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Silvino Bracho

14 Players Elect Free Agency

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As the offseason nears, a number of players elect minor league free agency each week. These players are separate from six-year MLB free agents, who’ll reach the open market five days after the conclusion of the World Series. Eligible minor leaguers can begin electing free agency as soon as the regular season wraps up. These players were all outrighted off a team’s 40-man roster during the year and have the requisite service time and/or multiple career outrights necessary to reach free agency since they weren’t added back to teams’ rosters.

Electing free agency is the anticipated outcome for these players. There’ll surely be more to test the market in the coming weeks. We’ll offer periodic updates at MLBTR, including a list of 29 players last week. The next group, courtesy of the transaction tracker at MiLB.com:

Catchers

Outfielders

Pitchers

Reds Outright Silvino Bracho

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The Reds sent reliever Silvino Bracho outright to Triple-A Louisville, according to the transactions log at MLB.com. He was designated for assignment on Sunday.

Bracho has made five appearances for Cincinnati this season. He has tossed 7 1/3 innings of three-run ball, striking out and walking six batters apiece. Bracho has reached the big leagues in three of the past four seasons, but this year’s brief workload represents his largest since he tossed 31 innings for the D-Backs back in 2018.

The right-hander has pitched 21 1/3 frames over 21 outings in Louisville. His 4.22 ERA is fine but built on a huge 98.7% strand rate. Bracho has decent strikeout and walk numbers for the Bats. He’s allowed seven homers in that time, though.

It’s the second time this season in which the Reds have sent him through waivers. He bypassed the right to test minor league free agency in favor of the outright assignment in May. He’ll again have the option to rejoin Louisville or explore other opportunities.

Reds Designate Silvino Bracho, Select Randy Wynne

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The Reds announced a trio of roster moves, including the selection of Randy Wynne’s contract from Triple-A Louisville.  Cincinnati also called up righty Levi Stoudt from Triple-A, and Stoudt will get the start today against the Braves.  To create roster space, the Reds designated right-hander Silvino Bracho for assignment.

Wynne will be making his Major League debut with his first appearance, and that personal milestone could come as early as today in relief of Stoudt.  The Cincinnati Enquirer’s Charlie Goldsmith notes that Stoudt is just recently back from a ribcage injury and isn’t fully built up for a proper starter’s workload, so Stoudt might not last long no matter how he fares against the Atlanta lineup.  Wynne has been a swingman for much of his pro career, and the Reds could employ something of a piggyback system between Stoudt and Wynne today.

Wynne is an undrafted right-hander who pitched in independent baseball for parts of the 2016-19 seasons before finally catching on with the Reds in 2019.  He continued with the organization after the canceled 2020 minor league season, pitching at Double-A in 2021 and then at Triple-A in each of the last two years.  Wynne doesn’t record many strikeouts or grounders, as he relies on soft contact and an impressive walk rate to keep batters in check.  Over 164 1/3 innings at Triple-A, the 30-year-old Wynne has a 4.82 ERA over 164 1/3 innings, starting 29 of 38 games.

Stoudt and Wynne could each get some looks in the rotation as the Reds try to navigate multiple pitching injuries.  Hunter Greene, Nick Lodolo, and Ben Lively are all sidelined, and while Graham Ashcraft was activated from the 15-day IL yesterday, the good news of his return was tempered by Lively heading to the injured list with pectoral soreness.  Lively had been slated to start today’s game, which is why Cincinnati is turning to their latest backup plan of Stoudt.

This is the second time the Reds have DFA’ed Bracho this season, as he was previously designated and then outrighted off the roster back in May.  Bracho’s contract was selected again just a few days ago, and over his two stints in Cincinnati has posted a 3.68 ERA in 7 1/3 relief innings, with an equal number (six) of strikeouts and walks.  Bracho already passed on the opportunity to elect minor league free agency the last time he was outrighted off the Reds’ 40-man roster, but assuming he clears DFA waivers again, he still has the right to reject another outright assignment and test the open market.

