next season and the Reds likely wouldn’t have gone through the entire offseason dedicating a 40-man spot to him anyhow. They’ll have no choice but to place Santillan on waivers now, and any team that claims him can keep him in the minors for the remainder of the year. He’d have to break camp on that team’s Opening Day roster next year or else again be designated for assignment, however.

As for the 27-year-old Lopez, he’ll join the Reds for a third straight season. He’s hit for a solid but empty .262 average in 179 career plate appearances, getting on base at a below-average .307 clip with just a .321 slugging percentage. He has big league experience at second base, third base and in the outfield corners. He’ll give the Reds a contact-oriented bench bat who’s fanned in just 14.6% of his career plate appearances but also walked at a well below-average 5% clip.

Reds Select Nick Martini, Designate Henry Ramos For Assignment

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The Reds announced a series of roster moves today involving four outfielders. Michael Siani was recalled from Triple-A Louisville and Nick Martini was selected to the roster while Stuart Fairchild was placed on the seven-day concussion list, retroactive to Monday, and Henry Ramos was designated for assignment.

Martini, 33, returns to the big leagues for the first time since 2021. He spent last year with the NC Dinos of the Korea Baseball Organization, hitting .296/.365/.461 over 139 games. He parlayed that into a return to affiliated ball, signing a minor league deal with the Reds in the offseason. He’s spent all of this year in Triple-A so far, hitting 15 home runs in 93 games while drawing walks in 14.4% of his plate appearances. His .275/.393/.481 line at that level amounts to a wRC+ of 121, indicating he’s been 21% above league average.

He’ll now get another chance to bring that production up to the majors, something that has generally eluded him in his career. His 2,186 Triple-A plate appearances have resulted in a strong line of .294/.398/.445 but his major league batting line is just .270/.369/.369, with most of his major league success coming with the A’s back in 2018.

He’s mostly been playing the outfield corners for Louisville this year, though has also spent some time at first base and had a brief look in center. The Reds have been using an outfield of Will Benson, TJ Friedl and Spencer Steer of late. Martini and Siani will replace Fairchild and Ramos as depth options, alongside TJ Hopkins.

As for Ramos, 31, he has been on and off the Reds’ roster this year. Signed to a minor league deal in the winter, he has twice had his contract selected and has now twice been designated for assignment. He’s taken 86 trips to the plate and has slashed .243/.349/.311 in those. His 54 Triple-A games have resulted in a much stronger .315/.399/.522 line. The last time he was DFA’d, he cleared waivers and accepted an outright assignment, which is a process that could play out again in the coming days.

The Reds’ Numerous Outfield Possibilities

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The Reds go into the 2023 campaign looking at another evaluation year. Cincinnati is coming off a 100-loss season and didn’t make many immediate upgrades over the winter. It’ll be a non-competitive season, one that sees a number of unproven players look to carve out longer-term roles.

No area of the roster is more wide open than the outfield. Cincinnati has eight outfielders on their 40-man roster. Of that group, only offseason signee Wil Myers has a lengthy big league track record. Myers had some ups and downs as a member of the Padres, showcasing strong power potential at times but undercutting it with lofty strikeout totals at others. Signed to a one-year, $7.5MM deal, he’ll surely receive regular playing time either in the corner outfield or at first base. The franchise will hope he’ll hit well enough to draw some attention from contenders at the trade deadline.

Everyone else in the Cincinnati outfield is hoping to earn a consistent spot in the lineup. It’s a similar group to that of the rebuilding Athletics — one that has a glut of upper level options but very little in the way of established big league production.

Jake Fraley, 27, two minor league options remaining

Fraley is probably the favorite for regular reps among the group of unproven players. Acquired from the Mariners in last spring’s Eugenio Suarez/Jesse Winker deal, Fraley put up an impressive .259/.344/.468 line with 12 home runs over his first 247 plate appearances as a Red. Most of that work came in the season’s second half, as he lost a good portion of the beginning of the year to right knee issues.

The lefty-swinging Fraley also posted solid offensive marks in a limited role in Seattle the previous year. He carries a .235/.348/.419 line with 21 homers and 16 doubles in 145 games over the past couple seasons. He doesn’t hit the ball especially hard but makes contact at a decent clip and has an extremely patient offensive approach. Fraley has limited experience in center and right field (rating poorly at both stops); he’s gotten solid reviews from public defensive metrics for his left field glovework.

