The Cincinnati Reds had until 8pm today to set their 40-man roster for protections of players for the upcoming Rule 5 draft. While the team can continue to make roster moves moving forward from that point, they will not have the ability to protect someone who was not on the 40-man roster at that time from the Rule 5 draft if they were eligible.
The Reds did what everyone expected them to do when it comes to Jimmy Herget. The right handed reliever seemed like a slam dunk protection. In 2018 he had what was easily the worst season of his career. He posted a 3.47 ERA with 65 strikeouts in 59.2 innings for Triple-A Louisville. That tells you just how good he’s been since the Reds selected him out of South Florida in the 6th round of the 2015 draft. For his career he has a 2.77 ERA in 207.2 innings – all as a reliever.
While Jimmy Herget doesn’t quite have the stuff of a back of the bullpen guy in todays climate, he projects as a quality reliever. And he projects as that guy, soon. A quick scouting report on Herget would read that he throws 90-95 MPH, with multiple arm angles and some movement. He can touch a tad higher on a rare occasion. He also throws a good slider, also from multiple arm angles. Herget can and does also alter his timing to the plate to keep hitters off balance, much like Johnny Cueto used to. He will generally throw plenty of strikes, and his track record of performance speaks for itself.
There will be several players that could garner interest for selection from the organization. Over the next few weeks I will cover those guys a little more in depth. The Rule 5 draft will be held on December 13th, the last day of the winter meetings. The roster for the Reds currently sits at 39 players. With the deadline being 8pm, there’s a chance the Reds could still add someone – though it seems if they do it would come from a waiver pick up of someone dropped from another teams roster.