The Cincinnati Reds are entering a key offseason that will center around some rather bold Elly De La Cruz trade rumors, and more realistically around what the Reds can acquire in the months ahead to make the team better around Elly before he may eventually depart at some point in the future.
Such an offseason usually starts quietly, though, and it has for the Reds with the revealing of their list of minor league free agents.
Every team has players whose minor league contracts expire at the end of the year. They don’t officially become free agents until five days after the World Series.
The Reds had a long list of such players, shared by Baseball America:
- RHP Cameron Cotter
- RHP Taylor Floyd
- RHP Ryan Garcia
- RHP Trevor Kuncl
- RHP Johnathan Lavallee
- RHP Néstor Lorant
- RHP Darius Vines
- LHP Jacob Edwards
- LHP Anthony Misiewicz
- LHP Steffon Moore
- LHP Ben Wereski
- C Pablo Aliendo
- 2B Ivan Johnson
- 3B Michael Chavis
- SS Orlando Arcia
- SS Julio Carreras
- SS Garrett Hampson
- SS Francisco Urbaez
- OF Dominic Fletcher
- OF Austin Hendrick
- OF Shane Sasaki
A lot of those names might not sound familiar, by a handful have big league experience, including Michael Chavis, Orlando Arcia and Garrett Hampson.
Arcia and Hampson are quite interesting for their experience level in the big leagues. The way the minor league contract expiration works wouldn’t have been set up for those players to just immediately sign with the Reds, but they’re two guys who, in a different setup, may have still proved useful in Cincinnati going forward — particularly if De La Cruz were to ever actually get traded.
Orlando Arcia
Now 32 years old, Arcia has both an All-Star appearance and a World Series ring in his career.
He’s always been more known for his glove than his bat, although he’s had a few impressive hitting seasons in his career.
This season, Arcia actually played 19 games for the Twins before ending up in the Reds’ system. He hit .271 in that short stint.
Garrett Hampson
Hampson, 32, was one of the fastest players in baseball at his peak and can also play the outfield.
He did play in nine games last year with the Reds, but while he spent this entire season at Triple-A Louisville (.242 average), Hampson wasn’t called up to the majors.
Hampson, like Arcia, could still return to MLB at some point. At least based on his contract expiring, though, it may not be with the Reds.
Reds Let 2 Experienced Shortstops Reach Free Agency