Nick Senzel

NL Notes: Senzel, D-backs, Rockies, Giants

By Connor Byrne | February 28, 2020 at 12:58am CDT

Reds outfielder Nick Senzel could begin appearing in spring training games next week, per Bobby Nightengale of the Cincinnati Enquirer. Senzel has been working back from the shoulder surgery he underwent last September, and though the Reds believe he’s versatile enough to handle all three outfield positions, they’re only going to play him in center until he’s fully healed, according to manager David Bell. “I know he could do it but allowing him to focus on one spot may be more important than any of our other outfielders just because they all have so much more experience out there than he does,” Bell said of Senzel, a former infield prospect who spent his rookie season in center. The 24-year-old’s one of several outfielders for the Reds, who also count Nick Castellanos, Jesse Winker, Shogo Akiyama and Aristides Aquino among their options in the grass.

Red Sox, Padres Reportedly Still Negotiating Wil Myers Swap

By Jeff Todd | February 19, 2020 at 8:27am CDT

FEBRUARY 19: The Pads are indeed interested in both Lindor and Senzel, Dennis Lin of The Athletic reports (subscription link). It’s even possible that the Myers talks with the Red Sox could morph into a three-team arrangement involving the Reds, Lin adds.

FEBRUARY 18: Spring Training is now upon us. Prior talks failed to result in a deal. And yet the Red Sox are still holding talks with the Padres about a potential deal that would send first baseman/outfielder Wil Myers to Boston, according to Kevin Acee of the San Diego Union-Tribune.

Details are about as firm as you could ever hope to see them in a rumor of a potential swap. As before, the Friars want the Sox to take over about half of Myers’s salary (total guarantee of $61MM) over the next three years. Young talent would go to Boston to sweeten the pot. Players that have been discussed include Cal Quantrill, Luis Campusano, and Gabriel Arias, though it’s not clear which would be included and the Sox wouldn’t be able to obtain all of them just to take on half of what’s owed Myers.

That leaves out one major component of the as-yet-uncompleted trade talks: what would come back from the Red Sox? The original chatter between these teams involved Mookie Betts, who is no longer in the Boston stable. There’s no real indication just yet as to what current Red Sox might pique the interest of Padres GM A.J. Preller.

Yet more intriguing? The real goal, per Acee, is to swing a blockbuster for a high-level talent. He notes Nick Senzel of the Reds and Francisco Lindor of the Indians as longstanding targets, but it’s not really clear whether either is realistically available at this point. There aren’t many other conceivable candidates to be acquired who’d meet the description of a “difference-making” performer.

It’s fair to hold some skepticism here, especially as to the possible second prong of this scenario. Then again, Preller once pulled off a trade for Craig Kimbrel just before the start of a season, so it’s tough to rule out any mid-spring fireworks.

NL Notes: Senzel, Pirates, Cespedes, Cardinals

By Connor Byrne | February 17, 2020 at 10:12pm CDT

As of a few weeks ago, the Reds were reportedly “considering” trade scenarios centering on Nick Senzel. However, president of baseball operations Dick Williams then suggested the outfielder/second baseman isn’t going anywhere. That’s fine with Senzel, who said Monday (via Bobby Nightengale of the Cincinnati Enquirer): “I’m happy to be here. I want to be here for my whole career. I want to play in Cincinnati for these fans and my teammates. Any time those talks come up or anything, there is literally nothing I can do about it. I have no control over it. The less I worry about it, the better.” Senzel then noted trade rumors are “part of the business, especially when top names are getting thrown around.” Indeed, it never seemed as if the Reds would move Senzel during the winter without getting back a star-caliber player in return.

