The Cincinnati Reds have called up catcher Mike Papierski from Triple-A Louisville and optioned Chris Okey back to Triple-A, first reported by Charlie Goldsmith of The Cincinnati Enquirer.
If you have no idea who Mike Papierski is, it’s probably fair. He was acquired over the weekend after the San Francisco Giants placed him on waivers and the Reds made a claim. He was picked up and then optioned to Triple-A Louisville, but he never actually got into a game for the Bats and he’s now in Chicago and joining the big league club as they open a series against the Cubs.
The 26-year-old backstop made his big league debut earlier this season. He was able to get into five games with San Francisco. He went 0-9 with a walk, a run scored, and he struck out four times. Papierski has spent time in Triple-A with both the Houston Astros organization and Giants organization this season. He’s struggled at both stops. He played in 26 games with Sugar Land hitting .211/.324/.278 with 14 walks and 9 strikeouts. In 14 games with Sacramento he hit .208/.246/.359 with 18 strikeouts and 3 walks.
Chris Okey joined the Reds after Tyler Stephenson was placed on the injured list with a broken thumb. The 2016 2nd round draft pick played in parts of seven games, going 2-12 with three runs scored and he had five strikeouts.
Sandy León traded
Lots of movement in the organization today on the catcher front. This morning it was announced that the Reds had traded catcher Sandy León to Cleveland for cash considerations. León had been in Triple-A, splitting catching duties with several others throughout the season. After the trade he was immediately added to the Guardians active roster and in their starting lineup. He went 0-3 with a strikeout while batting 8th in Cleveland’s win over the Twins in the first game of their doubleheader.
Chris Okey, second round draft choice (the same year Senzel was drafted 1st).
Kind of a big vote of “no confidence” in him.
Well.
Is this a tryout?
This move makes no sense to me. Okey played in 7 games. I hope he gets traded and comes back to bite this organization. (Justin Turner) comes to mind
I totally agree with you. This organization is beyond rediculous. They pick up this nobody and decide he is better than Okey? At least give Okey a chance. He can’t be any worse than Garcia.
Looks like a Tweedle-dee/ Tweedledum switch on the surface.
Papierski is listed as a switch hitter and also as a catcher/1B as opposed to Okey as strictly a RH hitter and catcher. Maybe the Reds feel this gives them some added utility or their scouting and evaluation team rate him as a stronger receiver.
Then again teamed with the trade of Sandy León perhaps the opportunity exists for Okey to get more reps behind and at the plate at Louisville which could eventually work to his favor down the line.
Nice to see a voice of reason, or reasoning!
Yes, it is.
@jim my thought exactly. Him getting a start a week in Cincy is not helping him. He needs everyday playing which he’ll get in Louisville.
I respectively disagree. If he was highly regarded the giants in my opinion wouldn’t of let him walk. Okey to my knowledge is a good defensive catcher and Garcia seems to have played first base. I also don’t buy the whole playing time down there. No reason why Okey couldn’t of played up here 4 times a week.
I just think this is a move they seem to do to the young guys. Lopez, Friedl, and now Okey.
Garcia calls a very good game. Mahle said as much last week. I really think you may be off target on your position.
Papierski is a year younger than Okey.
Jim, that is a logical argument for sending Okey back to Louisville. I would also argue, with Papierski being a switch hitter, it gives Bell another chance to play his matchup strategy of left verse right.
From the lead article:
“He went 0-9 with a walk, a run scored, and he struck out four times. Papierski has spent time in Triple-A with both the Houston Astros organization and Giants organization this season. He’s struggled at both stops. He played in 26 games with Sugar Land hitting .211/.324/.278 with 14 walks and 9 strikeouts. In 14 games with Sacramento he hit .208/.246/.359 with 18 strikeouts and 3 walks.”
How is being a switch hitter somehow valuable if you can’t hit from either side of the plate?
Bell probably just loves this.
This isn’t about Bell. Garcia is the primary catcher at this time with Stephenson injured. It’s not far fetched to consider that Okey needs playing time and he’ll get that in Louisville. Also Tyler is ahead of schedule for returning so there is also that point.
The highly regarded (by many here) Max Schrock has gone 1 for 9 in recent games, and is hitting about .200 for the season. These are small sample sizes for both players, so there’s that. There are also, as Jim has pointed out, organizational considerations and the probable desire on the part of the Reds to get a look at the guy.
Agree. Another point, Okey hasn’t been on the RML Top 25 prospect list since 2016–the year he was drafted. Just because a player was a reasonably early draft pick 6 years ago doesn’t mean he’s a legit prospect in 2022.
The fact is, the Reds entered this year without a quality backup catcher. As a result, they are looking for value on the margins while Stephenson is on the IL.
I see this move as they’re looking for add a lefty bat among the poor existing options available so they think Papierski would help more than Leon or Okey from the offensive point of view… In my opinion the catcher that should be as backup of García had have to be Sandy Leon because his experience as ML player and he hit as lefty not being necessary to claim Papierski, in fact, the Guardians considered Leon a better choice than the Reds did…
Pretty cool that Papierski gets to make his ML debut in his native Chicago.
Not his debut. He played in 5 games with San Francisco this year.
Regarding the move, another possiblity….
…with all the players on the 60 day DL, they are eventually going to have to DFA some players to create roster spots. I would have bet that one of them (if not both) will be DFA’d.
It may just be a matter of the Reds wanting to get a first-hand look at Papierski before making that decision.