The Reds have released right-hander Luis Cessa following last week’s DFA, per C. Trent Rosecrans of The Athletic (Twitter link). The 31-year-old righty will now be free to sign with any club.
Cessa pitched 26 innings with the Reds this season and was tagged for 26 earned runs on the strength of 46 hits and 12 walks. He generally kept the ball in the yard — just three of those 46 knocks were home runs (1.04 HR/9) — but Cessa also only managed 11 strikeouts in his seven appearances (six starts). A .410 average on balls in play and 60.2% strand rate surely contributed to Cessa’s disastrous ERA, but he was also too hittable and didn’t miss anywhere close to even a league-average number of bats.
Cessa has spent the majority of his career working out of the bullpen, though he started 10 games for Cincinnati in 2022 and posted a 4.30 ERA — albeit with less-encouraging peripheral marks (5.02 FIP, 17.1% strikeout rate, 7.7% walk rate, 1.64 HR/9 mark). In 160 1/3 career innings out of the rotation, Cessa has a 5.44 ERA, but he’s been a solid multi-inning reliever — evidenced by a lifetime 3.81 ERA, 4.35 FIP, 19.9% strikeout rate and 8.1% walk rate out of the bullpen.
Cincinnati originally acquired Cessa alongside lefty Justin Wilson at the 2021 trade deadline, sending a player to be named later (Jason Parker) to the Yankees in that swap. Injuries have already forced the 25-year-old Parker out of the game; he underwent Tommy John surgery in 2021 and reinjured his elbow the following season before calling it quits earlier this year, per Brian North of WTCI Channel 12 News. Wilson pitched just 19 2/3 innings with the Reds before his own Tommy John surgery. Cessa was the lone member of that three-player swap who remained healthy and, until this season, had given the Reds a good bit of value (3.95 ERA in 107 innings from 2021-22).
The Reds and Cessa avoided arbitration this past offseason by agreeing to a one-year, $2.65MM deal for the 2023 campaign. That was slated to be his final season of arbitration eligibility before reaching free agency. Now that he’s been released, Cincinnati will be on the hook for the remainder of that sum, with a new team only owing Cessa the prorated portion of the league minimum for any time he spends on the big league roster. That amount would be subtracted from what the Reds still owe the veteran righty.
Wow!!!
Depth for the Mets.
After seeing Tommy “Batting Practice” Hunter get roughed up by the Nats yesterday NY’s other team just might give him a look.
AAA depth for the RS? His results aren’t as good as his reputation, but he’s had a few good stretches. He might be one of those pitchers that need an established routine, and maybe if he sticks with the BP for 4 weeks or so, maybe he reverts some.
If the Yankees pick him up again I’m gonna shotgun a monster energy drink, blast Linkin Park and punch a hole in my bedroom wall.
That would be awesome!
Now I have two reasons for wanting the Yankees to take a flyer on Cessa!!!
No reason he can’t take Abreu’s spot.
Let me guess. It’s the orignal green monster energy drink and you’re gonna blast Crawling.
Yeah with those huge Osiris skateboard shoes on my feet too 🙂
Hard to believe that will all the TJs going around that this guy will remain on the open market very long. Even harder to believe that the Reds couldn’t get a lotto ticket prospect from someone for him.
They should have just naturally dropped him weeks ago instead of this drawn out and laborious Cessarian extraction.
Released in mid May after just signing a $2.65M contract. What a dumb decision that signing was.
Its not that dumb a decision. It was an amount that they could afford to cut. They could have signed Correa, and still be stuck with the contract.
The Reds finally drained their Cesspool
They sent him a Cessa desist order.
Funny that Jason Parker (another Cashman dud) is out of baseball already. He really knows how to pick them.
That trade was all about the shedding payroll and clearing roster spots for deadline acquisitions. Jason Parker was a throw-in.
Bring up Andrew Abbott and Elly DeLaCruz soon, please.
Ill be honest im too lazy to look this up and i dont think it will happen.
The Reds DFA’s Cessa and lets say the yankees make the claim and then DFA him to try and sneak him into the minors, Can the Reds do a claim for Cessa from the Yankees and then try the same again. Just curious if there is technically a way to keep a player in the DFA void indefinitely.
Yes, the Reds can reclaim him again if a team picks him up and then releases him. There’s no way to keep a player in DFA limbo bc the time to trade a player expires if they don’t find a partner.