Here’s more from the National League…

To say this has been an offseason low on impact acquisitions for the Pirates would be an understatement. They’ve signed three major league free agents – catcher Luke Maile and a pair of outfielders Jarrod Dyson and Guillermo Heredia – all for modest prices. Thanks to its offseason decisions, including the trade of center fielder Starling Marte to Arizona, Pittsburgh’s projected to enter 2020 with a microscopic payroll of $60MM, per Jason Martinez of Roster Resource. It’s not an ideal way to build a team, but the Pirates are in a rebuild. Once (and if) the Pirates begin to turn things around, new general manager Ben Cherington expects to have more money at his disposal. “I’m confident [payroll] will increase over time as we get deeper into our team build, there’s opportunity and we get closer with those opportunities,” Cherington stated Sunday (via Jason Mackey of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette). “I’m confident we’ll have the means to build a winning team and add pieces. We’re not putting any kind of date on when that could happen. We’re going to try and get there as soon as we can. That’s an every-day thing.” The Pirates have come under fire for a lack of spending, though Cherington added that he’s “really confident that the total investment in baseball operations is not just enough but really competitive within the industry,”
It has been a trying couple years for Mets outfielder Yoenis Cespedes, a former star. The 34-year-old missed a sizable chunk of time from 2017-18 and didn’t take the field at all last season as a result of various injuries, including one suffered during a run-in with a wild boar. The Mets then amended Cespedes’ contract back in December, dropping his 2020 salary from $29.5MM to $6MM. Cespedes is now working to return to form in the wake of a long layoff, but he wasn’t cooperative with the media Monday after the Mets’ first full-squad workout, as Deesha Thosar of the New York Daily News relays. Asked if he’d discuss his offseason, his general health or the boar encounter, he offered, “Not today, not tomorrow, not at all this year.”
With Jordan Hicks recovering from Tommy John surgery and Carlos Martinez on his way back to their rotation, the Cardinals will hold closer auditions all spring, Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports. Andrew Miller, Ryan Helsley, John Gant, Giovanny Gallegos, John Brebbia, Alex Reyes and offseason signing Kwang-Hyun Kim could all be candidates to land the job, though the Cardinals may choose to fill the role by committee. “Having one guy who is a lock down guy is fine,” manager Mike Shildt told Goold. “If we don’t have that then clearly the multiple options are going to be necessary.”

Williams: Reds Don’t Expect To Trade Nick Senzel

By Steve Adams | January 30, 2020 at 11:55am CDT

January 30: Williams doubled down on his comments regarding Senzel in an appearance on MLB Network Radio’s Power Alley show (Twitter link, with audio), voicing a strong preference to keep him in the organization after what the club felt was a promising rookie campaign.

“We had to go into this offseason, knowing that we wanted to add impact, we had to be open to trades,” said Williams. “We certainly talked about a lot of impact players out there. And when you’re going to acquire an impact player, a name like Nick Senzel is going to come up. But our preference all along was to spend money and add to the club without touching our prospects, and we’ve been able to do that.”

January 29: Cincinnati’s signing of Nick Castellanos to a four-year contract this week further deepened the Reds’ outfield mix and opened up some questions about a potential trade of former No. 2 overall pick Nick Senzel. President of baseball operations Dick Williams, however, threw some cold water on recent rumors that popped up regarding Senzel, telling Bobby Nightengale Cincinnati Enquirer that he expects Senzel to be on the Reds’ roster come Opening Day.

“He’s an impact, young offensive player,” Williams said of Senzel. “They don’t come along very often. The flexibility he brings to the club, attitude he brings. At this point, we see him as very much a part of a winning, championship team here.”

That’s not a firm declaration that Senzel is wholly unavailable — there’s a point at which any team would budge on virtually any player — but these types of on-record comments from top-level executives aren’t often walked back, either. That Williams felt strongly enough to make such a statement is certainly notable and significantly dampens other organizations’ hopes of landing a player that just a year ago was considered to be among baseball’s 10 best prospects before an injury-shortened 2019 campaign.

Shortened by injuries or not, there were some positives for the 24-year-old Senzel in his debut campaign. He didn’t set the game ablaze like some other vaunted prospects have in recent years, but few minor leaguers graduate to the Majors and hit the ground running at a full spring. Senzel hit .256/.315/.427 with a dozen homers and 14 steals (in 19 tries) through 414 trips to the plate. For a player who had finger and elbow surgery in 2018 and battled ankle troubles last spring, it was a respectable first showing, though the organization (and Senzel himself) surely hope there’s more in the tank.

Perhaps most encouragingly, Senzel seemed to take to center field quite naturally. The converted third baseman was learning the position largely on the fly — particularly after missing the 2018 Arizona Fall League due to the aforementioned elbow procedure — but posted passable marks in Defensive Runs Saved (-1), Ultimate Zone Rating (-1.2) and Outs Above Average (0). For a position that was mostly foreign to him, Senzel seemingly proved that he has the athleticism to handle the spot — perhaps even at an above-average (or better) level once he gains more experience.

Notably, despite surgery that could place third baseman Eugenio Suarez on the injured list to open the year, Williams again emphasized that Senzel wouldn’t be lining up at third base. Nor, it seems, will Senzel be considered an option at shortstop. The Reds haven’t made a marquee addition there, but Williams voiced confidence in Freddy Galvis and a reluctance to have Senzel try his hand at the spot after undergoing shoulder surgery of his own late last summer. “That’s the most difficult throw on the diamond to make,” Williams said in a nod to Senzel’s most recent surgery.

