The Reds non-tendered Norris Hopper, Matt Belisle, and Gary Majewski. Good riddance on Majewski.
I’m sure I’m in the minority here, but I would have kept Belisle around to compete with Nick Masset for long man in the bullpen. He may have bounced back in the bullpen after having his knee fixed.
John Fay reports that Hopper was promptly resigned to a major league contract and is back on the 40 man roster. Odd, but we need the OF bodies and he makes for a good spare OF.
The mlb.com site lists the non tendered players from other teams. The following are the ones that may interest the Reds to help add some depth to thier weak OF situation.
Name AB AVG OBP SLG OPS Taveras Majors 1973 .283 .331 .337 668 Taveras Minors 1718 .288 .370 .361 731 Gathright Majors 1145 .263 .328 .304 632 Gathright Minors 1508 .315 .398 .365 763 Gomes Majors 1264 .235 .329 .455 784 Gomes Minors 1815 .272 .398 .529 927 Wigginton Majors 2715 .270 .330 .460 790 Wigginton Minors 2166 .280 .348 .460 808
We’ve unfortunately heard that they have interest in Willy Taveras, but if they have to sign a fast guy to play center and leadoff, I’d prefer thay take a flyer on Joey Gathright instead who would be cheaper and likely will produce as well as Taveras. Jonny Gomes is interesting, a RH hitter with pop, who hit lefties at a .895 OPS pace over the last three years. Anyone know if he is a capable defensive OF?
Ty Wigginton is another RH hitter with some pop who would be a great 3B stopgap if they’ve got any notions of dealing Edwin Encarnacion for OF help.