No, this isn’t the only thing to discuss about the Reds, but we have more news:
The Reds acquired minor league reliever Marcus McBeth from Oakland on Saturday as part of a trade made a day earlier, and designated left-handed reliever Rheal Cormier for assignment to the minors.
Cincinnati dealt outfielder Chris Denorfia to the Athletics on Friday for two players to be named. On Saturday, they received the 26-year-old McBeth, who went 3-3 with a 3.07 ERA and 32 saves last season with three of Oakland’s minor league teams.
McBeth was the closer at Triple-A Sacramento this season. He will join Triple-A Louisville on Sunday.
The Reds will get one more player from the Athletics at some point.
Cincinnati also made a move with its wobbly bullpen on Saturday, recalling right-hander Brad Salmon from Louisville to replace Cormier. The left-hander gave up three runs in three innings over six appearances.
Nothing but good news here, in that Frenchy Cormier is gone and that outweighs everything else.
Here’s what Baseball Prospectus has to say about McBeth:
The A’s fourth-round draft pick in 2001 — that’s the year before the Moneyball draft — Marcus “The Scottish Play” McBeth batted .233 in t hree seasons as a center fielder, so in 2005 he made the logical switch from the garden to the hill. He’s had his ups and downs as a reliever, but in 2006, it was mostly up, and he’s a prospect as long as he maintains that strikeout rate (or something close to it). McBeth gets his fastball into the mid-90s and he’s working on a slider, but it’s his changeup that everybody talks about. He’s ticketed for Sacramento this spring.
McBeth will be 27 years old in August.
UPDATE: While we’re at it, here’s what John Fay says:
Designating Rheal Cormier was something the Reds had to do. You can’t keep a guy in the bullpen if the manager is not going to use him, and Jerry Narron wasn’t using Cormier.
The deal will go down as one of Wayne Krivsky’s worst. I can’t blame him for the making the trade. Cormier had a 1.59 for Philly when the Reds acquired. You can chalk up the fact that he didn’t pitch well for Reds — 0-1, 4.50 ERA — to bad luck. But giving him the extension to make the deal is going to cost the Reds $2 million. Cormier would have vetoed the trade if the Reds hadn’t done the extension. But . . .
Right-hander Brad Salmon, the guy the Reds brought up to take Cormier’s spot, is said to throw up to 95. The Reds desperately need someone like that.
The biggest effect is from a PR standpoint. It shows they’re willing to eat salary to better the team. A lot of my e-mailers were beginning to doubt that.