The Cincinnati Reds are calling up outfielder Brian O’Grady from Triple-A Louisville. He will be taking the place on the roster of Derek Dietrich, who is heading to the injured list with left shoulder inflammation. Blake Trahan was designated for assignment to make room on the 40-man roster for O’Grady.
Brian O’Grady does a little bit of everything. Defensively he’s best suited for left field, right field, or first base. But he’s spent plenty of time in center field in the minors, too, even this year (as recently as YESTERDAY). He’s not a guy you’d like to see out there every day in normal circumstances, but in a day and age when Jesse Winker is somehow a center fielder, then Brian O’Grady can definitely cover the position.
Offensively he’s got some real pop in his bat from the left side. The 27-year-old broke out last season in Double-A and Triple-A, and he’s carried that forward this year. In 100 games for Louisville this year he’s hit 27 doubles, a triple, and he’s had 27 home runs. He’s hitting .277/.351/.562 on the year with 43 walks and 124 strikeouts. There’s some swing-and-miss to his game – his strikeout rate is at 28% this year in Louisville. But he’ll also take his walks when they are there, can use the entire field with a little bit of pop everywhere, and he’s a good base runner, too. He’s stolen 16 bases in 20 attempts this year. He’s much faster than you would think when you initially see him.
What to expect from Brian O’Grady
As a left-handed hitter, at least in 2019, he’s crushed left-handed pitching for the Bats. O’Grady has a .322/.364/.653 line against lefties in 129 plate appearances. Against right-handed pitchers he’s hit .257/.345/.522 this year in 308 plate appearances.
Brian O’Grady is known in the farm system as one of the harder workers around. He has put in the work over the years to not only stick around, but to find and make improvements in his game. A couple of weeks ago I was speaking with a scout about the Reds organization and some guys who were having good year and we were speaking about O’Grady. In his opinion he felt he was more of a 4th outfielder than a starter, but the versatility played well with the power.
It will be interesting to see how he’s used. I’d be surprised if he were to start with frequency, but given where all he can play, the pop, and the speed, he could be very useful on a daily basis off of the bench, too.
Blake Trahan designated for assignment
The infielder may be coming off of the best month of his entire career, where he hit 5 home runs in July after never before homering twice in a month in his career. But the 25-year-old was hitting .230/.280/.324 on the year in Triple-A. He’s a glove-first middle infielder with good defense, but in an era where everyone’s basically a power hitter of sorts, he simply wasn’t.