Nick Senzel, 27, three options remaining

A former #2 overall pick, Senzel was a consensus top prospect before reaching the majors in 2019. He hasn’t met those expectations thus far, struggling to a .240/.303/.360 line in 1036 career plate appearances. A natural third baseman, Senzel moved primarily to center field at the MLB level and has gotten middling to well below-average reviews for his glove from various metrics.

Senzel has shown above-average contact skills at the big league level, though he hasn’t made much of a power impact. Despite his early-career struggles, the Reds have maintained throughout the offseason they plan to give him another crack at seizing the center field job. It feels like a make-or-break season, with Senzel now into his arbitration seasons and having performed below replacement level thus far.

The Reds are obviously still hopeful he can take a long-awaited step forward. He’ll first need to get healthy. Senzel underwent surgery to repair a fractured toe over the offseason. Bobby Nightengale of the Cincinnati Enquirer wrote this afternoon that he’s begun swinging a bat in simulated games at the team’s spring complex. He has yet to progress to full speed running.

TJ Friedl, 27, two options remaining

Friedl has been one of the more interesting outfielders in the Cincinnati farm system for a few seasons. He got a brief big league look late in 2021 and received his first extended action last season. In 258 plate appearances across 72 games, he hit at a league average clip: .240/.314/.436 with eight home runs, a modest 7.8% walk percentage and a tiny 15.5% strikeout rate.

The left-handed hitter had more resounding success over a similar stretch of time for Triple-A Louisville. Friedl posted a .278/.371/.468 line with eight homers, an 11.6% walk rate and a 19.9% strikeout percentage over 241 trips with the Bats. That mostly aligns with his longstanding prospect reputation. Friedl doesn’t have much power but he has a solid feel for the strike zone and puts the ball in play with regularity. He can play all three outfield positions, though advanced metrics weren’t enthused with his first MLB work on the grass. Friedl has typically been regarded by prospect evaluators as a high-probability fourth/fifth outfielder. The upcoming campaign could be his best opportunity to outperform that expectation.

Will Benson, 24, three options remaining

Benson, acquired from the Guardians last month, has a polar opposite approach from Friedl. He’s also a left-handed batter but boasts huge power upside with a long track record of lofty strikeout totals. A former first-round draftee whose prospect shine had dimmed, Benson put himself back on the map with arguably a career-best season last year.

In 89 games with Cleveland’s top minor league affiliate, he hit .278/.426/.522 with 17 home runs. Benson walked a massive 18.7% clip — par for the course throughout his career — and struck out in an average 22.7% of his trips. It was the first time he’d posted a strikeout rate below 28% at any stop and only his second season fanning in fewer than 30% of his PA’s. Benson didn’t produce in a 28-game MLB cameo and was still buried on Cleveland’s outfield depth chart, but his step forward intrigued the Reds enough to take a look. He’s best suited for right field and can cover center on occasion.

Nick Solak, 28, one option remaining

Another one-time top prospect, Solak has had some inconsistent performances the past few years with the Rangers. He had an excellent 33-game debut in 2019. Since the start of 2020, however, the righty-swinging Solak carries a modest .246/.317/.354 line in 839 MLB plate appearances. Longstanding concerns about his defense at second base eventually pushed him to left field, where he has gotten subpar grades from public statistics.

To his credit, Solak hasn’t allowed his MLB inconsistency to bleed into his performance in the minor leagues. Optioned to Triple-A by Texas last season, he put up an impressive .278/.371/.489 mark with 10 longballs, an 11.6% walk rate and a 19.7% strikeout percentage in 57 contests. The Rangers never seemed to trust him enough to give him an extended look despite woeful MLB production from their left fielders, though. Texas dealt him to Cincinnati for cash immediately after the season ended.

Michael Siani, 23, three options remaining

A former fourth-round pick, Siani has spent the past few seasons ranked among the middle tiers of the Cincinnati farm system. Praised for his speed and defensive acumen in center field, he went 49 for 61 as a basestealer over 121 Double-A games last year. His overall .252/.351/.404 line with 12 home runs at that level was solid if unexceptional for a 22-year-old. Siani earned cups of coffee in both Louisville and Cincinnati towards the end of the season.

It stands to reason Cincinnati will start Siani back in Triple-A given his lack of experience there. Baseball America ranked him the organization’s #19 prospect this winter, projecting him as a glove-first fourth outfielder.

Stuart Fairchild, 26, one option remaining

A former Cincinnati second-round pick, Fairchild was dealt to the Diamondbacks at the 2020 trade deadline. He made his MLB debut with Arizona the following season, getting into 12 games. The Wake Forest product bounced around via minor trade and waivers last year, playing in four different organizations. He finished the season back with his original club when the Reds nabbed him off waivers from the Giants in June.

