The Reds announced they’ve signed reliever Buck Farmer to a one-year deal. Outfielder Bubba Thompson was designated for assignment to clear a spot on the 40-man roster. Farmer, an Excel Sports Management client, is guaranteed $2.25MM, reports Mark Sheldon of MLB.com (on X). Ari Alexander of KPRC2 adds that the deal includes incentives that could take the total to $2.6MM.
It’s the third straight season in which Farmer will work in Cincinnati’s middle relief group. The 32-year-old (33 in February) was a durable middle innings option for skipper David Bell last season. He made 71 appearances, which tied for 12th in MLB, and logged 75 frames. His results were around league average.
Farmer allowed 4.20 earned runs per nine. He struck out 22.7% of batters faced while walking 9.4% of his opponents. His 13.3% swinging strike rate was the highest of his 10-year big league run, although it didn’t translate into many strikeouts. Last season’s strikeout percentage was down from the 27.1% mark he posted in 2022. Farmer’s home run rate also ticked up.
That said, he has generally been a solid bullpen option since joining the Reds on a minor league contract in 2022. He owns a 4.06 ERA in 122 innings with Cincinnati. Bell has generally deployed Farmer in medium-leverage situations with decent results, even if his production tailed off in the second half of 2023.
Farmer earns a slight raise relative to his $1.75MM salary from his final arbitration season. He steps into a relief group that’ll also include Lucas Sims, Sam Moll, Tejay Antone, Alex Young and free agent acquisition Emilio Pagán to bridge the gap to closer Alexis Díaz. Righty Ian Gibaut is out of options, which gives him a good chance to secure an Opening Day job. The Reds could look for another high-leverage arm as they enter the 2024 season with legitimate postseason aspirations.
Tacking on $2.25MM brings their payroll commitments to roughly $88MM, as calculated by Roster Resource. That’s a few million dollars north of last year’s approximate $83MM mark. It’s still well below the $115-120MM range of the preceding two seasons, so Cincinnati should have the ability to bring in another acquisition or two as they look to round out the roster. Rotation depth seems the primary concern and the team could look for a right-handed platoon bat in the outfield.
Cincinnati claimed Thompson off waivers from the Royals earlier this offseason. The 25-year-old outfielder had spent his entire Kansas City tenure in Triple-A. His MLB experience consists of 92 games for the Rangers over the past two seasons. He’s a .242/.286/.305 hitter over that stretch, striking out nearly 30% of the time.
Thompson hasn’t produced much at the plate in the minors either. He hit .259/.339/.395 over 302 Triple-A plate appearances a season ago, well below-average production given the hitter-friendly nature of the top minor league level. Strikeouts have been an issue throughout his career. Thompson has top-of-the-scale speed and the ability to play all three outfield spots, however, so he could be of interest on the waiver wire. Teams typically have seven days to trade players or run them through waivers following a DFA, but that clock is paused this week for the holidays.
Image courtesy of USA Today Sports.
Somebody needs to put out a missing persons report on Jed Hoyer I ain’t heard from that guy since everyone found out we weren’t ever a real suitor for Ohtani
Hibernation?
Witness protection
I can’t remember an offseason ever being this slow. How many weeks till pitchers and catchers report? 5-6?
It’s cause this free agent class is full of overrated players who want massive contracts. Outside of Ohtani, Yamamoto and Nola there’s really nobody else worth giving big money too. I’m not surprised there’s been little action
You can argue that, but to include Nola when both Blake Snell and Jordan Montgomery were both better pitchers this past year and one is coming off his second cy young season, he shouldn’t be getting a higher contract than them. And Yoshi hasn’t pitched a single major league inning, so to assume he deserves the largest contract given to a starting pitcher is ridiculous. Blake Snell aside from the walks is a gamer who will give any rotation a great piece to build with. Montgomery while not on snell’s level is also a gamer who had success in the postseason, has had some okay success in New York where players have been known to break down, and also showed success being traded to two different teams, so it shouldn’t be assumed that he won’t be highly successful with another team. Both players deserve great contracts.