Bracho has appeared in parts of seven MLB seasons, debuting with the Diamondbacks in 2015.  After four up-and-down seasons, he underwent a Tommy John surgery that sidelined him for basically all of the 2019-20 seasons, save for one inning in one game with Arizona in 2020.  Bracho then caught on with the Giants, Red Sox, and Braves before landing in Cincinnati on a minor league contract this past winter, though the right-hander’s only other Major League experience in 2021-22 was 4 1/3 innings with Atlanta last season.

Reds Announce Several Roster Moves

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The Reds announced Wednesday that they’ve selected the contract of right-hander Silvino Bracho from Triple-A Louisville and recalled fellow righty Alan Busenitz. Cincinnati optioned outfielder Stuart Fairchild to Louisville and placed righty Casey Legumina on the 15-day injured list due to a shoulder issue in a pair of corresponding 26-man roster moves. The Reds already had a vacant spot on the 40-man roster for Bracho after designating Wil Myers for assignment yesterday.

Bracho returns to the Reds for a second time in 2023, having already appeared in four games earlier this season. He pitched 5 1/3 innings in that time, yielding three runs on a pair of hits and five walks with four strikeouts. The 30-year-old righty (31 next month) has had a better run in Louisville, posting a 4.22 ERA with a 23.9% strikeout rate and much-improved 9.1%  walk rate in 21 1/3 frames. Bracho has appeared in parts of seven big league seasons, totaling 99 1/3 innings of relief work with a 4.89 ERA and strikeout/walk rates that match his 2023 rates in Triple-A.

The 32-year-old Busenitz resurfaced in the Majors as a member of the Reds this year — his first big league work since a 2017-18 run with the Twins. He’s allowed a pair of runs on seven hits and a walk with three punchouts through four frames thus far in the big leagues. He owns a sharp 1.96 ERA in 23 Triple-A frames, though that mark is accompanied by a slightly below-average 21% strikeout rate and a bloated 12% walk rate.

After his run with the Twins, Busenitz spent the 2019-22 seasons pitching with the Rakuten Eagles of Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball, where he worked to a 2.83 ERA and picked up 18 saves through 155 2/3 innings of bullpen work. He returned to North American ball this past offseason when he signed a minor league deal with Cincinnati. Overall, in addition to that strong run in NPB, Busenitz has a 4.57 ERA in 61 big league innings and a 2.80 ERA in 119 Triple-A frames.

Legumina, 26, was acquired from the Twins in the trade that sent Kyle Farmer to Minnesota back in November. He’s pitched to a 4.22 ERA with an outstanding 13-to-1 K/BB ratio in 10 2/3 innings with Louisville but been rocked for a 6.17 ERA with an 11-to-8 K/BB mark in 11 2/3 innings at the MLB level. He’s now missed time this season due to ankle and shoulder problems. Cincinnati did provide a formal diagnosis on Legumina’s current shoulder injury, describing the issue only as “right shoulder pain.”

The 27-year-old Fairchild has batted .237/.331/.404 in 184 plate appearances while logging time in all three outfield spots this season. The Athletic’s C. Trent Rosecrans tweets that the move to option Fairchild will give the Reds some short-term bullpen help before a reliever is likely sent out this weekend to accommodate righty Graham Ashcraft’s return from the injured list.

Reds Outright Silvino Bracho

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Reds reliever Silvino Bracho went unclaimed on outright waivers over the weekend, according to the transaction log at MLB.com. The right-hander had been designated for assignment when the club promoted relief prospect Eduardo Salazar.

Bracho signed a minor league deal with Cincinnati over the winter. He spent a couple weeks in the majors after the Reds selected his contract in mid-May. He’d pitched reasonably well for Triple-A Louisville prior to the promotion, allowing only five runs in 14 1/3 innings. Bracho struck out 15 of 57 batters faced while issuing only four walks. Those solid Triple-A results didn’t translate to big league success in his brief look in Cincinnati. He walked five against four punchouts while allowing three runs in 5 1/3 innings.

