After a day full of roster moves on Friday, the Cincinnati Reds found out the fate of two more players on Saturday morning. Right-handed reliever Emilio Pagan told the team he was going to return, exercising his 2025 option. Catcher Austin Wynns, who was outrighted off of the 40-man roster to Triple-A yesterday informed the team that he was going to become a free agent rather than accept the outright to the minor leagues.
In a very unsurprising move, Emilio Pagan picked up his player option for the 2025 season. He will make $8,000,000 next season. The right-handed reliever pitched in 38 games for Cincinnati in 2024, posting a 4.50 ERA while allowing 40 hits, six home runs, walking 11 batters, and striking out 44 of the 158 hitters he faced. He missed two-and-a-half months in the middle of the year, making just one appearance between May 20th and August 10th.
The season was up-and-down for Pagan. He opened up May with back-to-back outings where he struggled as his ERA jumped to 5.93 through 15 games. But from May 6th through September 17th he pitched in 21 games and allowed five runs in 22.2 innings (1.99 ERA) and gave up just one home runs, walked just five, and had 27 strikeouts. Then he gave up five runs in his final two outings of the season and saw his ERA jump from 3.47 on the season to 4.50 thanks to those two games.
As for Austin Wynns, it’s also not too surprising that he elected to become a free agent. The Reds third catcher when he was healthy in 2024, he was back-and-forth between Triple-A Louisville and the big league club. What he didn’t do much of was play. The 33-year-old only played in seven games with Cincinnati last year, going 7-19 with four doubles. In Louisville he hit .250/.307/404 during his 31 games played. His season came to an end in late July, though, after he tore his right teres major and landed on the 10-day injured list (he was later transferred to the 60-day injured list).
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