The 2021 pitching campaign for Cincinnati Reds prospect Reiver Sanmartin will continue this fall/winter as he is joining Estrellas in the Dominican Winter League.
The 2021 season began for Reiver Sanmartin in Double-A Chattanooga. The lefty only spent a few weeks with the Lookouts, making three starts and one relief appearance in the Double-A South. Over his 18.0 innings he allowed just one earned run and was quickly promoted to join Triple-A Louisville. Over the final four months of the season he made 14 starts and seven relief appearances with the Bats. In his 82.1 innings with Louisville he posted a 3.94 ERA.
With Cincinnati needing someone to fill in for an injured Wade Miley for the final two starts of the year the front office added Reiver Sanmartin to the 40-man roster and called him up to fill in. The left-hander from Colombia pitched well in his debut at home against the Pittsburgh Pirates, allowing just one run in 5.2 innings while walking a batter and picking up five strikeouts. His next start came on the final day of the regular season and was also against the Pirates, but this time it took place in Pittsburgh. Sanmartin was just as good in his second go-around against the divisional opponent as he allowed a run over 6.0 innings with a walk and six strikeouts.
Right now the six teams in the Dominican Winter League are going through their “spring training” period. There are very likely going to be more Reds prospects participating in the league, but rosters are not yet official. Several prospects are in “camp” and playing for an opportunity to begin the season on the active roster. Along with Sanmartin, infielder Francisco Urbaez, and outfielders Mariel Bautista and Allen Cerda are also known to be in camp for their teams in the league. Games will begin on October 27th.
Hate to post this here but for the old timers on the board I’ll mention that Ray Fosse passed away. Fosse was the Cleveland Indian catcher who Pete Rose freight trained to end the 1970 all star game. That was the year Riverfront opened and I was at the game with my Father. Quite a exciting finish. Probably the last all star game that was played with passion.
Hey, now I’m one of those old-timers. I was 15 at the time I think. Rose’s desire to win is something the modern Reds sure could use. One can debate whether Rose was overly aggressive for an All-Star game but IMO opinion, collisions go with the game, especially for a catcher.
I am about 5 years older than you, a true contemporary of Fosse in age. I believe many younger folks just don’t realize the mindset of how the game was played. We can debate whether it should have been what it was; but, if Fosse had gotten the ball in time to be set with Rose coming in as he did almost certainly Fosse would have returned the “favor” by going low to chop block Rose as opposed to trying to make a collision avoiding tag.
I was 15 also and remember it well. I was an American League fan at the time and was not happy about it and the injury to Fosse.
I was 21 and remember it well. I have always admired the way Pete Rose played the game of baseball. I wish everyone played with his passion. Off the field, not so much.
Also saw that the Reds were apparently doing some housekeeping at the minor league level. Per Spotrac.com Tommy Milone, Beau Taylor and Mike Freeman were all officially released from their contracts at Louisville yesterday. Looks to be that time of year for every organization.
Cards just fired their manager Mike Shildt. He was there a little over 3 years, had a 252-199 record, and made the playoffs 3 times.
But for a winning franchise like the Cards, I guess even that isn’t good enough.
Pretty shocking, nonetheless.
Looks like philosophical differences between Shildt and the front office.
Cardinals fire manager after 17 game win streak and the record you mentioned, Yankees lose in playoff game and fire 3 coaches .If I’m wrong tell me but so far Reds have added 2 years to manager and no coaches gone after collapsing in September, once up by 4 , 5 games for that last spot
Wow! Just wow! I wish the reds had standards like the Cardinals’ executives. That is why St Louis fans fill their stadium annually. A constant focus and strategy on winning.
Little bobby and his cronies are the antithesis of the Cardinals. Does anyone in their right mind think the Cardinals would have tinker bell in their organization, let alone as field manager?
Not even if tinker paid the cards for the privilege. Blows my mind how messed up the reds are by contrast.
