The Reds signed Ender Inciarte to a minor league deal, according to a club announcement. The outfielder was recently designated for assignment and then released by the Braves. He will now report to the Triple-A Louisville Bats and attempt to earn his way back up the show.
That seems to be a somewhat unlikely scenario at this point, given that the Reds already have superior outfield options such as Nick Castellanos, Jesse Winker, Tyler Naquin and Aristides Aquino. The return of Nick Senzel, who is currently on a rehab assignment, would only further crowd the picture and make it harder for Inciarte to barge his way in.
Inciarte’s offence was near league average for the first six years of his career. From 2014 to 2019, his wRC+ was never higher than 100 and never lower than 86 in a given season. Combined with his excellent defence, that made him a valuable player, contributing 14.2 fWAR in that time. But since then, his production has fallen off a cliff, with a wRC+ of 48 since the start of the 2020 season.
This is a no-risk move for Cincy because Inciarte’s salary is being paid by Atlanta as part of the five-year extension they signed with him after the 2016 season. Even if Cincinnati eventually calls him up to the big leagues, they will only have to pay him the prorated league minimum, with that amount being subtracted from what Atlanta pays.
Chief Knock-A-Homa
Good luck Ender!
His best years as a Brave were on some of our worst teams during the rebuild.
Wishing him all the best.
chiefnocahoma1
Cool name
AZPat
In a racist kind of way…
SocoComfort
What’s so racist about saying a name is cool? People so fragile mentally now a days
Sopro Found
Dude..lol..pretty sure he was talking about the name itself being racist..not the fact that he said cool name (bc they have the same name pretty much)
bhambrave
Here’s hoping he finds his stroke. A change of scenery can’t hurt.
Curly Was The Smart Stooge
Enter Inciarte to Cin, the guy can play. Braves OF is loaded right now. Good luck.
Orel Saxhiser
Give AA credit. Banking on some combination of Pederson, Duvall, Soler, and Rosario getting hot is paying off. Four streaky sluggers capable of carrying a team for 10 days at a time. Soler was the big one for me. He had back-to-back 2-HR games the Sunday and Monday before the deadline.
astick
What a completely asinine statement.
chiefnocahoma1
What’s so asinine??
bravesfan
Yea, not sure what’s so asinine here. Lol
The Baseball Fan
So it’s not a career, Ender!
Monkey’s Uncle
Kind of an odd choice for looking to restart his career, but maybe he didn’t have much of a choice.
Noel1982
Shoot they are. Closer to knocking the Padres out of the playoffs completely then the Padres are challenging for the Nl west title , I think we can eliminate Padres from nl west title contention
DocBB
What you don’t realize is that all of the Reds outfielder are below average defenders except Akiyama who doesn’t have a strong arm though. Incirate could come into games as a late game defensive sub.
birdsfan415
offense not offence
DockEllisDee
Darragh might be Canadian, you’ll see the same spelling if you watch Blue Jays games. It’s British English, or Queen’s English, or something like that.
Curly Was The Smart Stooge
Ender the Sandman
R.D.
Beginder
BPrice's 77 F-Bombs
Aquino and Naquin have done nothing lately – Could be easier than you think for Encarte to get back in the show.
bobby cox
He can still play cf but can’t hit at all. He was beat out first by Pache and then Almonte and Heredia. Both of which are terrible.
Duvall and Joc make this outfield competitive
bravesnation nc
I’m happy the dude is getting a shot. When Ender first joined the Braves they were terrible. He put up some good seasons but has fallen off a cliff the past 3 yrs.
TribeFan88
Inciarte needs 126 hits for 1,000 in his career.
tonyinsingapore
The question for Ender is the same as for Moose;
“How good is your curveball?”
Thats a joke the Reds radio broadcast team made earlier today…
bravesfan
Hope to god they call him up. It’s not a significant amount, but any league minimum prorated salary taken off the Braves books of Enders salary is 1000% worth it. He completely robbed the Braves with that contract …
bigredsfan41017
He’ll only make it to the big league only if there an injury, the Reds are loaded with talented outfielders at the major league. If they were to bring him up they would be at risk of losing on on the wavier wires.
getrealgone2
hyperbole.
Cohn Joppolella
Ender always had sufficient D, looks like the Reds wanted to get their hands on that D.
tonyinsingapore
The signing is probably because there was going to be a pitcher’s mutiny over the horseshit defense from foul line to foul line.