For those keeping score, that’s three surgeries for Senzel in just over a year’s time, which will prompt some to question the 24-year-old’s durability. That, however, doesn’t appear to be a substantial concern for the Reds at this time, and the aforementioned depth the team possesses gives them plenty of alternatives in the event that Senzel’s injury troubles continue. Offseason signing Shogo Akiyama has long been a quality center fielder in Japan, and the Reds have Jesse Winker, Aristides Aquino, Phil Ervin, Travis Jankowski and Rule 5 pick Mark Payton as other outfield options on the 40-man roster.

Latest On Reds’ Trade Talks

By Jeff Todd | January 28, 2020 at 1:07pm CDT

We haven’t been alone in wondering whether the Reds’ slate of offseason moves set the stage for a major swap to bring in a high-end player. But that may not be in the plans, according to a report from Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic (subscription link).

Notably, per the report, there have been some eyebrow-raising negotiations this winter. The Reds, Dodgers, and Indians discussed a deal that would’ve brought Corey Seager to Cincinnati and sent Francisco Lindor to L.A., with the Cleveland organization adding young talent. The Reds also held talks on scenarios in which they’d land Lindor.

It’s always fun to hear of big names being tossed around, but in this case it doesn’t seem the chatter gained any traction. At the moment, per Rosenthal, “talks involving Lindor appear dormant.”

That being said, adding two veteran outfielders to the mix certainly has created a crowded picture for the Reds. And the team is reportedly holding some talks regarding youngster Nick Senzel. From some angles, it still seems that further discussions could be sensible.

Trouble is, Rosenthal notes, the Reds’ intervening signings have absorbed the payroll flexibility that might’ve been needed to land Lindor. While Seager is cheaper, it’s not at all clear that he’s really in play as the Dodgers pursue other opportunities.

As ever, the situation can turn on a dime. And we’re certainly not seeing the entirety of the picture here. But it seems at minimum that the Reds did not ink Nick Castellanos with anything like a specific plan in place to pull off a corresponding trade. It’s equally true, though, that the Reds now have the flexibility — in young talent, if not payroll — to jump on an opportunity should one arise.

Reds “Considering” Nick Senzel Trade Scenarios

By Jeff Todd | January 27, 2020 at 8:59am CDT

After adding another significant free agent to their lineup, the Reds may not be finished. The club is “considering” finding a deal involving top young talent Nick Senzel, according to Jon Heyman of MLB Network (via Twitter).

It doesn’t appear that there’s a specific deal already lined up, but the signing of Nicholas Castellanos to a four-year contract further crowds the outfield mix, representing the latest move that seems to limit the opportunities for Senzel.

While Senzel was heralded as a potential franchise centerpiece, he hasn’t quite found a fit yet in Cincinnati. At various points since he was selected second overall in the 2016 draft, the versatile 24-year-old has been tasked with lining up at second base, third base, shortstop, and center field.

As presently constituted, the Reds would seem likely to deploy Senzel in some kind of outfield timeshare while perhaps also giving him some innings in the infield. But there’s an obvious alternative, laden with both risk and upside: cashing him in via trade.

Just what might be contemplated isn’t yet clear. The roster’s one glaring area for improvement is shortstop, though perhaps there’s still room to add pitching and the team has long been said to have interest in finding a more offensively capable catcher. Senzel has exhausted his prospect eligibility, but he’s still the type of controllable, MLB-ready asset who could conceivably be a headliner in a package to acquire any of the myriad high-profile trade targets who’ve been discussed over the course of the winter.

There’ll surely be wide interest in Senzel, who could be plugged right into a lineup and remains controllable through the 2025 season. His debut effort wasn’t a grand slam; he slashed .256/.315/.427 (90 wRC+) with a dozen home runs in 414 plate appearances last year. But that’s hardly a miserable showing for a rookie and he’s still seen as possessing ample talent with the bat. The positional versatility makes him a potential fit just about anywhere and the contract situation is a huge positive.

Nick Senzel Changes Agencies

By Anthony Franco | December 22, 2019 at 11:32am CDT

Promising Reds’ outfielder Nick Senzel has hired the Scott Boras Corporation as representation, tweets Jon Heyman of MLB Network. The 24-year-old remains two seasons from arbitration eligibility.

The former University of Tennessee star and second overall pick made his MLB debut in 2019. He tallied 404 unremarkable plate appearances (.256/.315/.427), although he did expand his defensive profile. A third baseman in Knoxville, Senzel added the keystone to his resume in the minors. Last season, he moved to center field, where he logged all 92 of his MLB starts. He figures to stick in center now that the Reds have inked Mike Moustakas to join Eugenio Suárez on the roster.