Yeah this is exactly why fans aren’t GMs. You’d all pay players based on their walk year results rather than their predicted future results. Snell can’t throw strikes, can’t go deep in games and got lucky with his ERA last year (all his peripherals suggest major regression). Montgomery is a decent pitcher who had a few great weeks. Neither deserves a massive contract and whoever signs them will almost for sure regret it. Yamamoto is 25 years old and should provide significantly more value than Snell or Montgomery. Nola is also much more reliable so it’s much easier to project future value with him. The word “gamer” means absolutely nothing and no GM even considers nonsense like that. Snell is no more of a “gamer” than someone like Marcus stroman lol
Okay bud
Solid, logical response. There’s a reason Nola signed instantly and Yamamoto got $325 mil. While Snell and Montgomery are just waiting. It’s pretty clear why. They’re both extremely overrated and do not project well going forward. Good try though
How many pitchers have won a single cy young award? How about 2? How about 1 in each league? If you think for a second that Yoshi is better just cause he’s younger you sir are highly mistaken. How many young supposed to be stars falter at the highest level? Until Yoshi pitches and earns that contract as being the highest paid pitcher in baseball, he is the one that is overrated. Yet here we have Snell and Montgomery and you call them overrated when they have proven time and time again they have the skill necessary to compete in the majors. But go on, Yoshi is better for what exact reason? He’s younger? Yeah give me a break. I don’t wish him bad at all, I hope he succeeds and is a great pitcher, but all this nonsense that he will come in and be the best pitcher, and especially a pitcher deserving the highest contract? That’s nonsense after not having pitched one single major league inning. He will have to learn the ropes adjust to the United States and also adjust to using a new ball, pitching every 5th day, etc. snell and monty have done that for a while now. But yep they are overrated. Being young doesn’t mean they will have success, having a large contract doesn’t mean they will have success. So until Yoshi proves himself, yeah give me Snell or monty on a good sized contract, that will still be cheaper than yoshi’s contract, where I know I’ll get a good to great pitcher, that will go out there every 5th day and have success doing it, not some over hyped Japanese pitcher that may or may not have success in the majors. Being good to great in Japan doesn’t mean he will be good to great in the states. Yes there is a good chance he will be, but also a chance he falters and that contract ends up being an albatross. but yep like I said let’s go ahead and over rate Yoshi while calling 2 pitchers who have been there and done that over rated. Your logic is backwards. If I can’t ever be a gm, you can’t either. Happy New Year.
And yet actual GMs, who are paid to evaluate players, were competing with each other to give Yoshi a huge contract. If Snell and Montgomery are such sure-fire great pitchers going forward, why weren’t the GMs throwing the huge sums at them instead of Yoshi?
Scott boras ring a bell? He’s known to wait out the market for his clients in search of better deals. They will both get a hefty contract. The years may not be astronomical but their payday sure will be high, just wait and see.
It might be time for Bubba Thompson to see if he can find a job in Korea or Japan.
He’s 25 years old.
Love to see someone compare what he could potentially make overseas next year vs signing a minor league contract. If it’s worth the money he should for sure go
He would probably get around 650-700 thousand including signing bonus in the KBO with his limited big league track record and a tick more around 800ish in Japan, but Japan can send him to the minors and Korea can cut him if he’s hurt or struggles after a month.
It wouldn’t be a terrible idea to try overseas if an opportunity arose. Would make more than minors pay and with his youth if he does well there then he could look for a MLB gig while still in his prime years.
Thx Ray !
Some team selects him and Reds get yet another ” PTBNL or cash”. Or he clears waivers and Louisville may have 3 outfielders steal 50 bases in 2024 -Thompson, Hurtubise, and Dunn.
Farmer was decent, yet not overly good this year. Thus a guarantee of $ 2.25m is a very solid contract for a reliever like him – I am happy for him.
Gruß,
BSHH
Farmer had a decent year until he got burned out like the rest of the bullpen. Not an end of game guy but good enough for one of the middle innings.
