The Cincinnati Reds announced earlier this afternoon that they have picked up right-handed pitcher Kevin Gausman off of waivers. He had previously been playing with the Atlanta Braves.
For Kevin Gausman, his last appearance came just the other day in a start against Cincinnati. It’s been a tough season for the right-hander, who now has an ERA of 6.19 on the season through 16 starts. He’s missed bats, racking up 85 strikeouts, and he’s had a solid walk rate, too – giving up just 27 of them in 80.0 innings. But he’s been very hittable, and like the majority of baseball, has struggled a little bit in allowing home runs.
The Reds have stated that he will be heading to the bullpen for now with the club. There’s no roster move that’s been made at this point, so who he will be replacing is unknown as I type this.
There’s some potential good signs that Gausman is due for a turn-around. As noted above, he’s got quality rates in both the walk and strikeout columns. His batting average on balls in play is higher than you would expect for most Major League pitchers. And his stranded runner rate is abysmally low.
The bullpen may be a bit of a better spot for Kevin Gausman than the rotation. As a right-handed two-offering guy, it’s very tough to succeed as a starter with that repertoire. He’ll mix in a splitter along with his fastball, but those two pitches make up 98% of his pitches thrown this season. He will occasionally throw a slider. That could be a bit interesting to keep an eye on, as prior to 2019 he had thrown his slider 10-20% of the time, while this season he’s basically scrapped it entirely. Perhaps Derek Johnson and the Reds analytical staff has something up their sleeve when it comes to Gausman’s repertoire.
Plus he has a year of team control (one more arbitration year) after this one. If Derek Johnson can straighten him out, it could be a great pickup.
Gausman was a standout at LSU while Derek Johnson was at Vanderbilt, so DJ ought to know him pretty well.
Seems like a good time for either Hughes or Garrett to begin their suspensions.
lets hope they saw something in Atlanta they can fix
I would bet he’ll fill in for Hughes and Garrett until they return and then Hernandez will be DFA’d.
I wanted the Reds to acquire him from Baltimore because he has electric stuff.He has an up and down career but maybe just maybe Johnson can turn him around.We shall see.
Gaussman? Electric Stuff?
I see what you did there.
Golf clap.
How does his salary work? How much are the Reds on the hook for?
Stock market goes up and down. Reds are similar. When reds get above 500 I’ll buy game tickets. I have doubts they will get there.
The stock market always goes up but never in a straight line. I’m in a holding position with the Reds too and claiming a pitcher off waivers who has an ERA over 6 didn’t change my position today.
I call for the Reds to pick 1/4 of the league, but I called for Gausman 2-3 years ago. I remember he got clocked at 99 mph at that time. Now he’s throwing 93? Thats a problem since he was barely average at 99. It could be that they can fix something, but whats wrong with Matt Bowman? MB has 8.2 shutout innings on 3 hits since he went down to AAA.
Looked it up on Fangraph just now. It was 2015. Gausman had a high of 99 & a low of 95. Maybe he can get back some of that out of the pen, but I’d rather have Bowman. Rather have Gausman (or my mailman) over Hernandez.
No, they have to play short while someone is on suspension
With the new trade rules I didn’t think the Reds could get any help for the bullpen save perhaps a healthy Reed. I like this pickup. High upside, and he can’t be worse than Hughes and Hernandez have been this year.