The Cincinnati Reds made six different roster moves this afternoon prior to the start of their game in Kansas City. Right-handed reliever Daniel Duarte has been called up from Triple-A Louisville. He takes the place on the roster of Ricky Karcher, who picked up the save in last night’s win over the Royals in his big league debut. Duarte was not on the 40-man roster, so to make room the team designated reliever Joel Kuhnel for assignment. Cincinnati also officially sent Nick Senzel and Tony Santillan to Triple-A on rehab assignments. Henry Ramos, who had been on a rehab assignment with Louisville, was activated and then optioned to Louisville.
Daniel Duarte made the big league roster out of spring training in 2022. He spent a few weeks with the Reds before suffering an elbow injury that would cost him the rest of the season. He was designated for assignment following the year and became a free agent. Duarte would re-sign with the club on a minor league deal with an invite to spring training. This season he did not make the club out of spring training and was assigned to Louisville where he’s posted a 3.49 ERA in 28.1 innings with 14 walks and 32 strikeouts. He had a tough April, but since the start of May he’s posted a 1.47 ERA with six walks and 22 strikeouts in 18.1 innings and hasn’t allowed a home run all season.
Ricky Karcher is heading back to the minor leagues after spending a few days with Cincinnati and making his big league debut in extra-innings last night. Joel Kuhnel has now been designated for assignment twice by the Reds. He cleared waivers the first time around. If he does so again he will have the choice to become a free agent if he would like, or he can accept his outright to the minor leagues and remain with Cincinnati.
Henry Ramos went 9-22 (.409) in his first six games with Cincinnati after being called up in late April. He then went as cold as ice, going 6-40 in the first three weeks of May before winding up on the injured list. He spent two weeks there before being sent out on a rehab assignment with Louisville. Ramos went 7-23 (.304) with a double and three home runs with the Bats. Now he’ll get to stay with them for the time being as he was activated and optioned there this afternoon.
Nick Senzel was with Louisville on Sunday and was set to begin his rehab assignment then. But the game was rained out, so the Reds never officially started his assignment. It doesn’t seem like weather is going to get in the way tonight in Louisville, so the team made it official and filed the paperwork for him to begin his assignment with the Bats. He’ll be joined there by right-handed reliever Tony Santillan. He hasn’t pitched in a year. His last outing came on June 13th of last season against Arizona. He was placed on the injured list with a back injury later in the week and hasn’t pitched in a game since then. Santillan, though, is coming back from a hamstring strain at this point.
All positive moves.
If Duarte can be another reliable bullpen arm (big ask, I know), it would definitely help the Reds with their bullpen that’s been running a bit on fumes.
Any word on if Santillan has managed to lose weight? Last I heard, he was tipping the scales at 280 lbs. That would seem to not be productive to his back, hamtstring, or any other part of his body, really.
Nice to see they kept Ramos in Louisville. Wouldn’t want to mess with the team chemistry just yet. With Benson playing well, Ramos has become somewhat expendable as a left-handed bat.
The big questions remain, though: Who goes when Votto, Fraley, and Senzel are ready? Hopkins, Barrero, Fairchild? I guess that could work if they plan to use Senzel more in the outfield again. But they seem really reluctant to burn Barrero’s final option. So we’ll see. It’s going to be interesting to see how they shuffle the chairs.
I think it’s a safe bet that Hopkins and Barrero go down when Senzel and Fraley are back.
If and when Votto comes back up – and I’m still not convinced it’s going to happen at all (or at least not until a final month swan song) – assuming Votto is playing well enough to be brought up, either Fairchild goes or we see a trade of Kevin Newman and/or Senzel. I don’t see the team moving away from the 3-catcher rotation.