You’re not gonna whine about this one??
He’s a solid 6-7 inning reliever just shouldn’t pitch over 70 innings again.
Well sure
But this guy is usually on criticizing Krall calling him cute nicknames for failing to sign Sandy Koufax and babe Ruth
Some people think Po Boy is beyond criticism because he made a couple of good trades a couple years ago and ignore the failures of last year.
Opinions are like a-holes, everyone has one. Then again, some people are just a-holes and have nothing to really say outside of Twitter-like insults.
The Reds have got to be a top 3 team this off-season in terms of activity. I know they haven’t broken the bank like the Dodgers, but they are clearly working to make the team better. Buck Farmer was decent last year. He was slightly overworked.
Unfortunately Pagan is terrible. No idea why they jumped the market to sign him for 2 years….
You are terrible for not taking the time to actually investigate his last year of work. He had a fip of 3.27 and a whip below 1. What exactly makes him terrible? Even his whole career is not terrible at all, but rather average.
Yeah, no. Try again. Looks like you’re terrible for not looking past his basic stats… maybe check his insanely fluky HR rate compared to his career numbers… and he’s going to tiny park…. If you knew how FIP was calculated you’d realize his lucky HR rate heavily influenced that number. His xFIP was 4.57. He was literally not trusted in high leverage with any of his last 3 teams…. He’s average at best and probably worse. Nowhere near good enough to get 2 guaranteed years when similar relievers are signing for a few million bucks
Luis Garcia and Emilio Pagán project to be near identical next year per Fangraphs. Garcia got $4.25 mil for 1 year. Pagan got $16 mil for 2 years PLUS the ability to opt out after the first year. It’s an atrocious contract for a low budget team and was just completely unnecessary considering pitchers like him are a dime a dozen
Reds identify players and go after them. Then they typically have to overpay to get players to come to cincy. So rather have pagans bad contract than Moose or worse lol.
And they signed him to compete for a back end role- not to close- so that competition will be good for the club while providing veteran leadership
Dont sugar coat it, tell it like it is “And he hates puppy’s !!!”
@ cf85, I was thinking the same thing yesterday- feels good to get on trade rumors site with the expectancy to see a reds article ! Gotta be top 3 !
@MLBTR, y’all should release an article on who y’all have wrote the most to least articles on. It’ll be a hit !
Ok I want in on this one as well. Farmer signing is fine and yes he is a middle inning guy and will be paid as such. I don’t know enough about pagan to judge from the eye test but he does seem to be better statistically than farmer, maybe 8th inning type but we will have anton back next year. Before he had TJ anton was our best relief pitchers so I would think he and Diaz would make for a nice 8th & 9th inning combo.
Pagan is a bad deal not because of his stats but because we had more pressing needs to spend money on. Likewise Candelario signing seems like a bargain but for a team in need of a 3ed baseman which we have 3 that can play 3rd base and hit as good as candelario. We also didn’t need Martinez at the back end of our rotation. We already had Greene, lodolo, Ashcraft, Williamson to chose from as our 4th and 5th starting pitchers.
What we needed was 2 to slot in the top of the rotation and we have now added $36 million a year the next 2 years in free agency and $15 million for that 3rd year and don’t have one top of the rotation pitcher when we needed 2.
I am not sure that fans on these sites watched the same reds play last year that I did. We missed the post season by 2 games not because we lacked offense or bullpen was bad or even because of all the injuries/. We missed the playoffs because even when not injured, Greene. Lodolo and Ashcraft pitched just a notch better than luke weaver and no better than Ben lively who we had signed to a minor league deal next year.
Just because our guys have fastballs close to 100 mph doesn’t mean they are good pitchers. They might be and I hope they become good ones but Greene and Ashcraft are now 50 starts into their careers and no better than they were when they started which is not very good.
I have no idea what the payroll will be next year and still plenty of much better starting pitching options available free agents than what we have. Maybe we can sign a couple and if we do then no harm in signing pagan, Martinez and candelario but without 2 top of the rotation starting pitchers we can sit here this time next year and talk about the same thing after barley missing the playoffs again in 2024.
