We have a decent-sized trade to report:
As mentioned in the previous post, we weren't keeping Ramon Ruiz as a backup IF at his projected arb award of $10.2M, so we dealt him along with the enigmatic Jordan Perez and a marginal prospect for Johnny Soland, who has the 2038 NL Cy Young on his resume, although he's struggled a bit the last couple of seasons with ERAs in the low-mid 4s. He was still worth 4.6 WAR last year and is an extreme groundballer, which will be interesting with our team as projected rookie SS Dave Frick is an elite defender but Seth Williams, as brilliant as he is offensively, is a butcher at 2B and Josh Alexander is pretty bad at 1B. Cincinnati is picking up around $9M of Soland's annual salary for the 3 years remaining on his contract, meaning we'll pay him around $13M. He'll take Danny Romero's spot in the rotation and return to the organization which drafted him, as he was a prospect sent to the Reds in the Jon Soranno deal 11 years ago.
November 19: With arbitration here, we've non-tendered Eric Phillips, who was going to make about $3.6M and submitted qualifying offers to Mike McKee and Danny Romero, but not Jeff Baez (who seems a good shot to accept it).
Forgot to mention this, but for once we had a scouting discovery seemingly worth discovering. Usually these guys who get signed are rated as longshots for the bigs or organizational filler, but these time we got a winner:
BNN already ranks him as the #35 prospect overall and his intangibles are good, too.
December 6: The first of big-name free agents signed with former Rays star 3B Bo Angeac inking a 3/54.6 deal with Colorado. Angeac is "wrecked" but managed to play 150 games + the playoffs for Houston last year, hitting 30 HR and 101 RBI but with a 211/314/405 line. He'll hit a lot homers in Coors if he stays healthy.
December 8: Former Rays SP and one-time prized prospect Ron Adams settled for a 1/1.8 deal with the Yankees. The Reds did convert him to relief where he was lights-out late last year but he's listed as a starter with the Yankees.
December 9: Victor Presas, once of the league's best starters with Texas but now just a decent pitcher, went for 3/46.5 to the Angels, while a couple of former Rays relievers signed with Chris Hicks (1/5.2 to the Dodgers) and Chris Crabb (1/1.9 to the Angels) finding new employers.
December 10: Juan Rosales, the stylish lefty who's won 2 of the last 3 NL Cy Youngs with Columbus, went for 6/139 to Atlanta.
December 13: The Reds gave Jordan Perez a 3/27.4 extension after acquiring him from us last month. If Perez can harness his stuff, that could be a bargain, or he could be the guy that only showed flashes with us the last couple of seasons.
December 21: Added C Nelson Bocardo and Ps Joel Gird and Aidan Williams to the 40-man roster.
Gird needs now introduction as one of the top prospects in baseball but Bocardo is a July 2 guy from 2035 who's steadily worked his way up the ladder and is the #83 prospect in baseball, a good hitting catcher but average defensively. Williams is a fine relief prospect.
December 22: For what I believe is the first time in this save (or maybe the second), nobody was taken in the Rule 5 draft.
December 24: Reds fans had a Christmas present under their trees when Danny Romero went for 5/75 to Cincinnati. We of course will receive a comp pick. Also Eric Mora, a minor league reliever of ours who was decent but didn't want a minor league extension with us, apparently made the right call as he signed a 3/9.8 deal with the Cardinals.