The 30-year-old Bracho has now appeared in parts of seven major league campaigns. He spent the bulk of his career with the Diamondbacks but has bounced around since undergoing Tommy John surgery in 2019. He was briefly on the MLB rosters with the Red Sox and Braves last season but only appeared in three games for Atlanta. As he has thus far in 2023, Bracho had a strong Triple-A showing last year. He worked to a 2.67 ERA with a lofty 30.4% strikeout rate and excellent 4.3% walk percentage across 57 1/3 frames.

Bracho has gone unclaimed on waivers multiple times in his career. That gives him the right to elect minor league free agency and explore other opportunities if he doesn’t want to accept the assignment back to Louisville.

Reds Select Eduardo Salazar, Designate Silvino Bracho

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The Reds announced Wednesday that they’ve selected the contract of pitching prospect Eduardo Salazar from Triple-A Louisville and designated righty Silvino Bracho for assignment in a corresponding move.

Entering the 2023 season, the 25-year-old Salazar was a generally nondescript prospect in the Reds’ system. He’d never cracked the organization’s top 30 at Baseball America and only drew a cursory mention as a potential multi-inning reliever in Eric Longenhagen’s 2022 overview of the Reds’ system over at FanGraphs — due largely to a velocity spike and improvement on his breaking ball.

Following a move from a starting role to short relief, Salazar has flipped the narrative surrounding him in a substantial way in 2023. He’s combined for 17 2/3 innings of 0.51 ERA ball between Double-A and Triple-A, whiffing a massive 35.2% of his opponents against an outstanding 4.2% walk rate. Salazar hasn’t given up a home run this season and has induced grounders at an enormous 63.2% rate.

Cincinnati relievers rank 10th in the Majors with a 3.72 ERA and are fourth in total innings pitched (193 2/3), thanks largely to a young starting rotation that has struggled to keep runs off the board and pitch deep into games. Reds starters have a 6.29 ERA that ranks second-worst in baseball, and only the Rays — who’ve frequently used openers and bullpen games — have gotten fewer innings from the rotation.

Much of the relief corps’ success is attributable to strong performances from Buck Farmer, Ian Gibaut, Alex Young and especially closer Alexis Diaz. The Reds have also gotten nice contributions from Derek Law and Kevin Herget. On the whole, it’s a collection of journeymen, many of whom are experiencing their first taste of MLB success in simultaneous fashion. That coalescence has proven to be a godsend for the Reds and manager David Bell, but Salazar will hope to join Diaz as a homegrown product and success story for the team’s scouting and player development departments.

Bracho, 30, held opponents scoreless in three of his four outings — the lone exception being a three-run appearance against the Yankees in which he only recorded two outs. Overall, he pitched 5 1/3 innings with the Reds and only allowed two hits, though he walked more batters (five) than he struck out (four).

In 99 1/3 career innings, most of them spent with the D-backs, Bracho has a 4.89 ERA with a 23.7% strikeout rate against a 9.1% walk rate. He’s typically been homer-prone in his career (1.72 HR/9), but he had some success with Arizona in both 2015 and 2019. The Reds will have a week to trade Bracho, pass him through outright waivers, or release him. He has more than three years of Major League service time, so even if he goes unclaimed on waivers, he’d have the right to reject an outright assignment in favor of free agency.

Reds Place Nick Lodolo On 15-Day IL

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The Reds announced a flurry of roster moves this morning, as the club placed left-hander Nick Lodolo and right-hander Casey Legumina on the 15-day injured list and optioned right-hander Levi Stoudt to Triple-A Louisville. To replace the aforementioned trio on the roster, the club recalled right-hander Kevin Herget while selecting the contracts of right-handers Alan Busenitz and Silvino Bracho. To clear 40-man roster space for Busenitz and Bracho, the club has transferred right-hander Connor Overton and left-hander Reiver Sanmartin to the 60-day IL. As noted by Charlie Goldsmith of the Cincinnati Enquirer, Lodolo is expected to miss at least four weeks of action.