Great post !
What reds need is either more starters to go deeper in games or more designed innings like w an opener. They are banking on their current group, before adding anyone this offseason, to be able to pitch more innings next season due to injury and age and that’s an almost lock to happen. So they are adding above league average pitchers to continue to eat innings instead of waiver wire weaver (lol). I still think they’ll add one more starter
W candelario that signing was for quality depth and reds do well identify hitters to perform at gabp. Also the foreshadowing of the inevitable India trade. Every team linked to India has quality minor league pitching. Richard fitts fits that profile from bostons system. I would take him one for one on either side if reds can’t use him as part of a package
Yes our bullpen was fine last year if our starters could have gone more than 4 innings. In mid June Gibout had 8 wins, 2nd most in the NL at that point and an era in the low 3’s like he was in the running for Cy young at that point as a middle reliever.
I am a traditionalist I guess. 55 and I have now become an old geyser. I like starters that can go 200 innings a year. I also know that is no longer the norm so let’s say 150 to 180 innings if healthy. My logic is not flawed though. Be it 200 or 150 innings I want those guys to go pitch the most innings to be my best pitchers as far as things like era and whip goes. Fewer guys on base = fewer runs and fewer runs given up = more wins. The problem is the guys who had the higher era last year weaver, Greene and Ashcraft all over 100 innings had higher eras than the guys like Gibout, farmer and law guys wh pitched 60 innings.
Until we get quality and by quality I mean better than average starting pitchers our bullpen will continue to be overworked and we will continue to stay home in October. Again Greene and Ashcraft career stats so far a well below average and Martinez is another below average. We need at least w couple of guys who can pitch 150 to 180 innings with era in the mid 3’s.
Sure India is expendable now and we can get prospects for him but prospects along the lines of say Levi stoudt or Lyon Richardson is not going to make us better in 2024. Even w Connor Phillips type won’t make us much better next year. The Astros pitcher framber Valdez or Dylan cease could move the needle for us next year but neither of those teams want India.
Greene is the ace. He was the most highly regarded draft prospect since strasburg and he was praised for his maturity and intelligence. He has some 240 mlb innings under his belt and he’s only 24 for most of the season. This season will be his coming out and he’ll finish a top 25 pitcher in all of baseball. It’s a lock !
He might be the ace on the reds as they are currently constructed but he has not been a top 150 starting pitcher yet. Last year at the trade deadline where I went on a website and set filters for 18 starts from the start of 2022 season thru July 2023. The idea was to catch enough starts to get Abbott & Williamson but yet the entire careers of Greene, lodolo and Ashcraft in 2022.
I can’t remember the exact details but around 220 such pitchers that qualified. I looked at era, whip, k/9 & k/bb. Before abbott started fading and he ranked like 30 of 220 in all categories. Williamson was around 120 of 220 on the era & whip and around 140 on the k stats. Lodolo ranked around 140 on eta & whip but top 10 in k rates. Greene and Ashcraft around 170 in whip & era but Greene was like 5th in k rates.
Point of reference Luke weaver ranked about 180 in era & whip just barely below Greene. If nobody ever gets hurt and each team had a 5 man rotation only 150 starting pitchers so it would seem to me anyone below 150 ranking is the type that gets called up from the minors when someone gets injured.
Spencer strider for the Braves is the same age and same number of career starts as Greene. Probably has more innings than Greene but similar number of career starts and sam age. Look up both on baseball reference and see if you think Greene is an ace. We need 2 like strider old or young and until Greene proves he can do it over the course of a season he is not. He is what h is until he is something different and that is a back of the rotation pitcher. I hope he lives up to his potential next year but a hope is not a plan.
