The Reds announced to reporters, including Mark Sheldon of MLB.com, that they have claimed outfielder Bubba Thompson off waivers. He had been designated for assignment by the Twins last week. In order to open up a spot for Thompson, the Reds designated right-hander Levi Stoudt for assignment.
Thompson, 26 in June, has been on the roster carousel for the past six months. Designated for assignment by the Rangers in August, he has since gone to the Royals, Reds, Yankees, Twins and now the Reds again on waiver claims. The high level of interest is a reflection of his elite speed and strong defensive abilities, while his tenuous hold on a roster spot is a result of his poor work at the plate.
He received 241 plate appearances with the Rangers over the past two seasons, walking in just 4.6% of them while striking out at a 29.9% clip. His .242/.286/.305 batting line translates to a wRC+ of just 65, indicating he’s been 35% worse than the league average hitter. He’s been better in the minors but still subpar. In 740 trips to the plate at Triple-A since the start of 2022, he has a 7.4% walk rate, 24.1% strikeout rate and .283/.346/.442 batting line for a wRC+ of 96.
But he’s one of the fastest runners in the game, with Statcast considering him to have 100th percentile sprint speed. He has 22 steals in 27 attempts at the major league level and dozens more in the minors. That speed has helped him earn strong defensive grades during his time in the big leagues.
He still has two option years and is clearly attractive to clubs around the league, either as a depth piece getting regular at-bats in the minors or a speed-and-defense guy off the bench. The Reds like him enough that this is the second time they have claimed him of late. He could wind up off the roster again in short order, but if he sticks, he’ll be fighting for a spot on their depth chart. They will have TJ Friedl, Will Benson, Jake Fraley and Stuart Fairchild in their outfield mix, while their crowded infield could push guys like Spencer Steer and Jonathan India to the grass.
Stoudt, now 26, came to the Reds as one of the players in the 2022 Luis Castillo trade. He was a prospect of note in the M’s system but his results have not carried up to the higher levels of the minors or to the majors. He got a brief MLB debut last year, throwing 10 1/3 innings with 11 earned runs allowed. His 82 1/3 Triple-A innings resulted in a 6.23 ERA, 15.1% strikeout rate and 13% walk rate.
It was obviously a challenging year for him and he’s now been squeezed of the Reds’ roster. They will have a week to find a trade for him or pass him through waivers. He still has a couple of options and there are lots of club in need of pitching, which could perhaps help him find a new club in the coming days.
Other than a little speed, does not move the needle
didn’t the Reds release him a couple months ago? he’s been claimed/released by quite a few teams this winter… I think?
The article mentions those details
1. Read the article title.
2. Go straight to the comments.
There is always at least one.
When articles initially post they often contain only a few sentences. This was one of the first comments so there’s a good chance these details were added to the article after @wvredsfan commented.
Okay, but that does not change anything about my comment and how does what you said make it any less dumb? It’s commenting without reading the article either way.
Not sure why the Reds seem so infatuated with Bubba this offseason, they have an overload of better CF options on the roster already.
3rd fastest man in baseball
Can’t teach speed- or height.
“Not sure why the Reds seem so infatuated”…It’s an obscure, little known MLB rule, that all NL teams must carry at least one “Bubba” somewhere in their system. The genesis of this rule, I believe, dates back well over 100 years. You’re welcome.
Not sure why they’d designate any player to make this claim. Unless maybe they were already planning to DFA Stoudt anyway.
1. He has MiLB options left
2. He can play CF
3. He’s fast
He’s also very fast.
Friedl is their only true CF. Barrero looks ok out there but has yet to prove he can even hit enough to make the roster and other guys like Dunn and Hurtubise (sp?) haven’t even cut their teeth yet.
Do I think Thompson is any kind of game changer, no, but the added depth isn’t awful at this point
what about the depth lost with stoudt leaving? i get marte was the real grab, but i feel like it’s too soon to give up on stoudt, the mariners were clearly onto something with his early development
He isn’t gone yet. just dfa(ed). You have to wonder if there was room for him in Louisville’s rotation.
The Reds have 22 pitchers currently on their 40 man.
