The Reds have signed infielder Hernán Pérez to a minor league deal, according to the transaction log at MLB.com. It isn’t clear whether the veteran utility player will get a look in Spring Training.
Pérez, 33 in March, spent part of the 2023 season in the Minnesota organization. He got into 32 games with Triple-A St. Paul, hitting .279/.351/.485 through 231 trips to the plate. That solid production in limited time — he also lost around two months to an undisclosed injury — wasn’t enough to crack a deep Twins infield. He returned to minor league free agency at season’s end.
The last time Pérez donned a big league uniform was in 2021. He appeared in 10 early-season contests with the Nationals before being outrighted off the roster. Pérez played the second half of that year in South Korea and has spent most of the last two seasons in Triple-A.
The Venezuela native reached the big leagues every season from 2012-21. The bulk of his MLB time came in Milwaukee between 2016-19, highlighted by 34 stolen bases with a .272/.302/.428 slash for the Brew Crew in 2016. While Pérez has been a strong baserunner and shown plenty of defensive flexibility throughout his MLB time, a very aggressive approach has resulted in middling offensive production. He’s a .250/.280/.382 hitter in a little more than 1800 big league plate appearances.
Cincinnati has plenty of infield depth, so it’s hard to see a path to an Opening Day roster spot. He’s likely to begin next season at Triple-A Louisville as experienced non-roster injury insurance.
Nice depth pickup, over/under 25.5 PAs at the MLB level?
Over, Hernan can rake
The Reds need sign kbo,,,npo players right now
Hopefully zero. If he gets to the big leagues lots of things have gone wrong.
Finally
The signing we’ve all been waiting for! If this doesn’t open the transactions floodgates, I don’t know what will.
If any of these signings play in the big leagues the Reds are having a bad year.
This is a great guy to pick up. It’s like having another coach around. Such a great clubhouse guy. He knows how to help players with hitting and how to approach the game mentally. Playoff experience. If you ask any Brewer during their season and playoffs they would want to give him MVP votes. Will surprised if he doesn’t become a manager someday.
I don’t know the guy at all. But happy to hear that. Those are winning pieces for a clubhouse.
Ok but can we get a good player or 2 to go w the manager on the field
The Reds just announced that they’ve signed every infielder in organized baseball. Why? Because they can.
We can’t contain our excitement here
Heard Bob say as long as there Cheap it’s a deal.
Po Boy’s dumpster diving again…for more infielders, no less.
You know what that means, Reds fans. They’re done getting anyone significant and another offseason of possibilities wasted, as well as another year of these young kids playing together.
We have seen this act too many times.
Nothing like a minor league signing to get all of the naysayers to break out their crying towels. Never occurs to some people that it’s not just a MLB team, but also an organization with various levels that need to be manned (just like every other MLB org). When you promote McLain, EDLC, Marte, and CES in a single summer, you MIGHT just might need an infielder or two in AAA. Just like they needed to sign a catcher for AAA after they lost both of their AAA catchers to minor league free agency.
Oh the injustice, sniff sniff.
Sorry, is their some equity this organization has earned with their recent consistent success that im missing? Noone wants to howl at the moon and complain as much as its just stating the obvious. The sad part is seeing Reds fans defending all these signings and justifying them w adjusted advanced metrics and explaining how minor leagues need depth. Its fine to be frustrated, these boards are for sounding off. You may be one of the people who decided you have “nowhere else to go” when Mr Castillini laughed about how our gullible our fans are. Seems to be working. 80 million spent and we got an infielder and 2 relievers. Glad we have 33 year old minor league depth though.
I’d say that there is some equity earned and quite a bit. 2023 was really exciting season where actually amazing volume of shrewd trades and careful development came to fruition. Any one of Abbot, McClain, Steer or De La Cruz doing what they did last season would have been the highlite of most Reds seasons by itself. And obviously they weren’t the only exciting rookies in 2023 either. Reds youth movement is widely recognized beyond Cincinnati.
I believe the excitement will continue in 2024 with Hurtubise, Dunn, Hines and by September Arroyo. From the pitching side: Phillips, Richardson, Spiers, Stout, Roa and maybe Petty by September as well.
He was a great role player for the Brewers. For many yrs.
How does a guy get in to 32 games, and manage to have 231 at bats? He averaged 7.2 ABs per game?
Think he meant 69 games.
For the sake of Pete…can we just sign a starting pitcher before the Dodgers sign them all?
And yet, Aroldis Chapman is still out there wanting to end his career with reds. Smh.