EDLC is in offense what Greene is pitching. Can’t hit a lick but so much potential he needs to play. Our lineup is so deep with above average hitters at every position (some infield positions we have multiple better than average hitters) we can hide EDLC in the lineup batting 8th or 9th and if he gets on base with his speed or hits one 500 foot that is a bonus. We need to be able to do the same with Greene and lodolo to see if they can figure things out. Have them 4th and 5th in the rotation. Abbott too soon to tell. Might be an ace or might regress like Greene and lodolo but I am good slotting him 3rd in the rotation. We still lack the top 2.
Greene we are on the hook for for several years but not any more commitment than a 4th or 5th starter. If lodolo doesn’t com around next year might be best to part ways.
EDLC is actually on another level than Greene, maybe 3 levels. His ceiling is the most explosive player in all of baseball and he’s like 21. Same age as high A ball players. Strider is 3 levels above Greene too, I wish it weren’t true lol, dam Braves
It’s control for him and lodolo but Greene is more likely to work his out and when he does he will start going deep into games and shoot up those rankings. Around 25 this season.
Ashcraft feel apart for 2 months – that seemed out of character- he’s better than Williamson. If him and Williamson can be around that 120 spot- and Abbott not get fatigued – that’s 4 solid starters. Not bad for a team dire for starting pitching. Still though a tank like giolito to pitch a 180 innings a year for next several years had always made a lot of sense to me
Giolito scares me a little now after what happened after the trade deadline but he would be better than doing nothing. I read on another site that he is likely to do a 2 year $15 million a year deal with an opt out after next season. Would put the risk on us but again better than doing nothing because he has been good before and good for a while. I guess between giolito, Greene, lodolo, Abbott and Ashcraft enough talent there for 2 of them to be top of the rotation types.
What I am frustrated about is instead of spending what we have to this point why we didn’t just sign sonny gray and Eduardo Rodríguez and be done with it?
Yes EDLC is a once in a lifetime talent but strike our rate of 40% is unacceptable. I also don’t think he needs to switch hit but rather focus on becoming a good left handed hitter. I don’t mind him being in the lineup to learn. As you said he is only 21 and with everyone else we have in the lineup it won’t hurt us much. All teams have one or two guys who can’t hit in the lineup.
The problem we have now though even if steer goes to left field permanently where will EDLC play? On paper looks like we have 1B candelario, 2B India, SS McLain, 3B Marte. We could move McLain over and turn India into a utility that can only play a few positions and that would diminish any chance of trading him and end up cutting him like we did senzel next year. The other option is move EDLC to an outfield spot with steer and Friedl.
Candelario was a good deal but not for us. We needed started pitching. It’s like my wife is running the team. “Look what I got on sale cheap” and yet we already have 2 of them.
One thing I learned from watching reds offseason over the years is that most free agents don’t want to come to cincy to play. That’s the filter I use when trying to figure out what the heck they are doing in the offseason lol. That said reds could have gave giolito 4 years/90 mil w opt outs. He prob would have taken that betting on himself to opt out and get a bigger deal.
I thought reds would move Cruz to center over a year ago. He’s got the speed and arm for CF and at the time there was a need. I still think that need exists but don’t think Cruz will be that guy.
I get a player like ohtani wants to play on the coast for marketing purposes but what makes you think free agents don’t want to come to Cincinnati? I live 90 miles south and raised 3.5 hours south so not really hometown biased and think Cincinnati is a nicer city or place to live than St. Louis, Detroit, Minneapolis, Milwaukee, or kansas city. Cardinals, twins, tigers, brewers and royals sign free agents. In fact cardinals signed one this year sonny gray that we should have. Pittsburgh is also a nicer city than the aforementioned but they don’t sign many free agents. My guess is they are like the reds and don’t want to pay for what they need and would rather sign marginal players. Besides most players are traveling during the season and spend the offseason in warmer climates like Florida or Arizona, even the big name players for Yankees and Red Sox. The entire idea of a capitalistic free agent market is players will play wherever they can make the most money.
Giolito just signed with the Red Sox so that leaves snell, Montgomery, Stroman and kershaw as the remaining free agents of the caliber we need 2 of.
