The Cincinnati Reds have claimed catcher Deivy Grullón off of waivers from the Boston Red Sox. Along with Tucker Barnhart, Tyler Stephenson, and Kyle Farmer, the Reds now have 3.5 catchers on their 40-man roster. The 40-man roster now sits at 33 players.
Deivy Grullón has very limited action in the big leagues. In 2019 he played in four games for the Philadelphia Phillis and went 1-9 with a double. This past season he played in just one game for the Red Sox, going 1-3 with a walk.
The 24-year-old catcher made his professional debut in 2013 with the Gulf Coach League Phillies and worked his way up to Triple-A in 2019, where he spent his entire season except for the four games in the big leagues. During that 2019 campaign he played in 108 games for Lehigh Valley and hit .283/.354/.496 with 24 doubles, 21 home runs, 45 walks, and 133 strikeouts in 457 plate appearances.
His walk rate in 2019 – 9.8% – was the best of his career. His strikeout rate – 29.1% – was also the worst of his career. His 21 home runs tied a career high, as he also hit 21 homers in Double-A (in 90 games) for the Phillies farm system. He’s known to have a plus arm behind the plate, but in 2019 he did struggle throwing out runners with a career low 17% caught stealing rate (he had been at 37% and 33% in the previous two years in the minors).
He entered the season as the Philadelphia Phillies #16 prospect according to Baseball America.
Narciso Crook goes off for Licey
Minor league outfield prospect Narciso Crook, who spent the 2019 season in Double-A Chattanooga and Triple-A Louisville, hit three home runs last night for the Tigres del Licey in the Dominican Winter League. He’s only the 9th player in league history (the league was established in 1951) to homer three times in a game, and the first for Licey to do so since former Dodger and Brewer Greg Brock did so in November of 1981.
Por si te lo perdiste, aquí los 3 jonrones de Narciso Crook.
Crook es el primer jugador en la historia de Lidom en conectar sus 3 primeros cuadrangulares en un mismo partido.
Se une a Greg Brock, quien en 1981 logró esa hazaña también ante las Águilas Cibaeñas.#ElGlorioso pic.twitter.com/q6K12ww2bd
— Tigres del Licey (@TigresdelLicey) December 23, 2020
Originally drafted by the Reds in 2013, Narciso Crook was a free agent after the 2020 year ended. He recently re-signed with the organization for the 2021 year on a minor league deal. While it may feel like 2013 was forever ago, Crook is still just 25-years-old. He hit .277/.332/.474 with 10 steals in 374 plate appearances in 2019, with most of his time coming at Triple-A (298 PA).
Fangraphs Top 36 Reds Prospects
Eric Longenhagen released his version of the Cincinnati Reds top prospects list over at Fangraphs this morning. Some of the reports are new and fresh thanks to some players having time on the field at the alternate site, a few in the big leagues, and some in the fall instructional league that took plate in October out in Goodyear. Some of the reports aren’t updated, though, as plenty of guys didn’t have any new information on them due to the fact they didn’t really play anywhere.
They, like the Baseball America list (subscription needed) that came out last week, has shortstop Jose Garcia at the top. That’s where the two lists diverge, though. Many of the same names are making up the top 10, but the order is a bit different. Worth noting, Baseball America considered Tejay Antone eligible for their list, while Fangraphs did not. It’s a technicality based on service time, but Fangraphs has it right.
Solid pickup. Not so upset anymore that they let Chadwick Tromp go anymore…
Let’s hoe we can get the other Deivi this offseason as well!
I like the pick up of Delvi G. I don’t know if he makes it to the majors this year, but he may turn out to be a decent prospect.
Deivy Grullón seems like a solid prospect, shame he is right handed like Stevenson
Agree it seems like a solid pick up. I wonder how many options he has left.
Does this add Barnhart to the move list? The guaranteed total left on his deal is about $4.8M (2021salary plus 500K buyout of his 2022 salary which would be $7.5M).
Maybe send a million with Barnhart and spend another million for a Journeyman to backup and caddie for Stephenson leaving Grullón as organizational depth at AAA while saving just short of $3M?