The most significant news here is that regarding Lodolo, as the 25-year-old lefty will now miss at least a month of the 2023 campaign. A long time top prospect for the Reds, Lodolo was as good as advertised in his first taste of big league action last year, pitching to a solid 3.66 ERA (123 ERA+) and a 3.90 FIP over 103 1/3 innings of work across 19 starts. Unfortunately for the Reds, Lodolo wasn’t able to carry that success over into the 2023 campaign, as the lefty has posted an ugly 6.29 ERA and 5.82 FIP in seven starts this season. Lodolo figures to rest his ailing calf and get healthy in order to try and get his season on track when he returns from the IL this summer.

With Lodolo out of action for the time being, the Reds have just three regular starters in their rotation: Hunter Greene, Graham Ashcraft, and Luke Weaver. With no announced starter for Tuesday’s game against Colorado, the club could look to add another starter to the roster in the coming days, though with ten relievers on the roster at the moment, a bullpen game is another option the club could explore.

Joining Lodolo in exiting the active roster is a pair of rookies: Legumina, 25, heads to the IL while Stoudt, 25, heads to Triple-A. Legumina has posted a decent 4.35 ERA in 10 1/3 innings of work out of the Reds bullpen this season, while Stoudt struggled to a 10.29 ERA in seven innings over two appearances, including one start.

Replacing the trio on the roster is a group of right-handers. Herget, 32, impressed earlier this season in 10 2/3 innings of work out of the Reds bullpen, posting a 1.69 ERA in five appearances. The 32-year-old Busenitz, meanwhile, has yet to make an appearance in a Reds uniform. The righty sports a 4.58 ERA in 57 innings of work in the big leagues, all of which came as a member of the Twins across the 2017 and 2018 campaigns. Since then, he’s spent four seasons pitching in Japan, with a 2.83 ERA in 155 2/3 innings of work. He landed a minor league deal with Cincinnati in December, and has impressed against Triple-A pitching so far, with a 1.80 ERA in 15 innings.

The 30-year-old Bracho, meanwhile, is now poised to make the first appearance of his seventh season in the major leagues. The righty reliever made his debut in 2015 with the Diamondbacks, and spent most of his career with Arizona before joining the Braves in 2022. Bracho was non-tendered by the club this past offseason and signed a minor league deal with the Reds during Spring Training. Overall, Bracho has a career 4.88 ERA in 94 innings at the big league level.

Reds Release Daniel Norris

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The Reds announced Monday that they’ve released left-handed reliever Daniel Norris, who’d been in camp on a minor league deal. Cincinnati also optioned outfielder Stuart Fairchild to Triple-A Louisville and reassigned righty Silvino Bracho and infielder/outfielder Alejo Lopez to minor league camp.

It’s been a tough spring for Norris, who’s appeared in seven games with the Reds but been tagged for six runs (five earned) in 6 2/3 innings of work. Opponents have collected a dozen hits against the veteran southpaw, and he’s shown some troubling command issues as well. Norris has walked seven of his 40 opponents and plunked another three.

The 29-year-old Norris was once regarded as one of the top prospects in all of baseball, even headlining the Tigers’ return for David Price (alongside Matthew Boyd) when trading him to the Blue Jays at the 2015 trade deadline. He’s shown promise at varying points — 3.55 ERA in 129 1/3 frames with the Tigers from 205-16 — but Norris has also been slowed by injuries and a frightening battle with thyroid cancer, which he thankfully overcame.

Norris split the 2021-22 seasons between the Cubs, Tigers and Brewers but turned in a sub-par 5.68 ERA in 115 2/3 innings during that time. He was far more impressive with Detroit during the shortened 2020 season, logging a 3.25 ERA with a 24.1% strikeout rate and strong 6% walk rate in 27 2/3 innings out of the bullpen.