Fairchild played in 38 games for Cincinnati, connecting on five home runs in 99 trips. He struck out 29 times while drawing only eight walks but showed intriguing power. That was also the case in Triple-A, where he combined for a .258/.353/.490 line in 53 contests despite the constant uniform changes. He’s capable of playing all three outfield positions.

Chad Pinder, 30, not on 40-man roster

Pinder, a longtime member of the Athletics, signed a non-roster pact with a major league Spring Training invitation this winter. He’s coming off a .235/.263/.385 showing in 111 games for Oakland. The right-handed hitting Pinder has some power and a decent track record of hitting lefty pitching. He’s versatile enough to cover anywhere on the infield in addition to his corner outfield work. Pinder seems to have a strong chance at securing a bench role given that flexibility and Cincinnati’s fairly left-handed outfield mix. As a major league free agent who signed a minor league contract, he’ll have an automatic opt-out opportunity five days before the start of the regular season if he’s not added to the MLB roster.

Overall

Aside from Pinder, former highly-regarded prospect Allan Cerda and KBO veteran Henry Ramos are also in camp on non-roster contracts. Neither looks to have a strong chance at cracking the Opening Day roster considering the number of alternative outfield options for the front office and coaching staff to evaluate.

Myers is the only member of the current group who can’t be sent to the minor leagues, although Pinder couldn’t be optioned if he cracks the MLB roster. That could set the stage for plenty of shuffling over the next six months. The organization is surely hoping two or three players from the group will cement themselves as everyday options based on their 2023 production, lending some clarity to the longer-term mix.

Reds Select Michael Siani

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The Reds announced that they have selected the contract of outfielder Michael Siani. The club already had a vacancy on their 40-man roster. Nick Senzel, who was already reported to be done for the season, will head to the 10-day injured list in a corresponding move to get Siani onto the active roster.

Siani, 23, was selected by the Reds in the fourth round of the 2018 draft. He immediately jumped into rookie ball that year and onto Baseball America’s list of top Cincinnati farmhands. Since that time, Siani has worked his way up the minor league ladder without hitting much but earning tremendous plaudits for his defense. BA’s report from the start of this year highlights Siani’s excellent glove work and says he’s best center fielder the Reds have had since Billy Hamilton.

Siani has spent most of this season in Double-A, hitting 12 home runs in 121 games and slashing .252/.351/.404. That production with the bat was enough for a 102 wRC+, or 2% above league average. He provided excellent value with his wheels, though, stealing 49 bases in that time. He got promoted to Triple-A recently and played eight games there, adding another two long balls and swiping three more bags.

With Senzel’s injury, there’s an opening for Siani to get some work in the final two weeks of the season. With the Reds well out of contention, they can give him a shot at roaming big league outfields and facing big league pitching before the offseason arrives.

60-Man Player Pool Additions: Reds, Blue Jays

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The latest 60-man player pool additions from around the majors…

  • The Reds have added outfielder Michael Siani, infielder Tyler Callihan and right-hander Lyon Richardson to their player pool, Bobby Nightengale of the Cincinnati Enquirer tweets. All three players – Siani (No. 7), Callihan (No. 8) and Richardson (No. 11) – rank among the Reds’ best prospects at MLB.com. The 21-year-old Siani was a fourth-round pick of the Reds in 2018 who batted .253/.333/.339 with six home runs and a whopping 45 stolen bases across 531 plate appearances in Single-A ball last season. Callihan, 20, joined the Reds as a third-rounder last year and hit .263/.298/.442 with six homers and 11 steals in 238 rookie ball plate appearances. Richardson, a 2018 fourth-rounder, logged a 4.15 ERA/3.76 FIP in 112 2/3 innings at the Single-A level last season. FanGraphs’ Eric Longenhagen wrote in May that the hard-throwing Richardson, 20, has the potential to become a top 100 prospect by 2021.
  • Shortstop Orelvis Martinez is now in the Blue Jays’ player pool, per Ben Nicholson-Smith of Sportsnet. The Dominican Republic native was a pricey July 2 signing in 2018 for the Blue Jays, who inked Martinez to a $3.5MM bonus. The 18-year-old has continued to show great promise since then, evidenced in part by the .275/.350/.549 line and 150 wRC+ he put up in 163 plate appearances in rookie ball during his first pro action last season. FanGraphs (No. 4), MLB.com (No. 7) and Baseball America (No. 7) each place Martinez near the top of Toronto’s farm system.

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