Senzel hasn’t wowed to the extent some may have hoped, but he remains a key long-term asset for the Cincinnati organization. A former consensus top ten prospect, he comes with six seasons of team control. He’ll first need to bounce back from season-ending shoulder surgery; at last check, the Reds were “optimistic” he’d be a full go in 2020.

Senzel’s change in representation will be reflected in MLBTR’s Agency Database, which contains agent info on thousands of Major League and Minor League players. If you see any errors or omissions within, please let us know: mlbtrdatabase@gmail.com.

Dick Williams On Reds’ Offseason Plans

By Connor Byrne | October 4, 2019 at 1:33am CDT

Reds president of baseball operations Dick Williams has made it known that the club’s front office is entering the offseason focused on building a playoff-caliber team for 2020. The Reds have failed in that regard six straight times, but the team aims to bolster its playoff chances for next season by upping its payroll. Williams explained the Reds’ approach to the upcoming offseason in an expansive Q&A with C. Trent Rosecrans of The Athletic (subscription required). It’s worth reading in full, but we’ll touch on a few of the highlights here.

Cincinnati made almost all of its notable additions on the trade market last winter, picking up several household names (including right-hander Sonny Gray, who was superb this season). That continued into the summer with their acquisition of righty Trevor Bauer, who will join Gray, Luis Castillo and Anthony DeSclafani as locks for next year’s rotation. The Reds remain open to bettering their roster via trades now, but it seems an ideal scenario for Williams would be for him and general manager Nick Krall to make most of their hay in free agency.

Williams told Rosecrans he expects Cincy will “be aggressive in trying to get some guys in free agency.” That’s a drastic change from last offseason, when the Reds’ lone guaranteed contract went to lefty reliever Zach Duke. That $2MM signing didn’t pan out, leading the Reds to release Duke in July.

While Duke struggled as part of the Reds’ bullpen, fellow relievers Raisel Iglesias, Amir Garrett, Michael Lorenzen, Robert Stephenson and Matt Bowman each gave he club respectable or better production. All five of those hurlers are slated to return in 2020, though the Reds still “want to make sure we’re doing everything we can to improve the bullpen,” according to Williams.

Upgrading starting depth, defense and team speed are also on the Reds’ to-do list, but there probably won’t be a bigger winter priority for the team than improving its offense. The Reds ended the year 25th in the majors in both runs scored (701) and wRC+ (87), and only third baseman Eugenio Suarez and the young outfield duo of Aristides Aquino and Jesse Winker provided well-above-average numbers over a sizable sample of plate appearances.

Aquino, 25, started his career on an offensive rampage after an Aug. 1 promotion. He was a home run threat just about every time he stepped to the plate for a few weeks, becoming the fastest player ever to ever hit 15 (he did so in 122 PA). Aquino wound up with a prolific 19 in 225 trips to the plate, though his overall output tailed off badly over the final couple weeks of the campaign. Perhaps as a result of that, the Reds don’t want to gift him a starting spot in right field for next season.

“He’s going to have to continue to earn it and improve and build and we will take the approach in the offseason that the outfield as a whole, you know, we will be trying to add,” said Williams.

The Reds’ outfield next year could also continue to include Nick Senzel, a high-end infield prospect who transferred to center this season. Cincy was impressed with Senzel’s work in his first outfield action in the bigs, but Williams values Senzel’s flexibility and doesn’t want to commit to a 2020 position for him just yet. Whether the Reds add a starting-level second baseman or pick up a No. 1-caliber center fielder figures to influence where Senzel will primarily line up in a year. Indeed, the Reds’ middle infield “needs to be figured out,” acknowledged Williams, who revealed the Reds will “look into” re-signing pending free-agent shortstop Jose Iglesias. The light-hitting, defensively adept Iglesias proved to be a shrewd minor league signing for the club going into this season, but his ceiling isn’t particularly high. With that in mind, it wouldn’t be a surprise to see the Reds let him walk and pursue better options than him and the controllable talent on hand (namely Freddy Galvis and Jose Peraza).

Between Suarez at the hot corner and Joey Votto at first, the rest of the team’s starting infield appears etched in stone going into 2020. Elsewhere, while Williams regards catchers Tucker Barnhart and Curt Casali as starting-caliber backstops, he admitted that “we could look to get more offensively out of the catching.” Big-hitting catcher Yasmani Grandal, a former Reds farmhand, headlines the class of backstops who are about to reach free agency. He has already been linked to the Reds in the rumor mill this week.