Cardinals fans don’t go to games because the Cards fire managers: They go because the Cardinals are nearly always contenders. They are nearly always contenders because they usually have enough good players on the roster and in the minors to be so. I don’t know whether they’d hire Bell, and neither do you: He got a good overall performance from a lightly-regarded team, despite a terrible bullpen and injuries to most of the top hitters. But maybe they wouldn’t hire him because you say they shouldn’t?
Que sera sera
Shildt rubbed me the wrong way, but for this result, he must have rubbed the front office or some key players absolutely raw.
The Yankees have every advantage known to man, and have 1 World Series title in 20 years, and none since 2009. That seems virtually impossible to me, yet they keep Brian Cashman. The Astros had a losing regular season record last year but brought back almost all their coaching staff, and they look to be going to the World Series.
You can’t really draw many broad conclusions from what individual teams are doing with their hiring and firing. I think that pitching coaches do matter, that hitting coaches aren’t nearly as important, and that managing is less about game strategy and more about his personal interactions with players. My guess is that if Votto and Winker and Castillo are happy with Bell, then management is going to err on the side of keeping him.
I believe that you nailed it, OBE.
And of course the much higher payroll than the Reds do,much better players slightly better farm and much better front office and ownership
But yeah it’s all Bells fault
The Cardinals have a vision and they stick to it. They’re a well run organization. I wish the Reds would take note. I had thought the Reds were moving in a positive direction but the guys leading that direction have since left.
Just think, they parted ways with Jocketty after the 2007 season because of different visions for how the club operated with DeWitt and Lunhow. The Cardinals have not had a losing season since, making the playoffs 9 times.
Lunhow went on to successfully oversee the Astro rebuild.
Meanwhile Jocketty came to the Reds, oversaw some good teams early on built on the work of previous GMs, botched the rebuild, and is still playing Grima Wormtongue to Big Bob. We see where we’re at. We see where the Cardinals are at.
And in that same timeframe the Cardinals were caught hacking the Astros computers and Jeff Luhnow was embroiled in the sign stealing campaign and suspended by Major League Baseball for a year.
Yeah, obviously not good on those points. I don’t want to come across condoning cheating, or hope for that in the Reds organization. But I can still appreciate how the Cardinals have a vision for how they want the organization to be run, and they stick to it, and they’ve been successful because of it.
I don’t think Vegas was saying Cards fans go because they fire the manager but because the FO doesn’t accept 2nd best. I really think the Reds need real player evaluators so when they draft and make trades.
The Cards front office–and all but one other front office per year–accept 2nd best or worse every year. Firing a manager is a knee-jerk reaction sometimes justified, as in the Cardinals’ case, by divergent philosophies or the manager’s losing the confidence of the players. In the end, a manager’s on-field decisions have a minor effect on the team’s record: The players available and how they produce are what matters most.
The reds have drafted pretty well the past five years, and should have, because they had a lot of high draft picks-not only Greene and India, but Stevenson, Lolo man, and several others. It’s hard to blame the always hurt one- no one could forcast that. Now, if you are talking about the evaluators eight to ten years ago, they were some pretty bad picks, with a few notable exceptions.
They have the 20th ranked farm system.The front office and scouts are just inept
St. Louis, SD, NYY et al. are all serious franchises. The Reds, sadly, no longer are. Bell’s defenders still show up here as do his detractors, of which I am one. Fundamentally, as a long time manager, I would have fired him a couple of years ago. Results should matter but apparently do not.
There is an old saying about a pig and lipstick that applies here.
I think David Bell is about as mediocre of a big league manager as there is when it comes to the on field stuff. But all reports are that he’s great in the clubhouse with the players and that’s quite important.
I prefer sows’ ears and silk purses 😉
How many games a year does a manager win/lose for a team? I think most experts would say less then 10 so atleast half of RLNs posts concern less then 10% of the team. I’d like to see a new manager myself, but developing/acquiring/keeping the horses to win the race is much more important!
