It has been a busy day of acquisitions for the Cincinnati Reds. Earlier in the day the team traded for right-handed starting pitcher Brian Van Belle in a deal with the Boston Red Sox and then optioned him to Triple-A. About an hour after that the team announced that they had claimed Ryan Vilade from the St. Louis Cardinals via waivers. Making room on the 40-man roster for him, the Reds designated outfielder Jacob Hurtubise for assignment.
The 26-year-old Ryan Vilade has spent small parts of three seasons in the big leagues. He made his debut with the Colorado Rockies in 2021 and played in three games. Vilade didn’t appear in another big league game until 2024 when he played in 17 games with the Detroit Tigers. This season he played in seven games with the Cardinals. Overall he’s played in 27 games at the highest level and has hit .141/.200/.188 with 18 strikeouts in 71 plate appearances.
Things at the plate have gone better for the utility man while he’s been in Triple-A. This season with Memphis he played in 48 games and hit .280/.375/.476 with 11 doubles, three triples, five home runs, 24 walks, and 38 strikeouts in 192 plate appearances. In his minor league career that goes back to 2017 he’s his .279/.359/.415.
Defensively he’s played a little bit of everywhere with the exception of catcher. Just this season he’s played everywhere except shortstop and catcher. He last played shortstop in 2019, though, so don’t expect that to be anything but an emergency option for him. He has played basically every where else (except catcher) in the last year. Vilade can provide some depth in Triple-A as a possible utility man call up.
You can see the career stats for Ryan Vilade here.
Jacob Hurtubise has struggled in a big way to hit this season. In his 46 games between Cincinnati and Louisville he’s hit just .138/.329/.174 this season. Before the last week he hadn’t had an extra-base hit all year long but did hit four doubles over a span of two games earlier this week in Iowa. This is the first time he has been designated for assignment, so if he clears waivers he can be outrighted to the minors and will have to accept that assignment and remain in the organization (players that have been outrighted in the past have the choice to accept the assignment or to become a free agent).
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