As predicted Sunday, the Reds added Dilson Herrera to the 40-man roster and activated him today to replace Brandon Dixon, who was sent back to AAA Louisville.ÂÂ
The #Reds have selected the contract of IF Dilson Herrera from the Triple-A @LouisvilleBats.
Herrera slashed .330/.417/.524 with 12 XBH, 22 RBI and 17 R in 27 games since June 1 at Louisville. pic.twitter.com/S4pUgazxxL
— Cincinnati Reds (@Reds) July 6, 2018
The Reds acquired Herrera from the New York Mets in the August 2016 Jay Bruce trade. Herrera is 24, two months older than Jose Peraza, and has struggled with shoulder injuries while in the Reds organization. Herrera was once viewed as a top prospect in the Mets system, but injury problems have slowed his development. Because of concerns over his shoulder, Herrera went unclaimed on waivers this year and taken off the Reds 40-man roster.ÂÂ
Doug Gray wrote here recently how the Reds will need to keep Herrera with the major league team once they call him up. Let’s hope the club can find more playing time for Herrera than they did for Brandon Dixon or Alex Blandino. They need to figure out what Herrera can do. Hard to see them finding that opportunity without a trade creating it.
(Least surprising update ever: Herrera is not in today’s lineup against the Cubs.)
We’ve published various scouting reports on Herrera: Trade Announcement (Nick Kirby), August 2016 (Patrick Jeter), Sept. 2016 (Jeff Gangloff), and March 2017 (Jordan Barhorst).
Ask Blandino or Dixon about PT under Riggleman. I know we’re winning but finding time for Herrera seems slim and none. Spot start but more likely part of late game double switch.
Lefty going for the stupid Cubs today.
Get him going and spot scooter off the bench day one
Scooter hitting .360 against Lefties isn’t good enough?
I have some old school elements still in my new age rationale and they apply to Dilson vs. Scooter. If they generate the same OPS, and same subpar defense (we’ll see… Dilson has to be better right?) I’d prefer Dilson because he’s RH, another RH bat to protect Votto and Winker and presumably Scooter, perhaps in LF.
Imagine:
Winker
Votto
Geno
Scooter
Senzel (SS)
Schleber
Dilson
Barnhart
2019. That’s a starting 8 that could have a .400 OBP… as a team!
I get the OBP factor with Winker and Votto, but you can’t put the two worst baserunners on the team in the one and two slots. As for personnel, I like your choices.
I wouldn’t expect much out of this move as he only can play 2B/3B: Trade Scooter? Move Suarez to SS and play Herrera at 3B, even though Peraza has been hitting better lately? Otherwise very scarce playing time other than DH in Cleveland, we’ll see.
Do you really want to have a horrible left side of the infield? Unless Suarez has magically changed his SS game, that’s what you will have. Dilson has no arm for 3rd base, and has less than 100 innings there as well.
this may be a precursor to getting Herrera acclimated to the club in prelude to a trade
This is a weird call-up. Herrera is a legit major leaguer and he absolutely should play regularly. I don’t see the comparison between him and Blandino (very good utility player) or Dixon (having a BABIP-fueled good AAA season but still striking out too much for someone who walks that little).
As a side thought, if the Reds were to trade Scooter now for a haul and then audition Herrera for 3 months before trading him in the offseason for a good haul and then start 2019 with Senzel at second, the results good be very nice.
Weird for sure. But do you also think it weakens our positions to trade in a strange way? So now a team is looking at Scooter thinking ‘well Dilson is out of options so they’ll accept less for Scooter.’ Am I overthinking that? Scooter needs to be playing LF and proving me wrong and increasing his value simultaneously right?
I’m honestly not sure how the option thing works. They removed Herrera from the 40-man at the beginning of the year, so I don’t think it’s the same thing. But I’m not sure.
Herrera can’t be sent down now (Doug replied to me on Twitter). So something HAS to be working here. Otherwise, this move makes no sense at all.
I think you might be on to something here. Alex Blandino is nominally the backup to Scooter at 2B, Peraza at SS, and Suarez at 3B. And he only has 33 PA in the last 30 days. It makes no sense to call up Herrera to have him sit on the bench like Blandino has, and it makes even less sense to have him sit on the bench like Dixon did (20 PA in the past 30 days). Heck, he should get more PA than Blandino and Dixon COMBINED.
This has obviously been in the works since at least Wednesday when the Reds sent Dixon down. So the two subsequent moves that would make the most sense would be either an imminent Scooter trade or a semi-permanent move to the OF for Scooter and to the bench for Duvall/Billy. The Reds lineup today has Scooter at 2B and both Duvall and Hamilton in the OF. My tinfoil hat conspiracy theory is that the Reds are about to trade Winker. With the way this front office operates, I always figured he would be the one most likely to be traded.
Players have 3 days to report.
I’ve got some questions out to Doug. I’m sure he’ll either post the answers here or if he just replies to me, I’ll post them. But Herrera is on the roster now, so I think the pay bump happens now. In any case, he has, by all accounts, been busting his butt to get back on the radar this year, so I wouldn’t be surprised if we was in Chicago before the game is over today.
I thought that they may recall Ervin, who’s been on fire for a couple of weeks.
I would think that they plan to play Herrera 2 or 3 games in Cleveland, with Scooter at DH. I am looking forward to seeing him play.
Either Herrera or Gennet would be good choice for the DH in Cleveland. PA are what I want to see from both, not neccessarially defensive innings.
I hate to say this, but when it comes to the Reds I think it is always safe to err on the side of complete managerial incompetence.
I mean, I remember when Winker was called up last year and everyone assumed a trade was in the works for one of the OFs. And then they wouldn’t play Winker every day and it had to be because they were trying to keep the value of Duvall/Schebler high so they could trade one by the deadline.
Then we had the Senzel fiasco where he starts AAA at 2B, moves to 3B for a few games after Suarez gets injured, and then goes back to 2B like nothing happened.
This is what has had me leery of this little hot streak the Reds are on. Herrera is clearly better than Brandon Dixon and it seems to me a move that is being done just to try and help “win now” at the expense of the future.
Just to keep the conspiracy theories rolling, what if the Dilson is coming up to give Scooters shoulder some rest without DLing him. Dilson getting playing time, Scooter gets multiple days on the bench, saving him for trades, and the Reds get the press cover needed to justify it (well we want to see what the rookie’s got)…?
Man that Hamilton-Volquez trade is a juicy one to discuss. Volquez has that amazing first year for the reds, Hamilton takes off, and at once you think well both teams crushed this trade.
Then Edinson couldn’t keep it together. Josh went on a run there for a few years playing at an elite level. Hindsight is 20/20, but Krivsky wasn’t as far off even in hindsight from my POV. Both guys were enigmatic, those are the types that get traded right?
Simone for Suarez.
Latos for Disco
Strailly for Castillo
I am with you. Trading Scooter with the hope that another player can be almost as good (not hardly) is not the way to win.
The Reds missed it with Trader Jack when he went on to win with the Marlins. We now have the days of Jim Riggleman.