Photo: Doug Gray
The Cincinnati Reds had a busy day. It started out this morning when they cut reliever Hagen Danner and sent the non-roster invitee to minor league camp after he had a strong spring training. Then they took the field for two game just after 4pm ET in split squad action. Starting pitcher Brady Singer exited his game early, leaving the mound with two outs in the 4th inning with a blister on his index finger. After both games were completed the Reds then made another cut, this time optioning right-hander Luis Mey to Triple-A. The move leaves the team with 35 players in big league camp.
This spring has been a struggle for Mey overall as he’s posted an ERA of 11.87 and given up 11 hits with four walks in 7.0 innings. But that doesn’t tell the whole story, either. In the first week he allowed nine earned runs on six hits in 2.0 innings with three walks. Since then he hasn’t allowed an earned run in 5.0 innings and he’s walked just one batter. He’ll head to Triple-A for now, but if he can find the strikezone like he has over the last two plus weeks (something he hasn’t really shown he can do over a long period of time) he won’t be down in the minors for very long.
While the team has 35 players in camp, they do not have that many players still playing for spots on the opening day roster. Hunter Greene and Caleb Ferguson are both injured and will miss the start of the season. Will Banfield, P.J. Higgins, and Garrett Hampson have all been told they will not make the team but that they could remain in big league camp if they wanted to and all chose to stick around. And then there’s reliever Kyle Nicolas who was also told that he would be optioned to the minor leagues on Sunday. That means that there are 28 players who are remaining for the 26 roster spots.
That would leave one spot for a pitcher and that’s going to come down to either Zach Maxwell or Sam Moll. That also means that one more position player is going to be cut that doesn’t include the three listed above who have been told they won’t make the club but are still in camp. That decision could come soon as the Nathaniel Lowe has an opt out on Friday and the Reds have to decide on that by Sunday as to whether or not he will make the team.
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