Hernan Iribarren has been promoted from Triple-A Louisville by the Cincinnati Reds. The 32-year-old utility player had been enjoying one of his better minor league seasons of his career with the Louisville Bats.
Over the course of 101 games played in the International League this season, Hernan Iribarren hit .327/.380/.410 on the season with 33 walks and 60 strikeouts. The Venezuelan native missed most of April, only playing in three games, but came out of the gate on fire. He would hit .378 through the month of May before hitting a bit of a lull in June.
Over 86 plate apeparances in June Iribarren would hit just .235, but once the calendar flipped over to July he picked up right where things left off in May. After hitting .344 in July he carried that forward into August and September where he’s managed to hit .342 in 31 games with 11 walks and 14 strikeouts over 130 plate appearances.
He hasn’t really shown any sort of splits this season as a left handed hitter. He’s hit .327 against right handed pitching and .326 against left handed pitching. Iribarren has hit for slightly more power as against righties than lefties, but power isn’t a part of his game against either.
With the Bats, manger Delino DeShields didn’t seem to mind placing Iribarren anywhere on the field. He’s made at least six starts every position on the infield except for catcher and pitcher. While he’s not caught a game for Louisville, he has pitched in four different games this season and hasn’t allowed a run. In the outfield he’s seen time in center field the most, starting 24 games there. He’s also made 11 appearances in left and another six games in right field.
At 32-years-old Hernan Iribarren is returning to the big leagues for the first time since 2009. In both the 2008 and 2009 seasons he made it into 12 games with the Milwaukee Brewers, but managed to rack up just a total of 29 plate appearances. He hit just .185 in that span with three doubles (of his five total hits).
The Reds had to create a 40-man roster spot to bring Iribarren up as he was not already on the roster. Update: In order to create the roster spot the team has designated right handed pitcher Daniel Wright for assignment. The right hander has struggled in Triple-A and the big leagues this season. With Triple-A Louisville he’s posted an ERA of 6.13 in 83.2 innings and in the big leagues he’s posted an ERA of 7.62 in 13.0 innings this season.