On Monday afternoon the Cincinnati Reds activated Christian Encarnacion-Strand and Matt McLain from the 60-day injured list. They had to designate two players for assignment in order to make room for them on the 40-man roster – Amed Rosario and Brandon Leibrandt. Those were the first moves of many that have to be coming. Once the World Series is over and the offseason begins, the 60-day injured list no longer exists and teams have to put players that are currently on it back onto the 40-man roster.
The Cincinnati Reds 40-man roster currently have 46 players on it thanks to the fact that there are still six players on the 60-day injured list. Austin Wynns, Brandon Williamson, Christian Roa, Graham Ashcraft, Stuart Fairchild, and Tejay Antone are all currently still on the 60-day injured list and very soon will have to either be added back to the 40-man roster, designated for assignment, or flat out released.
For each of the players that the Reds choose to keep around from that group they will have to drop someone else from the 40-man roster. Who they will decide to let go of will be interesting.
Only two players currently on the 40-man roster are pending free agents – Justin Wilson and Buck Farmer. That will clear up two spots on it’s own. There are some decisions that could be up to the players, the team, or both. Jakob Junis has a mutual option for $8,000,000 that if turned down by the Reds would cost them $3,000,000 for the buyout. Brent Suter and Luke Maile both have a $3,500,000 team option with a $500,000 buyout. Nick Martinez has a $12,000,000 player option and Emilio Pagan has an $8,000,000 player option.
It seems quite obvious that Nick Martinez will decline his option. After the season he just had there’s almost no way that he would not get a larger guaranteed contract than $12,000,000. It also seems very easy to get behind the idea that picking up Brent Suter’s option makes all of the sense in the world. Emilio Pagan will almost assuredly pick up his option after his 2024 season. Jakob Junis feels likely to decline his option after the season he put up.
Beyond the players currently on the 60-day injured list that have to be added, Cincinnati will also have to add players to the 40-man roster from the minor leagues who they want to protect from the Rule 5 draft in December. How many of those players they will add is unknown. I would guess that there are at least three players, but there could be as many as six.
Where those spots come will come from beyond the free agents and potential declined-option group of players is the fringes of the 40-man. The team made it clear multiple times during the regular season that Austin Wynns was someone they felt could be brought back on a minor league deal. Casey Legumina was up-and-down all season, making five trips up to the big leagues just to fill in for a day or two before heading back to Triple-A. And he didn’t exactly find success while in Cincinnati and he’s going to be 28-years-old next year.
Jacob Hurtubise has very little power to speak of, limited big league time where he struggled, is coming off of a .738 OPS in Triple-A as a guy who will be 27-years-old before 2025 begins. Nick Martini’s a 34-year-old coming off of a .641 OPS campaign. Ty France is projected for an $8,000,000 arbitration number according to MLB Trade Rumors and at that price it’s a tough sell. Tejay Antone, for as much as it would seem everyone is rooting for him and wants him to return, he’s trying to come back from a third Tommy John surgery and might miss all of 2025 even if he can do that.
There are some tough decisions, and some less tough decisions that are going to have to be made rather soon. Some of those decisions – the ones with the options attached to them – will need to be made a little bit sooner, but there all coming in the next five weeks or less.
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