The Reds acquired outfielder Connor Joe from the Padres for minor league reliever Andrew Moore and cash considerations, the teams announced. Cincinnati transferred Tyler Callihan to the 60-day injured list to create a spot on the 40-man roster. San Diego’s roster count falls to 38.
Joe, a San Diego native who attended USD, signed with his hometown team on a $1MM contract during the offseason. He was expected to work as the right-handed half of a left field platoon with Jason Heyward. The Padres tabbed speedster Brandon Lockridge for that role instead, optioning Joe to Triple-A El Paso to begin the season. He was recalled in mid-April and went hitless in nine at-bats. He drew one walk while striking out six times.
The Friars optioned Joe back out last week. He made 16 appearances with El Paso, hitting .267/.405/.350 through 74 trips to the dish. He has yet to hit a home run but has stolen four bases and taken more walks (13) than strikeouts (10). He should have a better path to big league at-bats in Cincinnati. Rece Hinds and Will Benson, each of whom were recalled from Triple-A Louisville this week, are operating as backup outfielders. Starting right fielder Jake Fraley has missed four straight games on account of calf soreness.
Cincinnati did welcome righty-hitting outfielder Austin Hays back from the injured list this afternoon. Their primary corner outfielders, Fraley and Gavin Lux, each hit from the left side. Joe had a productive .251/.353/.418 slash in 363 plate appearances against lefty pitching with the Pirates between 2023-24. He didn’t hit much without the platoon advantage (.230/.314/.382 in 525 PAs), but he’s an affordable bench/platoon player.
This is Joe’s second minor league option year. The Reds can shuttle him back and forth between Cincinnati and Louisville for this season and next if he holds his 40-man roster spot for that long. He’s nearing four years of service time and will be eligible for arbitration for at least two more years if he sticks with the club.
Moore, who is not the former Mariners MLB pitcher of the same name, is a 25-year-old reliever. He was, however, drafted by Seattle in 2021. The Mariners included him alongside Noelvi Marte and Edwin Arroyo as part of the 2022 deadline deal for Luis Castillo. Moore has spent the past few seasons working his way up to Double-A. He combines big strikeout rates with astronomical walk tallies. He did not rank among Baseball America’s write-up of Cincinnati’s top 30 prospects, though Eric Longenhagen of FanGraphs ranked him 22nd in the Reds’ system just last week.
Longenhagen wrote that Moore’s fastball/slider combination looked like that of a setup man at his peak, though his velocity has been down early this season. He’d need to dramatically improve his control to pitch above a low-leverage role in either case. Moore walked upwards of 17% of opponents across 46 1/3 Double-A innings last year. That resulted in a 4.47 ERA despite an excellent 32.3% strikeout rate. He has surrendered five runs (four earned) on three hits and eight walks with 12 punchouts through his first 8 2/3 frames this season.
As for Callihan, his IL transfer was an inevitability. He broke his left arm in a nasty collision with the left field wall at Truist Park on Monday. He promptly underwent surgery that’ll prevent him from doing any kind of baseball activities for six to eight weeks. He probably won’t be able to resume his rookie season until August or September at the earliest.
Image courtesy of Mark J. Rebilas, Imagn Images.
Pads need a LF. Go get one.
Eddie Rosario once he gets released?
Who wants Rosario? He literally goes on a tear for two or three weeks and then tanks the rest of the season.
Lockridge/wade can do well. And JHey playing rather good defense. It’s less vtal, more a desire. Don’t go selling the farm for a LF, this team has a good thing going.
Aside from De Vries and maybe Salas there really isn’t much on the farm. As for the current LF combo it is below league average and a joke. Preller knows it. Just wondering on long until he gets it fixed.
If you are going to troll, at least try to be factual so you don’t get totally ignored.
What’s incorrect?
What IS correct? That is a better question Try getting something right so we can answer that question.
Why do they need a LF? Just got Lockridge and Merrill back. Still have Heyward. They have Ornelas in El Paso plus 2 other OF that are hitting over .300. They also have 3rd best record in baseball and 2nd best in NL.
