The Cincinnati Reds have made it official with right-handed reliever Albert Abreu. Last week it was reported that he had an agreement with the club, but the ink is now on paper and everything is official.
Albert Abreu is returning to the US for 2025 after spending the 2024 season pitching in Japan. Last season he posted a 2.39 ERA with 33 strikeouts and 20 walks (with three of those being intentional) in 49.0 innings spread out over 52 games. To give some context for that ERA – it was good, but not quite as good as it may seem on the surface. Japan’s league played very pitcher friendly in 2024 and the league average ERA was 3.04.
Prior to heading to Japan, Abreu pitched in the big leagues from 2020-2023 for the Kansas City Royals, Texas Rangers, and New York Yankees. In parts of four seasons in Major League Baseball he threw 135.2 innings and had an ERA of 4.58. He struck out 136 batters in that time and had 78 walks. You can see Albert Abreu’s career stats here.
Cincinnati extended an invite to big league spring training to Abreu, which now puts them at 59 players in big league camp. 31 of those those players are pitchers. 11 of those 31 are not on the 40-man roster, and one of them – Wade Miley – isn’t going to be competing for a job and he’s not going to be ready to start the season on time as he recovers from Tommy John surgery. Miley is expected to be ready at some point in or around May. Among the pitchers on the 40-man roster, Julian Aguiar and Brandon Williamson will also be in big league camp but not available as they are both recovering from Tommy John surgery and will miss the entirety of the 2025 season.
Pitchers and catchers aren’t due to report to Goodyear until next week, but some guys are already at the facility and getting some work in.
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