The Major League Baseball trade deadline is in full swing, and the Cincinnati Reds are clearly aiming to make their roster better and make a push in the final two months of the season. The Reds are 57-52, just traded for Ke’Bryan Hayes, and are now acquiring a starting pitcher from the Tampa Bay Rays.
The next series for the Reds will be against the struggling Atlanta Braves, and Saturday’s game will be at Bristol Motor Speedway for the first-ever MLB Speedway Classic. Cincinnati’s front office must view this next week or so as a potential turning point in its season. The Reds are firmly in position for a National League Wild Card berth, but need to finish strong.
Reds Acquiring Zack Littell
According to ESPN insider Jeff Passan, the Cincinnati Reds are finalizing a deal with the Tampa Bay Rays to acquire starting pitcher Zack Littell.
Anthony Franco of MLBtraderumors.com produced a story quickly after the news broke:
“Littell tossed five scoreless innings tonight against the Yankees in whatâll be his final appearance with the Rays. That lowered his earned run average to an impressive 3.58 mark across 22 starts. Littell turned in a very similar 3.63 ERA in 29 appearances a season ago. He has led the Rays in innings in each of the past two seasons while turning in steady mid-rotation results.”
This deal could indicate that the Rays may gear towards trading some of their other players on expiring contracts, as Littell is set to be a free agent after the season’s end.
His last start before the New York Yankees today, ironically, came against the Reds, where he gave up 10 hits and five runs over six innings. If there’s been a flaw in Littell’s game, it is giving up the long ball. He has given up 26 of them in over 133 innings, which is the most in baseball.
The Rays will get two players in return for Littell, but those details haven’t been announced as medical reports are still being transferred.
How Will the Reds Use Littell?
Littell broke into the big leagues with the Minnesota Twins back in 2018, and the Reds will serve as his fifth MLB organization. He has a 3.87 career ERA in 544.1 innings. For the Cincinnati Reds, this is a quality pickup that didn’t cost them too much, and Littell can serve as a mid-rotation piece behind several good starters. Cincinnati has a really solid rotation, and it will be interesting if others are on the move in the waning hours until the deadline.
Hunter Greene is supposed to return in the coming weeks, and there are almost more quality starters than there are rotation spots.
Littell has worked as a relief pitcher before in his career with both the Twins and the San Francisco Giants. He was shaky towards the end of his time as a reliever, which is probably the reason he was moved into a starter role, but in the first couple of seasons of his career, he was effective coming out of the bullpen. The Reds haven’t made the playoffs since 2020 in the shortened COVID season.
Like Heavy Sports’s content? Be sure to follow us.
This article was originally published on Heavy Sports
The post Reds Pull off Trade for Rays 3.58 ERA Starting Pitcher appeared first on Heavy Sports.