The Reds have signed infielder/outfielder Tony Kemp to a minor league deal, per Jon Heyman of The New York Post. The Ballengee Group client also receives an invite to big league camp.
Kemp, 32, is coming off a down year with the Athletics. He walked more than he struck out, 10.5% rate to 9.5%, but didn’t do much damage when he put the ball in play. He slashed just .209/.303/.304 for a wRC+ of 77. The baseball gods may have been frowning on him a little bit, as his .221 batting average on balls in play was well below the .297 league average last year. But on the other hand, Kemp’s never been a huge threat with the bat, with poor career metrics in terms of exit velocity, hard hit rate and barrel rate.
But there are some attractive attributes as well, including defensive versatility. He has over 2,000 innings of big league experience at second base and left field, in addition to brief time at the other two outfield spots and shortstop. He also racked up double-digit steal totals in each of the past two seasons.
The Reds are loaded with position-player talent all over the diamond, with Jeimer Candelario, Matt McLain, Elly De La Cruz, Spencer Steer, Christian Encarnacion-Strand, TJ Friedl, Noelvi Marté, Jonathan India, Will Benson, Tyler Stephenson, Jake Fraley all battling for playing time. But many of the guys in that group are still fairly young and inexperienced. If any of them have some sort of setback in terms of results, the club would probably prefer they get regular reps in the minors as opposed to sitting on the big league bench.
The club has also signed veteran infielders like Josh Harrison, Erik González, Hernán Pérez and Mark Mathias to minor league deals. Kemp will jump into that mix and try to play his way into a veteran bench role at some point.