The Cincinnati Reds are seemingly making a roster decision every day of late and today they made quite a few of them. It was the first big day of cuts for players on the 40-man roster as five players were optioned to Triple-A, while one non-roster invitee was also sent to the minor leagues.
Tyler Callihan, Rece Hinds, Noelvi Marte, Connor Phillips, and Yosver Zulueta were all optioned to Triple-A. Infielder Sal Stewert was reassigned to the minor leagues.
As a reminder – players who are optioned to the minor leagues are players who were on the 40-man roster. Players who were reassigned to the minor leagues are not on the 40-man roster. Also worth noting that simply because a player was optioned to (insert level here) does not necessarily mean that the player will begin their season at that level. For the time being all that is being done for bookkeeping. I would expect all five of those players optioned to Triple-A to begin their season there, though.
Among that group of position players it was really Sal Stewart who stood out. After only playing half of a season in High-A Dayton last year (wrist surgery would cost him the second half), he wasn’t really playing for a job this spring. Still, he made sure that anyone watching was going to remember what he was doing as he hit .263/.391/.526 with more walks (4) than strikeouts (3) in his 23 plate appearances. Rece Hinds hit .214/.313/.500 in 16 plate appearances. Tyler Callihan hit .176/.200/.294 in his 20 trips to the plate. And Noelvi Marte hit just .150/.182/.400 in his 22 plate appearances that also included eight strikeouts.
Connor Phillips and Yosver Zulueta both struggled this spring. Phillips, who made his big league debut back in 2023 didn’t see time in MLB last year after having big time struggles with throwing strikes. He had a solid first two outings this spring but in his last time on the mound he walked four of the five hitters he faced and all of them came around to score while he recorded just one out before being removed. Zulueta only had the opportunity to pitch in two games, but he allowed three runs over his 2.0 innings pitched.
With these moves the Reds roster now sits at 46 players.
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