Cincinnati Reds claim RHP Keyvius Sampson from Padres

The Cincinnati Reds have claimed right handed pitcher Keyvius Sampson from the San Diego Padres and is now on the Reds 40-man roster.

Background

Sampson was the Padres 4th round pick in 2009 out of high school. He’s worked mostly as a starter in his career but moved to the bullpen in 2014 in June at the Triple-A level after posting a 6.71 ERA with 40 walks and 49 strikeouts as a starter. The transition to the bullpen didn’t do much good as his ERA was 6.63 with 28 walks and 45 strikeouts in 36.2 innings the rest of the way.

His walk rate prior to reaching Triple-A was below-average for his career, but it’s jumped up to very poor rates at Triple-A where he’s walked 6.8 batters per 9IP. The good news is that Sampson still misses plenty of bats.

Scouting Report

Sampson works with a fastball in the 93-95 MPH range and has touched a tad higher than that out of the bullpen. He relies on a change up and a slider as his main secondary pitches, though he will drop in a curveball every now and again. The slider is a hard one, coming in at 86-88 MPH.

The stuff is certainly good enough for Sampson to get hitters out, but his control was poor at best in the 2014 season and has never really been good at any point throughout his career. He’s a big arm with some potential, but he’s got plenty of work to do in order to fulfill it. If the Reds can figure out how to improve his control, be it to scrap a pitch, clean up a mechanical issue, whatever it is, there could be something here. Look for him to be in either Pensacola or Louisville to begin the season.

Career Stats