Re: Santillan, he is currently listed at an even heavier 285 lbs. Honestly, I have no real expectations that Santillan will really help this team much if and when he returns. He reminds me of another big guy in Sal Romano, very little movement on his fastball and no real put-out pitch. His career WHIP is 1.42 (Romano’s 1.48) and Santillan’s good ERA year in 2021 was a bit of a mirage, because while his ERA was 2.91, his FIP was 4.62. Which is closer to his 2022 ERA of 5.49. That said, I’m still willing to wait patiently to hear about Tejay Antone returning in 2024 sometime.
Everyone keeps saying Votto! Better check out his STATS he can’t hit triple A pitching his bat must be slower than last year(RETIRE and give REDS money Back and go into HOF)
I agree with you – if Votto can’t hit AAA pitchers, he’s definitely not going to hit up here. He may get a few walks, but he never was the fastest runner and he’ll be a slug on the basepaths.
Seems like the biggest news in all this is the return of Santillan – he’s the first of the IL pitchers to return to rehab, correct?
Duarte should easily exceed Karcher/Kuhnel productivity, and if he can get to Cruz/Salazar level that would be very helpful, especially from the Houston series into the break. Could save them a few AAA-MLB shuffling transactions.
Does Legumina count?
Ooops – yes he does – thanks.
Why option Karcher? He made everything so much more fun. 😀
We hardly knew him
lol
Next time might not have been as much fun.
Even if never to return, Karcher made more of a memory than Moonlight Graham, that’s for darn sure
Sounds as though I won’t be able to tell if we are at a Bats game or a Reds game tomorrow in Louisville. So far the Bats have kept winning, but we could be reaching a tipping point where too many old Reds start hurting Louisville!
“ but we could be reaching a tipping point where too many old Reds start hurting Louisville!”
Now that’s funny!
And Will Myers grounds into the 6-4-3 dp after Votto walks.
But possibly quite true.
Aaron Sanchez facing Louisville tonight for Twins AAA. 4.16 at AAA. Interesting? He’s probably better then Weaver. He’s horrible. Faced a horrible team in a huge park with a lazy ump that was generous on the corners and he still stunk
CES just had an opposite field double high off the right field fence! Just another day/ time down at the plant that isn’t THE day/ time I guess
Ramos followed CES with a walk and Matt Reynolds just left the park. An early 3-nil Bats deficit is now a tie game.
Matt Reynolds’ numbers are perplexing. He’s currently hitting .297 with an OPS of 1.005 in AAA. Compare this to his career minor league and major league numbers:
Minors: .279 / .782 OPS
Majors: .229 / .627 OPS
In other words, Matt Reynolds is putting up almost CES-type numbers. Is this a cautionary tale for CES? Is the International League just one giant batting practice? With that kind of drop off between Reynold’s current numbers and his career MLB numbers, is the same thing possible with CES? I personally don’t think so, I think CES is the real deal… but it’s interesting.
Naw. We couldn’t use him. 😉
Lance McCalister had JJ Cooper on his show, head of Baseball America. He talked about CES and said he is swinging at pitches that are chase and waste pitches in MLB. MLB hitters have a .091 BA on some of the balls he swings at and hes had 3 HR and 3 doubles on those pitches. He did say the last few weeks he’s not swinging as much at those unhittable pitches in MLB. Also said BA is coming out with REDS top 30 prospects updated tomorrow and it was a challenge 20-30 because most teams it isnt and he thinks he left some good names off. He specifically credited the Reds with a load of young Latino talent in the lower minors.
Basically, in the last month, CES has flipped his K and BB numbers and maintained his OPS at > 1.000
2nd time through the Bats lineup, Senzel had an opposite field single. Votto walked behind him then Myers hit what would have been another GIDP grounder but there were already 2 out when he hit it. score is 3-3 after 2 full.
Herget started for the Bats tonight and just allowed a 2 run bomb to break the 3-3 tie. 5 runs (all earned) on 7 hits so far in 2.2 inning as i typed the opposition got guys on 2nd and 3rd then scored a 6th run on a 2 out safety squeeze single (just like the Reds, the Bats were overshifted to the middle and had no one within 30 feet of the 3B foul line).