The stove is definitely hot around Major League Baseball right now. However, in Cincinnati, it is not. Nick Castellanos turned down the Reds’ qualifier offer after the 2021 season when he pulled out of his contract and became a free agent. This morning, MLB’s Jon Morosi mentioned Castellanos was attracting interest from both the Miami Marlins and the San Francisco Giants.
It’s no surprise that Nick Castellanos has drawn so much interest in free agency. The former Reds player is now coming off a season in which he scored 0.309/.362/.576 with 38 hits, triples and 34 home runs in the 138 games he played. Over the past four seasons he posted 872 OPS (and 125 OPS+). He’s a very good hitter.
What we note here is that the Cincinnati Reds are not mentioned here (or anywhere else) in Nick Castellanos’ rumors. This does not necessarily mean that they are not interested. The Reds were generally calm and kept their activity very close to the jacket. With that said, you don’t need to read too much into the comments Castellanos made last week to feel like he probably won’t be coming back to Cincinnati.
There hasn’t been much going on with regards to the Reds since the start of the season. Yesterday we heard they were signing with Conor Overton, but that’s a minor deal for the 28-year-old with a 15.1 career run in the major leagues. It’s early, but that unofficially looks a lot like the last off season – cost cuts and established trading rumors, good promotion.
Add to the list of 40 players
Friday evening is the deadline for teams around Major League Baseball to add minor league players to their list of 40 players in order to protect them from Draft Rule 5. Anyone registered in 2017 or earlier is eligible if left unprotected. Anyone who is 19 and signed in 2018 (re: college players who drafted that season and a very select group of international signings) will also be eligible if left unprotected.
One player stands out above the rest: Hunter Green. It will be protected. But there are a few other guys you can get to argue either way. And at RedsMinorLellow.com, I took a look at 11 of these players before the deadline.