The Cincinnati Reds continued their offseason by signing another minor league contract on Wednesday, this time with right-handed pitcher Darren McCaughan.
The 29-year-old has spent parts of four seasons in the big leagues, but only one of those seasons has he pitched more than 10.0 innings. He would debut with the Seattle Mariners in 2021 and threw 9.0 innings in two games. He didn’t pitch in the 2022 season at the big league level and then threw 5.0 innings with the Mariners in 2023.
It was 2024 that saw him get plenty of big league time and that all started back in February of that year when the Marlins bought his contract from Seattle. In early May his contract was then bought by Cleveland. McCaughan would pitch 6.0 innings with the Guardians before he was placed on waivers in July and the Marlins claimed him. Back with Cleveland he pitched in 36.0 innings. Across his 42.0 innings that year with the two teams he posted a 6.21 ERA. He was outrighted to the minors following the season and became a free agent.
This past season he signed with the Minnesota Twins and he made the club out of spring training, but less than two weeks into the season he was designated for assignment. He cleared waivers and became a free agent, but re-signed with the Twins immediately. On August 4th he was called up to the big leagues and then the next day was once against designated for assignment. He remained with the Twins in Triple-A the rest of the season. In his three outings with Minnesota in 2025 he allowed one run in 5.1 innings. In his 97.0 innings with St. Paul in Triple-A he had an ERA of 5.10 while giving up 112 hits, 20 home runs, walking 33, and striking out 96. You can see his career stats here.
With the invitation to big league spring training the Reds now have 16 players who have gotten non-roster invites to camp. Here’s the list:
Catchers
- Will Banfield
- Connor Burns
- P.J. Higgins (also 1B)
- Michael Trautwein
Infielders
- Michael Chavis
- Cam Collier
- Garrett Hampson (also OF)
- Michael Toglia (also OF)
Pitchers
- Tejay Antone (RHP)
- Hagen Danner (RHP)
- Yunior Marte (RHP)
- Darren McCaughan (RHP)
- Anthony Misiewicz (LHP)
- Lyon Richardson (RHP)
- Carson Spiers (RHP)
- Joel Valdez (LHP)
The post Reds sign Darren McCaughan, invite him to spring training appeared first on Redleg Nation.