Regardless of whether the Reds try to reunite with Grandal, it appears they’re shaping up to have one of the league’s most active offseasons. There’s “a strong emphasis on trying to win now,” Williams declared. “And win in the short term. We believe we will build a postseason team for 2020.”

Reds Rumors: Grandal, Bullpen, Senzel

By Connor Byrne | October 2, 2019 at 12:13am CDT

Tuesday was an active one for the Reds, who made a few changes to their coaching staff. Here’s more from Cincinnati…

The Brewers’ season reached a heartbreaking end Tuesday, leaving the club to turn its attention to the offseason. One of its priorities could be re-signing catcher Yasmani Grandal, who will surely decline his half of a $16MM mutual option for 2020 in order to reach free agency for the second straight winter. As easily the premier catcher who’s on the verge of hitting the open market, Grandal figures to draw plenty of interest from outside clubs. Expectations are that the division-rival Reds will be among the teams that pursue Grandal, Jon Heyman of MLB Network reports. Now 30, Grandal began his pro career as the 12th overall pick of the Reds in 2010, but he never played a major league game in Cincinnati. The team traded Grandal to San Diego in a 2011 blockbuster, and he has blossomed into one of the majors’ elite catchers since then. Meanwhile, the Reds are coming off a year in which their catchers (primarily Tucker Barnhart and Curt Casali) posted mediocre production. If the Reds are going to upgrade over their current backstops with Grandal, though, they’ll undoubtedly need to put forth a significant offer. Grandal’s among the game’s top soon-to-be free agents, someone who’s ineligible to receive a qualifying offer after getting one last offseason, and it stands to reason he’ll be paid accordingly in the coming months.
The Reds will likely try to add one or two left-handers to their bullpen in the offseason, Bobby Nightengale of the Cincinnati Enquirer writes. Aside from Amir Garrett, no southpaw reliever the Reds tried for a decent sample of innings in 2019 was successful. Zach Duke and Wandy Peralta struggled so badly that the Reds cut ties with them before the year ended. Cody Reed enjoyed a promising 6 1/3-inning stretch in May, but a knee injury derailed his season toward the end of that month.
More from Nightengale, who reports the club’s “hopeful” it’ll have prized youngster Nick Senzel in the fold when the 2020 season opens. Senzel sat out the final four weeks of the regular season on account of a right shoulder injury that required surgery. Although Senzel spent the year in center field, it’s possible the Reds will add to that position this winter and move him back to the infield – specifically second base – next season, Nightengale notes. The upcoming free-agent class isn’t exactly teeming with obvious center field solutions, however.

Nick Senzel To Undergo Shoulder Surgery

By George Miller | September 21, 2019 at 1:13pm CDT

Reds rookie Nick Senzel is scheduled to undergo shoulder surgery next week to repair a torn labrum in his right shoulder, according to Mark Sheldon of MLB.com. A timetable for his return is not yet known.

Though it was already known that Senzel’s season would end prematurely, there were questions whether the injury would require surgery or not. Those questions, of course, have now been answered and that procedure has been scheduled for Tuesday.

While no timetable has been announced, manager David Bell expressed optimism that his young center fielder would be ready to play on Opening Day 2020.

Notably, it’s not believed that the surgery will force a return to the infield for Senzel, who was thrust into a new position in his first taste of the big leagues. For his part, he fared reasonably well in center field as a rookie, credited with -1 DRS and -1 UZR—not bad marks, all things considered (he only started playing the position in spring training). He was drafted and developed as an infielder, though opportunities at second and third base have been scarce, with Eugenio Suarez entrenched at the hot corner. With Scooter Gennett no longer in Cincinnati, there’s a need at second base, although the Reds wouldn’t have an immediate replacement for Senzel in center field in such a scenario, making that an unlikely outcome. Anyway, there’s no reason to move Senzel down the defensive spectrum if he’s shown himself a passable center fielder.

It was an up-and-down rookie season for Senzel, the former second-overall draft choice in 2016. Through July, he had posted an OPS of over .800, though a dreadful month of August dragged that number down considerably. Overall, he drew walks at a 7.3% clip, a solid rate for a rookie. He’s always been lauded for his offensive skillset, which carried him throughout the minors. While he’s yet to really make good on those evaluations, he’s only got 414 Major League plate appearances under his belt. He’s had his moments, and has in reality had just one bad month.

More concerning that his performance, though, is the laundry list of injuries that Senzel’s accrued at just age 24. He missed much of the 2018 minor-league season with a fractured finger and vertigo, then began this season on the injured list with a sprained ankle.

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