The Cincinnati Reds have sent outfielder Jake Fraley to Triple-A Louisville where he will join the Bats and begin a rehab assignment. The outfielder has been dealing with a stress fracture in a toe and hasn’t played in nearly four weeks – his last game was on August 3rd against the Chicago Cubs.

The Reds struggling offense could use Jake Fraley back in a big way. Fraley was hitting .263/.346/.467 at the time of his injury, but he’s been even better than that against right-handed pitching. When there’s a righty on the mound Fraley has hit .281/.361/.504 and all 15 of his home runs this season have come against right-handed pitching.

Coming off of a stress fracture in a toe, it will be interesting to see just how much – if any – time Fraley will get in the field. He noted earlier during his time on the injured list to Charlie Goldsmith of The Cincinnati Enquirer that he expects he will need surgery to fix things in the offseason. He also told Goldsmith that he was going to try and play through pain to help the team make the playoffs.

With the National League now having the designated hitter this could be the perfect role for Fraley when there’s a righty on the mound.

Tejay Antone is getting closer

Last week Tejay Antone was given an additional 10 days to rehab. Pitchers can only get 30 days worth of work on a rehab assignment, but there is a 10 day addition that can be granted to pitchers who are coming off of Tommy John surgery if they ask for it. The final day for Antone to rehab is September 2nd, after which the club will have to make a decision.

After two games in Arizona in the final week of July, Antone’s rehab assignment was moved for Triple-A Louisville. He’s pitched in 10 games with the Bats. On August 8th he allowed three runs in 1.1 innings with a walk and a home run. Since then he’s pitched in seven games and allowed just one run in seven innings pitched while striking out seven batters and walking three.

49 Responses

  1. MCT

    You have a typo in your headline 🙂

      • MCT

        Still there just a different one. 🙂

    • Old Big Ed

      Who doesn’t need their begib rehabbed?

  2. AllTheHype

    Lineup has been missing Fraley, big time. Hopefully he gets back soon.

    • Chris

      So true. There has been a few guys in here that have continually said Fraley’s bat is not needed because he only hits righties. I’m sure a few of those short-sighted opinions have changed now.

  3. LDS

    This team is unlikely to make the playoffs barring a miracle. Fraley should get the surgery now and be ready for spring.

    • Kevin H

      Barring a miracle? They r 1.5 games out-of wildcard. What miracle?

      Care to explain

      • LDS

        And they are playing poorly. After this week, they may be 9-10 back of Milwaukee. On the WC side, 1.5 back with SF and Arizona ahead of them. Miami one behind. Lose the next 2 to SF and it’s 3.5. Are you willing to bet they’ll take the next 2 from SF? Then 4 against the Cubs. How many of those are they winning? By the time the Seattle series rolls around, it probably won’t matter. Further, with the Cubs playing the Brewers, if the Reds lose, it doesn’t matter who wins between the Cubs-Brewers, the Reds playoff chances erode.

  4. AllTheHype

    Lucas Giolito was just put on waivers by the Angels. Reds could claim him and not have to give up anything, just pay his remaining salary (less than $2M remaining this year). I’m sure some team will do that. Hopefully it is the Reds.

    • SultanofSwaff

      The better gets would be Matt Moore and Reynoldo Lopez. Both would do wonders for our overworked bullpen.

      Krall has a mulligan here. DO SOMETHING!

      • AllTheHype

        I don’t think any of those guys will make it to Reds though. AL has first dibs on waiver claims and I doubt any of those guys will make it to NL teams.

      • Tom Diesman

        I was thinking they changed the waiver claim order to:

        “Claiming priority is based on reverse winning percentage. So, if a player is placed on outright waivers by a club, the 29 other teams will each get a chance to claim a player, starting with the MLB team with the worst record. ”

        If that’s correct, the only other contending team ahead of us would be Miami. Not sure why a non-contending team would select an impending free agent to add the salary for the remainder of the year.

    • Doc

      Is that the one with the roughly 9.00 era since the trade deadline. Unbelievable that people harped all season to get rid of Weaver with his 6-7 era and now want to pick up someone 50% worse. And he’s that bad playing into free agency year?

      • AllTheHype

        4.45 ERA, and you’re cherry picking a small sample of 5 starts.

      • Old-school

        @ ATH

        Usually agree but trading for FA rentals for 2 months is exactly that… small sample size

    • Old-school

      He was the #1 pitcher on the FA market? After lorenzens no hitter , he missed 9 days and 2 starts since …16 hits and 11 runs in 9 innings

    • Votto4life

      The Reds already have all they need.

