The Cincinnati Reds are getting catcher Jose Trevino back today after he spent some limited time in Triple-A with the Louisville Bats on a rehab assignment. To make room for Trevino on the 26-man roster the club has optioned catcher P.J. Higgins to the minor leagues where he’ll join Louisville.
It has been nearly a full month since Jose Trevino injured his hamstring and wound up on the 10-day injured list. He hit the injured list after having to exit the game on May 16th against Cleveland. Three weeks later he headed off to Triple-A where he joined Louisville in Memphis to start a rehab assignment on June 4th. He went 0-3 that day. Two days later he was back in the lineup at went 1-4 with a double. He then didn’t play again until the 12th – going nearly a week between rehab games as a “he some personal things to deal with” according to Reds manager Terry Francona. Trevino went 0-2 with a walk in that game o Friday. Now he’s back in Cincinnati.
P.J. Higgins hadn’t been in the big leagues since 2022 until he joined the Reds back in April. When he took over for Trevino as the backup catcher for the last four weeks it was his second stint with Cincinnati this year. He would play in eight games total while Trevino was out, starting five of them. He went 4-16 with a double, a run, and three runs batted in during that time.
Getting back to Jose Trevino, he was activated on Sunday morning and Terry Francona immediately put him in the lineup. He’s hitting eighth and catching Andrew Abbott. Tyler Stephenson has played in all but one game in June for the Reds, though one of those games was a game in which he entered in the 8th inning. Still, Stephenson has played nearly every day since Trevino hit the injured list and could likely use a little more time off than he has gotten.
I thought Higgins gave us some productive at bats at least. Had some good bunts as well. Hopefully Trevino can get things going with the bat.
Stephenson took a hard foul ball near his collarbone in the ninth yesterday. A day off to let that bruise calm down won’t hurt either.
P.J. Higgins was solid back-up during his stay with the Reds. We are likely to see him again this year due to injuries or perhaps trades.
I like they now have a 3rd catcher with options on the 40 man roster. If they keep Higgins and/or Banfield (.281/.339/.443/.782 in AAA this season) on the 40 they don’t have to sweat the DFA waiver claim every time they want to send them back down.
We do still have an open 40 man roster spot currently available with nobody coming back from the 60 day IL until Greene is ready.
James Outman was claimed on waivers the other day by the Tigers before he made it to the Reds. Would have been interesting to see if they would have been interested in him.
Cleveland also just DFA’d a former top 100 OF prospect in George Valera who is in his age 25 season and has been derailed by injuries the last few years and still has options for this season. He’s hitting .276/.367/.417/.784 in AAA this season but might not interest the Reds since he appears to in the Benson mold of a strong side platoon type player with good power and plate discipline, but less speed and limited to the corner OF spots.
They are probably holding the spot for an arm to help out the bullpen anyway.
Tom, they may have just spent the 40-man spot, but probably not. The AAA Bats social media account is reporting the Reds have assigned Sam Haggerty and “assigned” him to the Bats. Charlie Goldsmith is reporting the same.
Haggerty was DFA by the Rangers on Friday, then released. Presumably, they had cleared waivers on him and the Reds were able to sign him without using the 40-man slot. However, the Reds themselves haven’t made any official announcements.
https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/h/haggesa01.shtml
Yeah, it’s a minor league deal and the 40 man roster spot is still open.
06/13/26 Cincinnati Reds signed free agent LF Sam Haggerty to a minor league contract.
Not sure this is an upgrade move, especially offensively, but I didn’t really see a defensive downside either.
From July 1st last year to today , Trevino is
26-156 at a robust .167 Batting Average.
Wooooo, player of the year!! LOL
Lol 5 1/2 mil doesn’t get you much these days
Higgins did a fine job while Trevino was out, daresay a better job than Trevino had been doing. Oh well, we will see.