The Cincinnati Reds have signed left-handed reliever Andrew Chafin to a minor league contract and assigned him to the Triple-A Louisville Bats, who begin their season tonight. Chafin, who has pitched in the big leagues in each of the last 12 seasons, signed with the Minnesota Twins this offseason on a minor league contract, but after being informed that he wasn’t going to make the team he used his opt-out to become a free agent. Their loss is the Reds gain.
Chafin has pitched well in his career. The 35-year-old lefty has a career ERA of 3.35 in his 643 games. Last season he saw action with both the Washington Nationals and the Los Angeles Angels and pitched in 42 games while posting a 2.41 ERA and throwing 33.2 innings. He allowed just two home runs while walking 19 batters and striking out 36.
Chafin has had a few seasons in his career where he’s thrown plenty of strikes, but for the most part in his career he’s had an iffy walk rate and that’s been true in each of the last three seasons. His walk rate did improve after joining the Angels, but it was still a bit higher than you would like it to be.
This spring saw Andrew Chafin pitch in six games with the Twins. He allowed two runs in his six outings, covering 1.0 inning in each. That was good for an ERA of 3.00. He allowed four hits, walked three, and he struck out five. He had two walks in his first outing and then just one over the remaining five before he opted out of his deal.
There was a big red flag this spring, though. From 2021-2024 Chafin threw his fastball around 92 MPH. In 2025 that dropped down to 89.5 MPH but he was still able to keep runs off of the board despite the loss in velocity. This spring he averaged 85.7 MPH on his fastball. Left-handed or not, that’s a tough sell to big league teams that you will be able to get MLB hitters out. If you’re going to keep tabs on him while he’s in Triple-A it would seem wise to check the Statcast data on whether or not his velocity ticks up or not.
You can see the career stats for Andrew Chafin here.
It’s an intriguing move on minor league contract. I was thinking a couple of days that the Reds’ front office might explore free agency to sign a veteran pitcher—but one who could start… In fact, I thought of someone like Jon Gray…
Chafin has been good but that velo is scaring , not for the hitters but the defense…Maybe he can tick some mph up working in Triple-A…
Where’s Martinez when we need him?
Tampa Bay.
And he had the ugliest spring you could ever imagine. 13.2 innings, a 14.49 ERA, 29 hits allowed, five home runs, six walks, and seven strikeouts.
Sounds like Abbot’s spring.
@fansince’40. That’s something I would say
Will be interesting to watch and compare Ferguson/Moll/Chafin/Suter. They clearly kept Moll over Suter ($ not that different), and preferred Ferguson to either. The analytics are concerning, but Chafin slots into this list. Certainly no downside while he’s in Louisville.
Going to give Chris Welsh a run for the name “Crafty Lefthander.”He might be the perfect complement to the hard throwing pitchers in the pen.
Freddie Norman will always be the Reds “crafty left-hander”baseline for me.
Nice outing for Chase Petty tonight. 4.2 innings 4 hits 1 walk and 8 Ks. Two hits each by Dunn, Rodriguez and Hinds. Bats win 2-1.
Forgot to mention 0 runs allowed by Petty.
Vote of confidence in Brock Burke, eh?
What an odd thing to say.
So, I guess that was a bit of sarcasm, huh? 🙂
Yeah, he had a tough spring. I didn’t see any of it, I don’t know if there’s reason to panic yet, but it looks like they just signed a Plan B.
Maybe the Reds should reach out to Rob Dibble. He can probably still throw 80mph. Although it’s a minor league signing, just once I’d like to see the Reds sign an “is”, not a “used to be” or “could be”. I’m tired of potential. I’d like to see actual success. This is another Krall crapshoot. Snake-eyes.
I like this Chafin signing.
Chafin will be with the big league club as soon as he gets his feet wet
Not if he’s throwing 85 MPH like he was in spring training.
Sometimes I forget about the Little things. LOL
Chafin seems like a nice guy and will fit in nicely after the Bats officially begin their bullpen games policy around the 10th of April.