I agree that EDLC is a prototype center fielder but Friedl and steer need to be in the lineup when healthy. I know steer can play left field but not sure about his arm in right. Friedl has the speed for center and can play left but again not sure about his arm in right. EDLC can play about anywhere with his athleticism but now we have a logjam in the infield.
Since we are talking about versatility I really don’t understand why we cut senzel? Never was a fan but he could hit left handed pitching good enough and play about anywhere. Good platoon with fraley and/or benson and still arbitration so cheap. Not an everyday player but every team needs a utility player and he was so versatile with his glove could be outfield or infield utility.
Farmer was a LOT overworked, as were they all, including Diaz.
Meh…..this pretty much closes the door on the Reds pursuits of one the relievers still on the market.
I think it does. They should be more focused on getting a starter anyways. They added Emilio Pagan and Nick Martinez. I don’t care what anyone says, I think Martinez is a swing guy just like he was for San Diego.
@Cincyfan85:
Martinez is projected to pitch even more innings than he did this year. My guess would be he continues to be msinly a swingman with quite some starts.
Gruß,
BSHH
If it wasn’t for reds, pirates, tigers, backs, royals and dodgers this off season would be a dud.
Braves too, not the flashiest off-season, but we’ve been super busy, upgrading the bullpen and making that trade for kelenic, also what about the Yankees and their trades for soto, grisham, and verdugo?
Not Bubba!
Buck and Bubba are like two of the most redneck Alabamaish names ever haha.
I thought the same thing. Sounds like a couple of Texas HS football players.
Agreed, “go on down to the Texarkana Texaco filling station and ask Bubba ’bout the time he threw 4 touchdown passes in the third quarter to give Samuel Colt High School the victory, ‘ole Bubba is still living in 1979.” Haha.
It’s fun to joke, but I can’t really talk. I’m from Nashville after all, I’m just lucky my Mom gave me a somewhat normal name I guess.
Another solid move by the reds. There is enough young talent to shuffle back and forth that we may not need another starter. Yes I would like to have an innings eater but not at these prices.
You talk like they don’t have any money to spend. Payroll is around 90 million and you have seen them go to 130 before. So it’s a matter of competence and/or desire rather than affordability.
The Buck stops here.
My name’s Buck and I’m here to pitch.
Love that his picture in the article is him with a Football.
Man, Buck Farmer and Bubba Thiompson are some solid baseball names
Buck was a pretty mean lead guitarist with BOC back in the day too! Wait, that was Buck Dharma.
Beat me to it. Lol
Last season Reds’ bullpen just finished running on fumes. They had to bail out a very short-handed starting rotation all season long. Now, the bullpen seems almost set for next season with Diaz, Moll, Young, Sims, Farmer, Gibaut, Pagan and Cruz, however the rotation shall be improved with at least one more proven and durable arm to round up things.
Why is there a Ryan Fitzpatrick picture in the article?
That was funny
No matter what context you put it in, I will never consider $500,000 a “slight raise”.
Good signing for the Reds. He’s been quite valuable out of the bullpen for them the past two seasons, and at one year, $2.25 million there’s basically no risk here.
There’s 1458 innings in a season give or take. Giving 70-80 low pressure innings to this man is a good thing for reds. Now go sign the Cuban or giolito to round out the offseason.
#bigrednation
Buck makes 10 year’s service time, gets pension. Good for him. Great guy!
If Antone can stay healthy and everyone else can put up another serviceable campaign this should be a pretty decent bullpen. I’d also like to publicly apologize to Moll, whose acquisition I utterly bashed before he put up an impressively microscopic line, hoping he can repeat form.
Surprised that Farmer didn’t get a better contract offer from another team. Everybody claims the best pitchers won’t sign with Cincy because it’s a hitters park- but here’s a reliable reliever who’s had quite a bit of success pitching out of GABP, and it appears nobody projects him to do better rerlieving for a team in a “pitcher friendly” park. I’m glad Reds have him back and I doubt Farmer is the cause of any Roster Problems in 2024. Team guy.