The Reds have signed left-hander Reiver Sanmartin to a minor league deal, according to Baseball America’s Matt Eddy. The southpaw will return for what will be his sixth on-field season in the Reds organization, not counting the canceled 2020 minor league campaign.
Three of those seasons saw Sanmartin appear at the MLB level, as he posted a 5.77 ERA over 82 2/3 innings from 2021-23. Fifty-seven of those innings came in 2022 when Sanmartin had a 6.32 ERA in 57 frames, mostly out of Cincinnati’s bullpen. His 2023 campaign was limited to 14 innings due to a UCL-related surgery in July 2023, and though the Reds non-tendered him last winter, he was quickly re-signed to a new minors deal.
Sanmartin made it back to the mound in July, even if the results were rocky. The left-hander had a 6.33 ERA in 21 1/3 minor league innings split across three levels of Cincinnati’s farm system, with Sanmartin posting a 7.36 ERA, 20% strikeout rate, and 7.8% walk rate in 18 1/3 innings at Triple-A Louisville. A whopping .377 BABIP contributed to these struggles, as bad batted-ball luck is particularly deadly to a grounder specialist like Sanmartin.
Despite the mediocre bottom-line numbers, the Reds saw enough to bring the 28-year-old back on another minors contract. It could be that the team feels Sanmartin’s performance was hampered by the BABIP gods, or simply that he’ll pitch better now that he’ll have a normal and healthy offseason in front of him. The signing also gives Cincinnati a bit of extra left-handed bullpen depth behind Sam Moll and Brent Suter.