The Reds have sent Eric Yang outright to Triple-A Louisville, according to his transaction log on MLB.com. The team selected his contract last Monday, and the catcher made his MLB debut two days later. He was optioned back to Triple-A on Friday and, evidently, removed from the 40-man roster at some point between then and today. There was no prior indication he had been designated for assignment. Yang does not have the right to reject an outright assignment, so he will remain with Louisville.
Now 26, Yang joined the Reds organization at 21 when the club selected him in the seventh round of the 2019 draft. The UC Santa Barbara alum quickly made a strong impression, batting .290 with an 11.0% walk rate and a 135 wRC+ across 51 games of Rookie ball during his first professional season. He was not a highly-regarded prospect across the industry, but Eric Longenhagen of FanGraphs ranked him among his top 30 Reds prospects in 2020. That same year, Keith Law of The Athletic included Yang among the “others of note” below his top 20 Reds prospects, describing him as “a solid catch-and-throw guy who rarely struck out in college.”
Following the canceled minor league season in 2020, Yang began to rise up the ranks in the Reds organization. He played for the High-A Dayton Dragons in 2021, and since then, he has bounced back and forth between the Double-A Chattanooga Lookouts and Triple-A Louisville Bats. According to Charlie Goldsmith of the Cincinnati Enquirer, Yang developed a reputation in the system as a catcher who builds great relationships with his pitchers. However, he failed to make much of an impression with the bat at any of those three levels, producing a .613 OPS and 76 wRC+ across 192 minor league games from 2021-24.
Nonetheless, Yang earned his first call to the show last week as a roster replacement for veteran backstop Austin Wynns, who suffered a teres major tear in his right shoulder. Wynns himself was only on the MLB roster as a replacement for Luke Maile, who landed on the IL earlier in July with a herniated disc in his back. Thus, the Reds optioned Yang back to Triple-A when they reinstated Maile on Friday. Presumably, they decided they did not need to carry four catchers on the 40-man roster, so they must have designated Yang for assignment shortly thereafter.
Yang made it into one game during his brief stint with the Reds, pinch-hitting for Tyler Stephenson in the ninth inning of a blowout loss to the Cubs on July 31. He struck out swinging against Cubs righty Porter Hodge.
Read this as Eric Young at first. Blast from the past.
Indeed. Soild ball player too.
Glad the guy got into one game after waiting so long for the call.
Yeah that was cool. He officially made it.
Only about 10% of minor leaguers make it to the majors. It’s a huge accomplishment regardless of performance.
Exactly. As one who never made it, always happy for those guys who do, even briefly.
What organization(s) were you apart of?
Phillies and White Sox. Never had the opportunity with my favorite team.
On the bright side, ended up working for my last team for many years until the family who owned them sold out to a conglomerate who brought in their own folks. So I got to spend a long time in the game, just in a different way.
That’s really cool. Did you play or work with anyone of note?
I was one of a half dozen non roster catchers in a spring training camp with Frank Thomas once (among others). It was early in his run and late in mine.
I was good size being a catcher and still thought he was huge. Nice guy though. Dude could flat out hit.
That camp comes to mind because I got to catch in a B game, although I never got an AB. Closest I ever came to The Show. Could hit a fastball and a curve, but the slider away was my Kryptonite at the higher levels, I will freely admit, now at least.
Our team being a White Sox affiliate, I got to talk to Kenny Williams a lot in the work career, mostly on the phone. I personally think the White Sox were a lot better run then, but I may be biased.
I still go to the ballpark a lot here to just watch the kids (they are all kids to me) now that I am retired all the way. My wife says I’m like Norm at Cheers because a lot of folks say hello there when they see me.
Dude you have lived the dream it sounds like! Congrats on all of it. I bet you have a ton of good stories to tell. Also, the Reds could use someone like you in the organization.
Reds also sent out Earl Ying.
YING & YANG !!
Known EY since he was 9. Great kid. Glad he got an AB. Hopefully he got me that ELDC signed jersey
Uh, no. This is written all wrong. “He was optioned back to Triple-A on Friday and, evidently, removed from the 40-man roster at some point between then and today.” There shouldn’t be two commas here. Either you have none or you have one after evidently. Conjunctive adverbs don’t always need commas around them and most of the time should not.