The Cincinnati Reds have officially called up left-handed pitcher Reiver Sanmartin from Triple-A Louisville. To create a spot on the 40-man roster the Reds designated catcher Beau Taylor for assignment. Pitcher Luis Castillo has been placed on the family medical emergency list, which creates an open spot on the 28-man active roster. Hopefully everything is ok for Castillo’s family.
We knew that Reiver Sanmartin was going to be called up today. The team announced over the weekend that he would be the starting pitcher for today’s game against the Pittsburgh Pirates. We wrote about him with more detail here if you wanted to get a preview of what you may see this afternoon at Great American Ball Park in Sanmartin’s Major League debut. Sanmartin was likely going to be added to the 40-man roster this offseason in order to protect him from the Rule 5 draft, now he’ll just get a head start, earn some extra money, and earn some additional service time.
Beau Taylor was the 4th or 5th catcher on the depth chart at times this season. He had spent the entire year in Triple-A Louisville. The 31-year-old had seen limited action in the big leagues with Oakland, Toronto, and Cleveland over the previous three seasons in the big leagues, racking up 25 games and 60 plate appearances while hitting just .118/.237/.255. This season with Louisville he placed in 75 games and hit .232/.339/.333 while splitting action with several other players throughout the year. Last week when the Reds needed a catcher to fill in for Tyler Stephenson they opted to bring up Mark Kolozsvary, who was not on the 40-man roster at the time. The writing seemed to be on the wall at that point for Taylor as far as his future with the organization went. Today seemed to make the ending nearly official.
It’s actually kind of impressive Taylor managed to spend almost all of the year on the 40 man roster.
Not sure if I would call it impressive, lucky or a testament to the Reds only as needed roster management. 😉
Taylor caught a break with Kolozsvary being away with the Olympic Team; otherwise, he probably comes to AAA with Greene because he had been something of his personal catcher in the lower minors.
Also, the Reds did not need their “3rd catcher” at MLB until very late August/ September; and there was an existing open 40 man slot for Kolozsvary when that happened.
Things would have been really interesting if Barnhart or Stephenson had gone down long term in July while Kolzsvary was away at the Olympics. Would the Reds have brought up Taylor as the #2 catcher or instead brought up Barrero to play shortstop and made Farmer the #2 catcher?
I understand SanMartin is put in Castillo’s active roster spot ? So SanMartin will be optioned tomorrow to open the AR spot for O’Brien?
interesting to see a youth movement although they could still win out and St L lose the next 6 and be playoff bound. It would be hilarious if that happened, especially if the young guys pulled it off.
The youngsters haven’t really failed them yet despite the fact that at every turn they gave older guys the first and best shots.
Going back to the spring, there was an almost under the radar blurb that Akiyama had a hamstring issue. It got lost in the shuffle because he was away from the team because of his wife’s accident injury. Almost all year he was the disappearing man both in terms of usage and performance. Then a week or 2 ago he gets sent to IL with a “hamstring issue”. Friedl gets called up and becomes a contributor.
There was the whole Moose debacle. Like Senzel, he probably never should have been activated. Unlike Senzel, he was allowed to fill a spot in the MLB roster for a critical month when even we fans could deduce he wasn’t in game shape.
And let’s not get started on the bullpen mess which festered while Moreta labored almost perfectly for 2+ months at AAA
You sound……disappointed. 🙂
Seriously, the amount of player personnel mismanagement this season has almost been mind-boggling. Part of the reason for Moustakas and Akiyama being handled this way was BIG CONTRACTS. Has to be. The inability to admit that money was wasted. Which speaks badly to what will happen in the off-season. The big contracts can’t be unloaded without the Reds willing to eat some of that money, and Castellini won’t do that. The 2022 Reds will look a lot like the 2021 Reds. Probably minus Mike Lorenzen, Tucker Barnhart and Nick Castellanos.
Rinse, lather, repeat.
II am vacillating between disgusted and disappointed as I try to get to acceptance 😉
Another thought – with the additions of Kolozsvary, Sanmartin, Moreta, and Friedl already, I think Hunter Greene remains as the only slam dunk rule 5 protection off season addition.
I think players such as Lorenzo Cedrola, Robbie Tenerowicz, and Diomar Lopez will all get consideration, but aren’t locks. It will be interesting to see it play out, since the Reds also have 3 60-day IL players that will need roster spots when reinstated.
I’m sure Doug is going to do a big dive into which minor leaguers have to be added this off season. But I can very easily see 5 spots cleared off the 40 man – 3 outfielders and 2 infielders without much hand wringing. Except for Hunter, we’ve added the obvious candidates the last 2 weeks in Friedl, SanMartin, Moreta, O’Brien, and Kolozsvary. I’ve been very impressed with Friedl. It may be total coincidence but the team seemed to wake up offensively when he got called up. DeShields has given energy also. Amazing what happens to an offense when we have guys walking and making contact and providing RBI opportunities to the big hitters.