Subtle vote of confidence to Legumina. Roa, and Spiers. If the Reds could just get Duarte back (also dfaed last week). That would be nice.
That’s fair – I may have looked at other DFA options before him but I also don’t think he looks like a future big league starter. Obviously the reds are more confident in their evaluation to make this move
Well there goes jeans night at the Great American Ballpark!
Not to mention they have Jacob Hurtubise and Blake Dunn who look promising.
Between Dunn (54), Hurtubise (45), and Bubba (31) 130 SB last year. That’s a lot of depth at speed in outfielders.
Good point.
As a Twins fan, I don’t like this simply because the team is so unbelievably thin at CF depth right now, and the starting CF is extremely unlikely to play more than 80-90 games a year.
It’s not like Bubba Thompson is the kind of guy you’d want starting in CF, but as an emergency option with options, there are worse choices.
Hope M’s bring back Stoudt, could use have him at Tacoma until they need a spot start or 2.
Levi Stoudt must’ve panicked the first time he heard he’d been traded to an Org that has a MLB ballpark where hitters feast on flyball pitchers.
Correct me if I’m wrong but doesn’t the AAA team (Louisville) also in a ball park that is hitter friendly? A quick google search shows that park having a LF Line of 325 ft and 340 feet to RF. The (Crawford Boxes) LF line in HOU is just 315ft. That Louisville LF must feel like its just behind the Pitchers back!!
Forgive my armchair psychology here but surely some of Stoudt’s bad year is attributed to the anxiety attached to his new ballpark(s.) I wont be surprised if Dipoto makes another trade.
I don’t think he does, but if he panics that bad at stadium dimensions, why would you want him back on the Mariners where he will actually have to pitch at the Crawford boxes?
Purely for Depth, …….I’m not suggesting Levi Stoudt is panicking on the mound. The message is not Levi Stoudt has anxiety. The point is CIN is THE worst park for any Pitcher. SEA is the best park for Pitchers. They are human. If you ask a dude do you want to pitch in CIN or SEA he’s picking SEA every time.
Look no further than the ML debuts of Bryan Woo and Bryce Miller – Woo was shelled cuz he faced TX in a hitters park. Bryce Miller had a perfect game going because he faced OAK in a park that is notorious for having cool heavy air coming off the Bay.
People have been saying since the Castillo trade that Stout needed time to develop. There was no issue with Stout last year. It’s a bit of a numbers game with the better development of Phillips, Richardson, Spiers, plus the coming of Petty, Agular, and Lowder, etc.
Amazing. You must not have saw the whiplash from Stoudt and Reds players as he got knocked around the ballpark. But then, of course, your boy couldn’t have ever goofed, roght?
Stout has an average ML fastball, a better slider and plus command. It was common knowledge that he needed another season or so to develop. Whereas quite a few position prospects make the ML by 21, 22, 23 years old- many pitchers are not ML ready until their 26, 27, or later years. BTW, that’s not Krall’s fault. Levi Stout will pitch in the ML again, and quite possibly has a successful ML career..
Robert Stephenson, Ian Gibaut, Fernando Cruz etc. are examples
As a ranger fan, I can tell yall he’s exciting to watch in of and on bases, just has trouble getting on base. But he’d be a great defensive sub and pinch runner. When josh Smith was in ws as pinch runner and forgot to tag up at 2nd, bubba was 1st thing I thought of. He’s got value just not as a starter
Anyways like I was saying I had barbecue shrimp with the rangers, shrimp kabobs with the royals, shrimp po boys with the reds, shrimp linguine with the yankees, grilled shrimp with the twins, cocktail shrimp with the reds. Thats- that’s about it.
There’s a lot of shrimp boats on the Ohio River!
Bubba is a nice insurance policy for Friedl. TJ is the only true CFer we have.
They had plenty of time to address that for over two years and chose not to. Longer actually as they used to use Lorensen out there.
Another big time right handed hitting outfielder signing by this front office.
The far and away best base stealing team in the ML just got quicker.
“Nothing to see here”-perhaps not so much.