  5. Melvin

    At this point it would be good to just get Fraley back for a DH role or even pinch hitting. I hope Antone continues on the good track he’s on. Not that the Reds bullpen needs any help though. 😉

  6. RedBB

    Reds have a good shot to grab Gioloto or one of the the relievers or hitters they placed waivers. Only the NYY, Cleveland and Miami would be up before the Reds by my estimation. Doubt any other team would claim them before us. Fingers crossed!!

  7. Gaffer

    Giolito claim him, now! If you do then offer him 1 yr deal can you get draft compensation too?

  8. Mark Moore

    Hope Jake does well. Toe injuries can be really dicey to rehab.

    As for tonight’s line-up … meh. And which is the more difficult field in SF, Right or Left? Normally it’s RF in a park which would make me question why Senzel is there.

  9. AllTheHype

    Clevinger, wow, better than Giolito. Christmas in August. KRALL!!!!!!

    • Mark Moore

      Full-on fire sale around the league.

      • AllTheHype

        Only the Marlins might realistically select them before we can. We’ll see.

      • MBS

        Clevinger has another year of control, more teams will look at him.

      • AllTheHype

        Clevinger is mutual option, so really just amounts to $4M in extra salary (buyout) that the claiming team needs to pay, then he’ll be free agent.

    • MBS

      A glimmer of hope? Grab them both, if we can. We’d have a full rotation to actually make a run.

  10. Mark Moore

    Santillan DFA.

    Lopez up, Siani down.

    • Jim Walker

      Reds hiding Santillan in the shuffle of teams trying to dump salary via the waiver ahead of the September deadline for playoff eligibility.

      And I wonder if someone else is dinged but they don’t want to IL yet is driving the Lopez call up.

      • Melvin

        Lopez is a good person to have on your team in my view. Santillan DFA? Kind of hard to believe.

      • Melvin

        Maybe they’re fed up with Santillan and his weight. Who knows? Hopefully they’re at least somewhat fed up with all of the Ks and that’s one of the reasons Lopez and his contact hitting is coming up.

      • SR

        I admit I haven’t watched Santillian pitch but his numbers have been all over the place when you read the box scores. Also among the mysteries of the universe is why would the Reds feel another 10 rehab days is in order for Antone? If he can throw 12 times in Louisville, then he ought to be able to give us a couple of innings a week, especially, given how Bell rarely asks his relievers to go more than an inning at a time. Is he still that fragile??
        I don’t see the news about the roster moves anywhere i normally look. Do we have a sleeper agent for the Red’s FO on Doug’s site?

      • JB

        Kind of hard to hide Santillan. He must weigh 300 pounds.

      • Melvin

        “Kind of hard to hide Santillan. He must weigh 300 pounds.”

        lol

    • Melvin

      Did Siani even get one AB? If he did I missed it.

  11. JC

    If the Reds claimed one of these players, would it then put them last in line to claim another or would the pecking order be the same regardless of if they got 1 or 10?

    • AllTheHype

      They go to back of line.

      “If a club has already previously claimed a player on outright waivers in a given year, the club’s claiming priority will be moved to last among the 30 clubs.”

      https://www.mlb.com/glossary/transactions/outright-waivers

      So here’s the dilemma. Clevinger looks like the guy, but he comes with a much higher price tag, approx $6M remaining including the buyout. Giolito is much cheaper but also struggling since the break. If no one selects Clevinger til Reds get to claim, we will see exactly how much Reds ownership is willing to spend to get a shot at the playoffs.

      • Tom Diesman

        If that’s the case nobody knows what the order is now. How does it work as to the order the players come through waivers. Say if the Reds put a claim in on Giolito and Moore and Moore comes through first and say the get him, does that mean they are in the back of the line for Giolito? Then they could lose him to another contender that needs him or just wants to block a competitor from getting him. It’s getting pretty complicated now.

      • Redsvol

        That’s a really tough call on Clevinger. He’s been good since he returned from injury so chances are he will decline the option. Which is unfortunate because it would be great if he accepted it and was around for 2024. But potentially 6$M for potentially 1 month of pitching is awful steep.

        But I agree there are some interesting names out there and I would hope Krall would try and get not 1 but 2 of these recently waived pitchers. Not much downside, but its not my money. Come on Nick, go get some pitching help.

        There are at least 4 guys on the 40 man roster that we can easily designate for assignment. Time to cut loose Dunn, Busenitz, Legumina, Overton.

  12. Hanginwithem

    Benson should be RF
    Steer LF
    Lopez 2B
    Senzel PH against lefties
    That is better than the current defensive alignment for tonight’s game.

  13. Doug Gray

    It’s been a very rough two weeks for me, folks.

    Third time’s a charm on the headline….. ?