The Cincinnati Reds announced that catcher Ryan Lavarnway has cleared waivers and that he was outrighted to Triple-A Louisville. On July 18th he was released by the New York Yankees so he could sign with the Cincinnati Reds. He had been playing with the Yankees in Triple-A at the time.
The Reds needed a 5th catcher, as they had just sent their third string catcher to the injured list, leaving them with their 4th string catcher Juan Graterol as their starter and no real backup plan. For his part, Ryan Lavarnway spent a week in the Major Leagues with the Reds and played in five games. And he made those games count, too. The 31-year-old who had spent parts of seven previous seasons in the majors hit .278/.316/.722 with two doubles and two home runs.
Cincinnati saw both Tucker Barnhart and Kyle Farmer ready to come back from the injured lists, though, and that meant that there wasn’t room on the roster for Lavarnway. The team also needed room on the 40-man roster for Alex Wood, who was coming off of the 60-day injured list. So the team chose to place Lavarnway on waivers and remove him from the roster. This afternoon he cleared them and was outrighted to Triple-A Louisville. It’s unclear if he accepted the assignment or not, though. The outright to the minors itself isn’t always proof that the player will indeed be going there. He has the right to refuse the assignment and become a free agent if he would like.