Lockridge a .267 on base and a 56 OPS+, Heyward a .246 on base and a 46 OPS+. Ornelas 1 for 14 before they sent him down. Are you kidding me. Are you serious? With Bogaerts being as bad as he is and the catching position pretty weak, and no slug off the bench, you can’t throw this garbage out there every night and expect the good times to roll all season. The top 4 can’t carry it all by themselves. They have to fix this.
Again, you show your utter lack of understanding of the game of baseball.
Lockridge has started 13 games and played in 16 games this season and has a 0.4 WAR. He is on pace for a 2.0 WAR season IF he spends the same amount of time on the IL per 36 games that he did the 1st 36 games. If he stays healthy the rest of the way, he is on pace for a 3.2 WAR season. 2.0 WAR is MLB average.
Ornelas had 14 AB. Are you seriously trying to say that shows his ability as a hitter? That alone should be enough to get you ignored permanently.
Bogaerts has knocked in the most runs on the team and scored the 2nd most runs over the last 2 weeks.
The Padres have the 3rd best record in MLB and 2nd best in the NL. They don’t have to FIX anything.
What needs to happen is you need to pull your head out and actually go get educated about baseball.
Perpetually unserious team.
I’m sorry ahead of time, but I can’t help but feel like Preller just picked y’alls pocket on this one.
You will probably get more out of Moore than the Reds will get from Joe. Unfortunately, just another guy in a line of similar guys who made no difference.
He isn’t much better than allowing the pitcher to hit (especially Greene). There has been some pretty serious mismanagement by the front office on the hitting side. On the other hand, they seem to have done a great job on the pitching side. I have always believed you win with pitching and offense. This team is threatening that belief.(not that the defense is all that great).
“…always believed you win with pitching and offense”
Yeah, that should get it done! You make it sound easy haha
I have 77 years watching , playing (college level) and experience. Many of those coaching. Pitching and defense are indeed the recipe to winning.. You just can’t have totally under performing hitting. The Reds have failed building this team, but it is largely due to the players. The Reds aren’t responsible for McClain, Steer, Candelario, Fraley, Marte, Dunn, CES, Hurtubise and Benson failing to hit. That is 8 hitters that have failed to produce. Depending on pitching and defense doesn’t mean close to zero hitting. It expects at least average hitting.. When that many hitters fail, evaluation is likely a big part of it (not Francona as he is proven).. Hopefully, they can fix it, but it doesn’t look promising as it appears we have too many key busts in talent..
If the 9 players you named, that all graded out as having a 50 FV hit tool or have a history of performing at league average or above before joining the Reds, are all underperforming, then it’s the system, not the players.
The fix needs to be made on the tem’s end. Is it all Chris Valaika? Probably not, but he and his staff are the root of it since the issue is endemic.
Padres just put a old worn out smelly sofa with mystery stains on it on the curb for garbage. And instead of just taking it for free the Reds knock on the door and say here’s $50.
The stains might include some very talented DNA.
JD Vance, alledgedly.
That’s usually how Reds trades go.
Like the Lux and Singer and Trevino trades?
It’s not a serious trade because it’s barely first week of May. With the exception of the Luis A trade the Padres made last year how many teams make big trades this early.
My bad Bacon, I didn’t realize ‘usually’ meant ‘every trade ever’
There’s always one guy that gets his panties in a wad over exceptions
Is this the best we can do? Wow
For the cost ? Maybe…
really hoping he could have completed the NL West tour with AZ before he moved to back NL Central.
Connor Joe the marquee reds addition
But he’s from Poway…
Spoken like a fellow Powegian, wally!
Still considered East County?
Depends on who you ask, dv! CIF considers it North County, Powegians say they’re San Diego proper and everybody else thinks East County haha
Us East Countians thought of you as North County. So far away (esp when we were in HS)
Us Scripps Ranch residents put Poway in East County!
As a Carlsbadian, I agree! Ha
Another guy from the Castillo trade gone. Two to go.
You say that like the Rojos are in desperate need of an expensive 200 strikeouts per year outfielder in order to make a run.
That can’t be what you mean
…is it?
How does that relate to the Castillo trade 2 and a half years ago
We already had one 200 strikeouts a year guy, don’t need two.
Just more guys that make consistent contact would be nice.
Big K% and BB%, let’s see what he can do.
Watch Moore turn into a serviceable reliever in SD.
