It’s been a busy day for the Cincinnati Reds as they get ready to start a new series against the Chicago White Sox. We knew one roster move was coming today as Nick Lodolo was going to be activated from the injured list to make the start. Ivan Johnson was optioned back to Triple-A yesterday. But Cincinnati made three other moves today beyond those. They called up slugging utility-man Michael Toglia from Louisville, optioned reliever Zach McCambley to Triple-A, and to create room on the 40-man for Toglia the Reds moved Hunter Greene to the 60-day injured list.
Let’s start with Michael Toglia. He’s been hitting well for Louisville. He’s currently riding a 28-game on-base streak and an 8-game hitting streak. He’s spent the entire year with the Bats and has played in 97 games. During that time he’s hit .273/.373/.547 with 26 doubles, a triple, and 22 home runs. He’s walked 56 times and struck out 103 times.
Toglia had a solid start to the year and at the end of May had an OPS of .872, but he was also hitting just .245. Since the start of June he’s been a different hitter. The 27-year-old has played in 42 games since May came to an end and has hit .309/.397/.586 with 15 doubles, nine homers, 22 walks, and 43 strikeouts in 174 plate appearances. Most of his playing time has come at first base this season, but he has played in two games in right field. He’s had some past experience in the outfield before this year, too – but it is rather limited.
A switch-hitter, Toglia has hit better as a lefty than as a righty this season, but the advantage has mostly been that he’s hit for more singles as a left-handed hitter. His on-base percentage is higher as a righty and he’s slugging over .500 from both sides of the plate. But he’s hitting .288 as a lefty and just .230 as a righty.
You can see the career stats for Michael Toglia here.
Cincinnati continues to just shuffle relievers up and down when someone is the first guy out of the bullpen. Zach McCambley was just called up last week to take over the spot for Chase Petty after he made a spot start and wouldn’t be available for a few days. Now McCambley is out and heading back to the minor leagues.
As for Nick Lodolo, he’s coming back from another stint on the injured list where he was dealing with a blister issue. This time his rehab went a little different. Over the past few weeks he experimented with a new grip on his breaking ball since the previous one seemed to be what was leading to the blister issues that kept popping up. He pitched a simulated game against his teammates before making a rehab start in Triple-A last week in Minnesota against the St. Paul Saints where he threw 4.1 innings. Now he’s back in the big leagues and is ready to show off his new breaking ball and hopefully find success with it while also avoiding any future blister issues.
I think calling up Toglia makes sense. Guy deserves this after he has a pretty good season at Triple-A, has also major league experience , a power bat from the both sides of the plate which could help on the offense…Maybe he could be a kind of Nate Lowe batter…
Hopefully Lodolo will be good after the grip change of his curveball but wonder if now this is a new Lodolo not the same …we’ll see
It would be pretty hard to “hurt” the offense at this point. haha Why not try him?
Why is he not in the line up tonight instead of auto-matic out Hayes?
Maybe because Toglia is a lefty thrower and thus restricted to OF and 1B in the field, and Tito didn’t choose to scramble the defense to get him into the game?
Hayes is like a fetter to the Reds thanks to Krall
Hayes is down to a .139 BA and .429 OPS. Inching closer to those .100/.400 marks. Tito keeps on playing him because Krall has given him very little options.
Maybe with Toglia that will change.
The Reds AS A TEAM have .198 BA in August so far.
Now we can play Stewart at third, and Hayes can be a late game defensive replacement.
You’re right but that should be the line up tonight.
Agreed, well maybe tomorrow.
“well maybe tomorrow.”
The Reds motto these days. 🙂
Toglia and McLain were teammates on the 52-11 UCLA Bruins in 2019. Ryan Garcia, who the Reds recently signed and pitching in Chattanooga, and the Brewers Garrett Mitchell were on that team also. That was the year McLain played 50 games in CF.
He is older, and his numbers are considerably worse than MM, Marte, CES, Hines among others…..all who haven’t exactly been the next wave of farm products that have made a difference.
But hey, hope springs eternal. Maybe he has a stretch like Hines did and helps bridge the gap until Steer comes back. Or they cut Geno/KHayes, which they will not do.
Yawn. Sell the team, Bob.
It crossed my mind that the Toglia call-up could be a harbinger that Steer isn’t coming back any time soon.
So the Reds now have 2 guys among their MLB position players who were first-round picks in the 2019 draft but signed minor league contracts with the Reds for the 2026 season: JJ Bleday, #4 overall to the Marlins, and Toglia, #23 to the Rockies.
Hopefully, Toglia will be as productive as Bleday has been for the Reds.
Bleday was a $1.4M Free Agent signing by the Reds after the A’s non-tendered him.
He’s also already reached one of his five PA incentive bonuses with the Reds and can reach all five if he stays healthy and starts the rest of the season. If all incentives are reached it tacks another $600,000 onto his $1.4M base salary.
Bleday is currently at 373 PA:
$100,000 if 350 PA, $100,000 if 400 PA, $100,000 if 450 PA, $150,000 if 500 PA, $150,000 if 550 PA
@Tom>> Excuse me, Cot’s doesn’t list Bleday’s contract in the order of descending salary with the rest of the 40-man roster guys with contracts not subject to two-way pay.
I presumed this meant it was originally a minor league deal with the MLB terms coming into play only if/ when he was promoted, which happened after he had played in 24 games with Louisville. However, it does appear he was on the 40-man roster all along.
https://legacy.baseballprospectus.com/compensation/cots/national-league-central/cincinnati-reds/
Bleday has 1 good month and has been bad since, not a solution
As far as our outfield goes, Bleday might be the most productive.
“Moriarty, always with the negative waves!”
That must have been a heck of a month, because Bleday is the 3rd best hitter on this team behind Sal and EDLC, and there’s really no one close to him in 4th place.
Toglia gives Tito at least a true first base man to back up Sal.How much he gets to play is well anybody’s guess.My guess is not much.We will see.
Toglia: Another former prospect with home run power who hits in the low .200s — or worse. Fits right in!