Overall, Norris has a 4.71 ERA in 569 2/3 big league innings. He’s fanned just under a quarter of his opponents over the past three seasons — an improvement from his early-career levels — but those increased punchouts have came with an increase in walks as well. Norris walked hitters at an 8.6% clip through 2019 but has issued free passes at a 10.7% rate over the past three years. He’ll look for opportunities elsewhere, and while teams in need of a left-handed reliever could well have interest in him as a depth piece, he might have to take another minor league deal and pitch his way onto a big league roster with a strong showing in Triple-A.

As far as the Reds’ bullpen is concerned, Norris’ release could bode well for lefty Alex Young. The former D-backs and Giants hurler is also in camp on a non-roster deal, but he’s had a much stronger showing, allowing just two runs with a 9-to-2 K/BB ratio in eight innings. Either Young or waiver claim Bennett Sousa would give manager David Bell a second lefty alongside Reiver Sanmartin. Sousa is already on the 40-man roster.

Each MLB Team’s Players On WBC Rosters

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The World Baseball Classic is returning this year, the first time since 2017. The quadrennial event was supposed to take place in 2021 but was scuttled by the pandemic, now returning after a six-year absence. Rosters for the tournament were announced today and those can be found at this link. Here is a breakdown of which players from each MLB team are set to take participate. Quick caveat that this list is fluid and might be changed as more information becomes available.

Without further ado…

Angels

Astros

Athletics

Blue Jays

Braves

Brewers

Cardinals

Cubs

Diamondbacks

Dodgers

Giants

Guardians

Marlins

Mariners

Mets

Nationals

Orioles

Padres

Phillies

Pirates

Rangers

Rays

Red Sox

Reds

Rockies

Royals

Tigers

Twins

White Sox

Yankees

Reds Sign Silvino Bracho To Minor League Deal

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The Reds announced this evening they’ve inked reliever Silvino Bracho to a minor league contract with an invitation to big league Spring Training. The 30-year-old was available after being non-tendered by the Braves.

Bracho has appeared in parts of six big league campaigns. He debuted back in 2015, when he allowed only two runs with a 17:4 strikeout-to-walk ratio in 12 2/3 innings for the Diamondbacks. Bracho couldn’t sustain that early success over a full season, with home run issues leading to an ERA north of 5.00 in each of the next two years. He rebounded to post a 3.19 ERA with a solid 26.4% strikeout rate across 31 innings in 2018, but his career was then thrown off track by injury. He required Tommy John surgery that limited him to one combined appearance between 2019-20, leading the Snakes to cut him loose.

The Venezuela native didn’t appear in the majors in 2021, but he earned his way back briefly this year. Signed to a minor league deal with the Red Sox over the offseason, he tossed 31 1/3 frames of 3.16 ERA ball in Triple-A. Boston promoted him to the majors but designated him for assignment without getting him into a game. He was dealt to the Braves for cash and spent most of the season with their top affiliate in Gwinnett, but he made three MLB appearances with Atlanta. Bracho allowed three runs in 4 1/3 innings in what marked his most extensive major league action since 2018.

Despite the lack of recent big league work, Bracho makes for a decent depth signee. He’s coming off an excellent 2.67 ERA across 57 1/3 innings between the Red Sox’s and Braves’ top affiliates. Bracho punched out an excellent 30.4% of batters faced in Triple-A with only a 4.3% walk percentage.

Cincinnati has a fair bit of opportunity available in the middle innings. The Reds finished 28th in the majors with a 4.72 bullpen ERA in 2022. Alexis Díaz, Lucas Sims, Tejay Antone and Buck Farmer look to have jobs secured. The middle relief corps is less settled, with out-of-options Ian Gibaut competing with pitchers like Tony Santillan, Fernando Cruz and Joel Kuhnel for roles.

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