Get his walks down enough and he’s a setup or closer.
Watch Joe turn into a serviceable platoon player.
Yeah, many years ago the Reds traded a guy named Trevor to the Pads… turned out to be a decent closer..
That was the Marlins.
Moore could become a serviceable reliever for the Padres, but it was unlikely that he could for the Reds. By the same token Fernando Cruz works for the Yankees but wouldn’t have made the Reds active roster. The Reds have become pretty adept at acquiring and developing pitching. They continue to be challanged at finding position players Hays, Lux, Trevino, Wynns were all improvements, but now Steer, Strand, Candelario, EDLC, McLain, Fraley, et al have taken a step backwards.
The last sentence is exactly what I was referring to above. Can they turn things around? We will see, but the patience of Reds fans is wearing thin.;;
Don’t the Rays have an abundance of OF they could move?
Reds certainly have a type
Joe looked like a high school player facing MLers
Pirates would rather throw away 4m on Pham than take Joe for 1m.
And Joe played some 1B for the pirates as well. He wasn’t very good but def would be more of a benefit over Pham.
F Reds. A+++++ Padres
They haven’t been able to develop Moore control but you don’t give up on that arm or trade him for Joe.
Not sure either teams benefit. Moore can’t command the ball even in AA. Joe has a replacement level ceiling.
Joe has a 1.0 WAR from 2021-2024. He is above replacement level. He is not a starter, but not a AAA player. Rather have him on the Angels than Adell.
Joe was worth having. Worth having in 2025 I dunno. I wasn’t excited about him. Pirates Padres don’t think much of him.
To give up this reliever for him he better be 800 ops legit. They improved Hays so far so maybe can do same with Joe. Overpaid though I believe. I wouldn’t have been surprised if Joe went unclaimed. Waiver claim ok. But to give up this arm seems too much.
Hayes has looked good, but his challenge is can he stay healthy and on the field.
Padres win initially, they lowered the mlb payroll a smidge.
Padres already won. Benefit greatly. Don’t have to pay Joe. Got cash and a prospect. Joe had zero value. They didn’t think he was good enough.
Padres don’t care about Moore command. They only care about what his command will look like with them. Or what they can trade him for.
@AI GM are you formerly known as ‘Your Dream GM’ by chance? Just curious. Enjoy your work, and cool avatar pic.
For a bit. I am hopeful that in the next 50 to 70 years mlbtr gets the technology to send me a password reset link. I dedicated so much storage to baseball knowledge I ran out of space for remembering passwords. Until then enjoy the power of AI
Niebla work your magic!
Moore sits 95-96. Each season in the minors his FIP has been more than a half point lower than his ERA. A FIP firmly in the 3s is always good. Going into this season the Reds lowered his arm slot, changed his pitch mix, and changed the grip on his slider, and he is walking more this season so far. While he isn’t going to be a closer or even the next Estrada, hopefully Niebla can get him back on track and he can help the Padres towards the end of the season or early next.
Solid move for the Pads. They have Oscar Gonzalez for minor league outfielder depth so they trade Joe for a Lottery Ticket. I like Joe and I was rooting for him to make an impact for the Padres this year being he’s a San Diego kid, but hey it’s a business and sometimes you gotta get what you can get for a guy that doesn’t fit in your plans anymore. Hopefully Moore can turn into a solid bullpen piece for the Padres and I wish the best of luck to Joe on the Reds.
Don’t forget about Perlaza and Ornelas.
Padres have the most knowledgeable fanbase on MLBTR?? Impressive group. Always learn something from them and always get a laugh. Padres/Mariners World Series let’s book it.
He barely got a cup of Joe with the Friars.
Where did you come from, where did you go? Where did you come from Connor Joe?
I swear your post wasn’t there when I posted mine. Hivemind
Where did you come from, where did you go
Where did you come from Kok-Wy Joe
Tito loves these (useless) utility guys. Joe has great hair, though.
Conner Joe’s second stint with the Reds. They picked him up from the Dodgers in the Rule 5 draft way back in 2018. But didn’t hold onto him.
Championship!
Heyward still crack-a-lackin
Crack-a-lackin at .193/.243./.274
Bye bye Connor eye Joe