Reds Sign Tim Adleman To Minor League Deal
The Reds announced this morning that they’ve signed righty Tim Adleman to a minor league contract and assigned him to their alternate training site. He’ll presumably open the year with their Triple-A club.
It’s a blast from the past for Cincinnati fans, who likely recall that the now-33-year-old Adleman pitched in 43 games (33 starts) for the Reds back in 2016-17. Adleman racked up 192 innings in that time, logging a combined 4.97 ERA with an 18.9 percent strikeout rate and an 8.7 percent walk rate. He spent the 2018 season with the Samsung Lions of the Korea Baseball Organization and split the 2019 season between the Atlantic League’s Long Island Ducks and the Tigers’ minor league system.
That 2016-17 run with the Reds is the only big league experience Adleman has to date. He does own a career 2.97 ERA in parts of three Triple-A seasons (166 2/3 innings), however, to go along with a similarly strong 2.70 mark in parts of three Double-A campaigns (243 innings).
Tigers Re-Sign Five Players To Minors Contracts
The Tigers announced that left-hander Nick Ramirez, right-handers Tim Adleman and Anthony Castro, outfielder Jose Azocar, and first baseman Frank Schwindel have all been re-signed to minor league contracts. Ramirez and Schwindel were the only members of this quintet to see MLB action in 2019, as both made their big league debuts.
The 30-year-old Ramirez made a fairly solid first accounting of himself in the big leagues, posting a 4.07 ERA, 2.11 K/BB rate, 46.2% grounder rate, and 8.4 K/9 over 79 2/3 relief innings. He also held left-handed hitters to only a .644 OPS over 117 plate appearances, and while his numbers against right-handed batters weren’t as good (.801 OPS in 231 PA), the splits weren’t drastic enough to make Ramirez a non-viable option for 2020 given the new three-batter minimum rule being instituted. Since Ramirez pitched beyond one inning in 28 of his 46 games, his durability and multi-inning usage make him an intriguing choice to return to the Tigers’ pen next season.
Schwindel signed with the Tigers in June after being released by the Royals the previous month. Originally an 18th-round pick for Kansas City in the 2013 draft, Schwindel cracked the Show in his seventh pro season, appearing in six games for the Royals. For his career, Schwindel has a .285/.318/.472 slash line and 118 home runs over 3222 minor league plate appearances.
Reds Sign Tim Adleman To Minor League Deal
The Reds and righty Tim Adleman have reportedly agreed on a minor league deal. The contract does not include an invitation to big-league camp, Mark Sheldon of MLB.com tweets.
Adleman, 31, spent last season with the KBO’s Samsung Lions, pitching to a 5.05 ERA with 137 K (54 BB) in 171 IP. Before heading to Korea, Adleman appeared in 43 games (33 starts) with Cincinnati from 2016-17, posting a career 4.97 ERA in 192 IP.
In his short big-league stint, the longtime minor-leaguer (who even spent part of the early decade in the Independent Leagues) didn’t really seem to belong – his middling fastball (90.5 career average MPH) was mostly allergic to missing bats, and his secondary stuff offered little in the way of relief. Adleman’s 1.97 career HR/9, no doubt inflated by the Pony League-esque confines of Great American Ballpark’s right field, plus his utter inability to keep the ball on the ground, ranked among the league’s highest during that span, and the Georgetown product again struggled with the gopher ball in his cross-pond foray.
Cincinnati’s rotation, which has added Tanner Roark, Alex Wood, and Sonny Gray in recent weeks, doesn’t figure to have a spot up for grabs, and the team’s depth pieces – Cody Reed, Sal Romano, Tyler Mahle, Brandon Finnegan, Robert Stephenson, Matt Wisler, and Lucas Sims among them – would all figure to rank above Adleman in the next-man-up queue. Still, it’s possible the 31-year-old could find his way into the Cincinnati bullpen as a long man, and the organizational familiarity certainly may work in his favor.
Tim Adleman Signs With KBO’s Samsung Lions
The Samsung Lions of the Korea Baseball Organization announced today that they’ve signed right-hander Tim Adleman to a one-year deal worth $1.05MM (via Jee-ho Yoo of South Korea’s Yonhap News Agency). The Reds haven’t announced the move, but Adleman was still on Cincinnati’s 40-man roster, so they’ll likely receive financial compensation from the Lions for releasing Adleman and paving the way for the move.
Adleman, who turned 30 earlier this month, has appeared in 43 games for the Reds over the past two seasons, totaling 192 innings of 4.97 ERA ball with 7.3 K/9, 3.3 BB/9, a 35.1 percent ground-ball rate and an average fastball velocity of 90.4 mph. He led an injury-plagued Reds pitching staff with 122 1/3 innings and finished second on the team with 20 starts made. However, Adleman was also among baseball’s most homer-prone pitchers in 2017, averaging a whopping 2.12 long balls per nine innings pitched.
Though he’s yet to experience much in the way of Major League success, Adleman does possess a solid minor league track record. He’s logged just 63 2/3 innings in Triple-A but recorded a sharp 2.40 ERA along the way, and overall he’s worked to a 3.57 ERA with 7.3 K/9, 2.3 BB/9 and 0.7 HR/9 in 458 2/3 innings across parts of six minor league seasons. Though he’s been a fly-ball pitcher in the Majors, he’s demonstrated the ability to induce grounders in the minors, routinely registering ground-ball rates of 45 percent or better.
For the Reds, losing Adleman will obviously deplete the team’s depth in the rotation. However, Cincinnati will surely be banking on better health from the trio of Anthony DeSclafani, Brandon Finnegan and Homer Bailey in 2017; DeSclafani missed the entire year with an elbow issue, while Finnegan was limited to just 13 innings and Bailey chipped in 91 frames. Beyond that, the Reds saw a number of young arms break into the Majors last season, and while many of them struggled, GM Dick Williams recently noted to Fangraphs’ David Laurila that the organization was heartened by strong finishes from the likes of Luis Castillo, Sal Romano and Tyler Mahle.
In addition to those six arms, the Reds also have lefties Amir Garrett and Cody Reed as options, as well as right-handers Robert Stephenson, Rookie Davis, Jackson Stephens, Keury Mella and Jose Lopez all on the 40-man roster, which now stands at 39 players.