You cannot explain to most Reds fans that not all prospects work out. They speak about depth, yet the “depth” is guys who have little to no big league experience. Good luck w that. Good chance Stroudt gets picked up by someone else. Marte may or may not even contribute to this years team. Castillo has been nothing short of brilliant in Seattle. At the end of the day, the Castillo trade will be a full time jacking that the Mariners pulled on the Reds. Krall is very overrated by Reds fans.
I agree that the Reds should have extended Castillo rather than trade him, but A.) we don’t know if Castillo was willing to sign an extension with them at the time, and B.) the package that they got back was a very good one. Marte looks like a stud who is ready now, and Arroyo is a top prospect.
That’s why the Reds got FOUR prospects for Castillo, who they couldn’t afford to keep anyway.
Marte’s performance last year projected over 150 games = 3.0 WAR. Marte could easily produce more value than Castillo this year.
At age 22.. For $760k.
Castillo wouldn’t have been on the Reds at all this year. He was set to become a free agent, but Seattle extended him for 5yrs and $108MM. He’ll make $24MM this year.
Arroyo held his own at A+ as a 19 year old SS last year, though his defense wasn’t very great and he’s probably bound for 2B. Still, a 19 year old doing well at A+ is impressive.
Stroudt is basically in the same boat as Minnesota’s Balazovic. He might get claimed or he might not. Teams don’t have a lot of interest in 26 year old pitchers who get destroyed at AAA/MLB in the previous season when rosters are already tight.
Moore’s a mystery after a secret injury led to a 60 day IL trip and a loss of most of the season. Maybe still some bullpen potential.
Reds couldve given Castillo 108 over 5 years no problem. They gave Hunter Greene half of that before he ever seen the 7th inning of a big league game. Joe Boyle could be a front end starter for Oakland after dominating in 3 starts late last year. The Reds traded him for a middle reliever who gets lefties out.
The list goes on w Krall but yet he keeps getting passes because of ownership when honestly for selling everything of value the return has been awful. Miley gone for nothing in return. Krall’s claim to fame is trading Tyler Mahle for Steer and Encarnacion-Strand though mostly because Tyler had to have TJ surgery. When it came time to spend some money on FA he gets another infielder to add to the crowd of infielders. One who is a career .243 hitter on the wrong side of 30. Reds fans were once as smart as any fanbase, too many years of mismanagement has left their fans wondering what a winner even looks like.
Jeez. Calm down.
Truth.
The Reds are far, far better in 2024+ because of the Castillo trade. They’re a better team directly, and they have more money to spend. Castillo would not have changed the Reds’ position last year.
Joe Boyle’s 4.59 xFIP suggests maybe there’s some regression to expect there. If you’re going to look at small sample sizes and ignore the history like that, then obviously the Reds got 5 years of the most dominant relief pitcher in the history of baseball for Boyle because Moll had a 0.74 ERA with the Reds in 25 games!
6 years of Spencer Steer
6 years of Encarnation-Strand
1 already established every day player, and 1 probable every day player. Probably 5-6 WAR per year, for 6 years. That’s what you got for 1.5yrs of Mahle. A good, not great pitcher who’s shoulder was hurt, and the Reds knew was hurt and Mahle’s arm proceeded to blow up almost immediately on the Twins. These are the kinds of moves which turn mediocre teams into World Series competitors.
How about Sonny Gray? Are you frothing at the mouth at the loss of that short term asset when you have what looks like a potential mid-rotation pitcher who looks like they could join the rotation next year at age 22?
Every single one of those moves has made the Reds into more likely sustainable contenders for a several year window.
We’ll it obviously true that most prospect don’t work out. It’s also true that they have graduated a buttload in the last 2 years, and still have a top 10 farm. Quality and quantity is the key.
Mariners should put in a claim on Stoudt; would be nice to grab him back and give him a chance to make the rotation or bullpen.
Just make sure to have a medical professional hired to treat multiple whiplash victims.
Standard bottom of the roster churning. The same people complaining about this move probably complained when they DFA’d TJ Hopkins. Hopkins was just DFA’d by the Giants.
Stoudt was lit up more than a box of Cuban cigars at GABP.
No big loss.
Most Pitchers do in that Park
Billy Hamilton 2.0 (not HOF Billy Hamilton).
That Billy Hamilton is in the Hall of Special Feats (or feets).