I always preached, be good enough to keep the games from being close and it won’t matter who the manager is. The BP , early SP, and injuries made Bell’s managing stick out like a sore thumb.
Alan, I respectfully submit that the factors you identified would have stymied any manager. People cite Sparky Anderson as a good/great Reds manager, but two things are worth noting: He managed the team during the era when it had the best players it has ever had and, two, despite this, the team had a losing record in 1971. Did Sparky forget how to manage that year? Or were the players he had not performing well?
I would like to know where David Bell’s pay ranks among the 30 ML Managers. I would be willing to bet $100 it’s in the bottom 10 and that’s why he was extended.
Back on topic, do the Reds excercise any control over guys playing in the Dominican Winter Leagues anymore?
Is Reiver Sanmartin on any pitch limit this winter? I would expect not.
Will be he good to go in Spring Training?
It has been a few years, but when I asked that question I was told that it’s both yes and no. With pitchers the organization basically has 100% say if they can or can’t pitch. With position guys they need more than a “no we don’t want to risk injury” kind of reason to prevent guys from playing.
Interesting to see Sanmartin pitching in winter ball. I see him sticking to the 40MR. In fact, here are the potential 40MR spots for SP’s:
Castillo $7.6M (projected A2 salary)
Mahle $5.6M (projected A2 salary)
Gray $10.9M
Miley $10.0M (if they pick up his option; otherwise I think it is a $1M buyout)
Gutierrez $0.6k
Sanmartin $0.6k
O’Brien $0.6k
Hunter Greene $0.6k
Solomon $0.6k
That is 9. There is a chance that either Miley or Gray or both are gone. I think Miley will stay on and then his spot will get filled by Lodolo but CIN does not need to add Lodolo to its 40MR until Dec 2022.
Same thing goes with Sonny Gray and his eventual replacement Graham Ashcraft (add to 40MR in Dec 2022).
We’ll have to see if CIN creates an opening for Greene to immediately fill one of the 5-man rotation spots or if he has to earn that spot or replace an injured pitcher. If you keep Gray and Smiley, there always seem to be openings from missed starts.
If history repeats, we could see CIN trading for today’s version of Mat Latos. That elevated CIN. Based on the young controllable hitters and pitchers, I’m wondering if CIN repeats that approach. It took a big haul to get Latos. For me, that comp is either German Marquez of COL of Sandy Alcantara of MIA. Not sure CIN could land either guy and it would probably cost Gutierrez and several others, if so.
I hope they keep Castillo. If not, we are not serious about winning. He does not to become that pitcher that stops losing streaks in 2022 though.
Very interested to see how this plays out this winter. We are much better off than the days where we were just piecing anybody together to ensure that we maintained a high draft slot.
This is a good post
I saw Alcantara v Gutierrez in person
Both were outstanding that day but If the Reds could reconstruct their pitching staff and end up with Alcantara… that would be a major step to a winning window. Marlins arent in a winning window
Castillo
Mahle
Alcantara
Greene
lodolo
Ashcraft
Thats a rotation built to win for awhile
This will help make up for Sanmartin missing that first part of the season when the minors weren’t happening and let him add some innings and have a bit larger of a workload to build on in 2022. Most pitchers don’t throw more than 30-40 innings in these leagues anyways. I think Vladimir Gutierrez threw 30 innings there last winter to get ready for 2021.
Not sure if this is too much, but Sonny Gray to TOR for one of either Reese McGuire or Julian Merryweather and Adam Kloffenstein would not be bad. Could free up money to sign someone like Jon Gray and add Merryweather to the pen with pre-arb salary and 1 remaining option. McGuire could serve as a backup and is decent defensively – perhaps a compliment to Stephenson. I think Kloffenstein would need added to 40MR in Dec 2022. That might prove too many as CIN will need to add Lodolo and Ashcraft then too.