The Reds have activated Emilio Pagán from the 60-day injured list, the team announced today. To free up a spot on the active roster, Yosver Zulueta was optioned to Triple-A Louisville. The team had two open spaces on the 40-man roster, so no additional corresponding move was necessary.
Pagán, 33, signed a two-year, $16MM contract with the Reds this past offseason. Before reaching free agency, he spent the first seven seasons of his career pitching for the Mariners, Athletics, Rays, Padres, and Twins. Despite being traded four times in less than five years, Pagán put up solid numbers, pitching to a 3.71 ERA and 3.39 SIERA across 369 appearances. What’s more, although he compiled 22 wins, 32 saves, and 60 holds – and a 1.80 ERA in 11 postseason appearances – his most impressive accomplishment in that time was, perhaps, his durability. From 2017-23, he only took one trip to the injured list: a brief stint on the 10-day IL with right biceps inflammation in 2020. He pitched at least 50 innings in every full season. Only five players threw more innings in relief over those seven years: Raisel Iglesias, Héctor Neris, Miguel Castro, Adam Ottavino, and Kenley Jansen.
Unfortunately, the injury bug finally caught up to Pagán in his first season with Cincinnati. The veteran righty landed on the IL with a right lat strain in mid-June, and he was transferred to the 60-day IL later that month.
Results-wise, Pagán has had his ups and downs throughout his career. He put up a strong performance in his walk year last season, tossing 69 1/3 innings for Minnesota with a 2.99 ERA. Yet, there were warning signs that his success wasn’t entirely sustainable. His 23.8% strikeout rate was a career-low, his 5.3% HR/FB was well below his career average, and his 4.01 SIERA was more than a full run higher than his ERA. Nonetheless, he managed to secure a $16MM guarantee from the Reds. He is making an $8MM salary this season, and he has an $8MM player option for 2025.
Pagán looked solid but unspectacular over his first 22 appearances with Cincinnati. His strikeout rate climbed back up to 29.9%, but his home run rate jumped up too; he gave up four long balls in just 22 games. His 3.06 SIERA is a marked improvement from last season, but his 4.43 ERA is not. Most concerningly, his velocity is down by at least one and a half miles per hour on all three of his pitches (a four-seam fastball, a cutter, and a splitter). He has also allowed hard-hit balls (95+ mph EV) at the highest rate of his career. Then again, his SIERA, xERA, and xFIP are all significantly better than the league average, and pitch modeling systems like Stuff+ and PitchingBot agree that Pagán remains an above-average arm. Ultimately, what this tells us is that 20 1/3 innings is a pretty small sample size with which to evaluate a pitcher. With seven weeks remaining in the season, it will be interesting to see if Pagán performs well enough that he might choose to reject his player option this offseason and return to free agency.
Cincinnati has had one of the better bullpens in baseball all season, and Nick Krall bolstered that group with Jakob Junis at the trade deadline. Even so, the Reds will need all the help they can get if they want to stay alive in the NL Wild Card race; they’re currently five games back of the third Wild Card spot, with six teams standing in their way.
The Reds claimed Zulueta off of waivers from the Blue Jays on Opening Day, and he made his MLB debut with Cincinnati in late June. The 26-year-old has already been recalled and optioned several times this season, pitching to a 3.09 ERA and 3.63 SIERA over eight low-leverage appearances. He will return to the Louisville Bats, with whom he has pitched 40 1/3 innings this year with a 2.23 ERA and 3.24 FIP.
The reds are so back
Haha
Hopefully he helps a shaky bullpen, although he was shaky in high leverage situations himself before.
Dude, they’re not shaky. They are one of the best in ball.
Pay attention. A lot of the losses, especially in one run games, are not because of the starting pitchers. It is the bullpen blowing leads.
Reds relief pitchin is better than most, and overall Reds pitching is top 10 at least. It’s their non-pitching which ranks near the bottom. They can’t hit, don’t field well, and make too many mental errors.
True. I still question not taking Condon with the 2nd pick. He may not develop as hoped, but you have to draft your biggest need. I don’t see anyone in the Reds farm system that indicates at this point that they will be successful ML hitters.. The pitcher they took may prove me wrong, but he has to do 2 things.. Perform and stay away from injury to justify the pick. The Reds need to acquire ML ready hitting either via trade of free agency in the off season. I don’t see too many FA hitters that can help, so that leaves the trade avenue.. .
You don’t draft for need. With the extensive time spent in the minor leagues and the risk for potential injuries, by the time a prospect makes the majors a teams needs most likely have changed.
That said, I wanted Condon too, but I understand the logic for taking the best pitcher in the draft. Pitching is hard to come by and is very expensive to sign in free agency. And the likelihood of picking #2 in the coming years is low.
Grab quality pitching whenever you can.
Hard to argue that the Reds haven’t had some success in developing pitching recently- like Hunter Greene, Nick Lodolo, Andrew Abbott, Graham Ashcraft, Carson Spiers, Julian Aguiar, Alexis Diaz, Fernando Cruz, Tyler Mahle, and to a lesser extent Luis Castillo, Brandon Williamson et al. My point being that by drafting Rhett Lowder, Chase Burns, Ty Floyd, Luke Holman, etc. the Reds are acquiring talent that they are able to successfully bring to the ML. Pitching is the prime currency of baseball and most teams will trade hitting for controllable pitching in a heartbeat. 2024 has seen the Reds pitching improve substantially and I believe they will build on that in 2025.
Odd choice by the Reds’ FO to sign a homer-prone reliever to pitch in hitters’ park GABP.
But that’s among many such questionable moves by the Reds’ FO.
You’re assuming Reds could have signed Martinez and Montas without first signing Pagan. I believe it was a prerequisite to attracting later signings. Small market teamwith smaller ballpark. You have to walk before you can even jog.
Doesn’t matter, our season was over in June.
Who is this Leo guy who shows up and writes articles now without understanding basic punctuation rules? When “yet” begins the sentence in the context he does, there shouldn’t be a comma after it. Plus “his most impressive accomplishment in that time was, perhaps, his durability” is totally wrong. There should be no commas around perhaps. My goodness.