The Reds announced they’ve designated Roansy Contreras for assignment. The move opens the necessary 40-man roster spot for Gavin Lux, whose acquisition from the Dodgers is now official.
Contreras hasn’t spent much time with the Reds. Cincinnati grabbed him off waivers from the Rangers a couple weeks ago. Texas had just claimed him from the Angels a month before that. The 25-year-old righty seems ticketed for the waiver wire for a third time in as many months.
Once one of the game’s better pitching prospects, Contreras was a key piece of the package that the Yankees sent to the Pirates for Jameson Taillon. He had a decent debut season with the Bucs in 2022, turning in a 3.79 ERA across 95 innings. He looked like a long-term rotation piece at the time, but his production has dropped sharply over the last two seasons.
Contreras struggled to an ERA near 7.00 across 68 1/3 MLB frames in 2023. He exhausted his last minor league option that year. The Pirates carried him in the season-opening bullpen in ’24. He pitched 12 times in medium-leverage spots before the Bucs took him off the roster. They dealt him to the Angels for cash in May. Contreras played out the year with the Halos in a long relief role, posting a 4.33 ERA with subpar peripherals in 37 appearances.
Since the start of the 2023 season, Contreras owns a 5.47 earned run average over 136 2/3 innings. His 18.5% strikeout percentage and 10.5% walk rate are worse than the respective MLB averages, as is his 1.4 home runs allowed per nine. The performance and the inability to send him to the minors without putting him on waivers could lead to him continuing to bounce around the league. Contreras has intrigued a few teams as a depth arm, as he sits around 95 MPH with his four-seam fastball and throws six different pitches.
Roansy, we hardly knew ya
Wow… not Legumina? Not Hurtubise? Roansy has more upside than either of those guys, if you ask me…
Or Owen White? I would take Roansy over him.
agreed. It should have been Legumina or Hurtubise. I don’t see either of those guys making an impact for the Reds.
Options are like gold nowadays.
Legumina and Hurtubise hahaha. This is classic Reds, they think so highly of their own players that they cannot fathom these guys just might pass and they won’t them. This front office grows so emotionally attached to players they draft it’s like a newbie dynasty fantasy baseball manger because maybe one day my drat will have a great year. It’s exactly why they have Fairchild now, drafted by them, diamondbacks waived him and they pounded. Dude should t even be on a major league roster.
They never even saw him pitch. It’s not like they need relief pitching or anything.
Decisions of this front office just boggles the mind.
He’s terrible. GET FREAKING REAL, Karen.
Wasn’t he just picked up and dropped 2 weeks ago.
Yep, Angels, Rangers, Reds. Let’s see where he lands next
If it were closer to Opening Day, I’d say SD was his next ticket.
Doubt Contreras clears waivers, but neither would Legumina or Zuluetta. Reds already decided they liked White better earlier today. Roster crunch and the “dumpster diving” season is just begining.
Every off-season a couple of guys take multiple spins on the “wheel of waivers”. But usually it’s guys who haven’t had much of a shot to show their stuff, or guys who have had a couple of chances but whose numbers haven’t translated from the minors to the bigs.
Roansy is a very different case. He looked like a future rotation stud for much of 2022. After that I just assumed that the Pirates had ruined him and he needed a change of scenery… but not THIS many changes of scenery. And he just turned 25? What the heck is going on with him? I do hope he figures it out again.
Me personally, I was always suspicous of Contreras. Back of the rotation projection when the Pirates acquired him, pitched well in about 60 innings in 2021, then reverts sort of back to what he was originally projected as. Ultimatley, given how well the Pirates have developed some of their young pitchers over the last year or so, it might just be a case of TINSTAAPP.
Go Mo! Smash that “break in case of emergency” piggy bank you’ve been squirreling away all offseason and make a move. There’s you’re “high leverage” reliever you’ve been looking for. Let Dusty Blake prove last year wasn’t a mirage.
Roansy is exactly the kind of guy Hoyer brings in every year. I wouldn’t be amazed to see the Cubs be his next stop.
This could be a good table scrap for Stearns to sign instead of spending real money on real talent.
I hope they get to keep him but someone will claim him. Ted’s picking up a lot of guys with talent and pedigree but little production. I don’t hate the approach. Maybe the get lucky with one of them.
The off-season adventures of Roansy Contreras