There’s no baseball going on, and there haven’t been any games played for more than two weeks now. Minor League games never actually got around to happening before spring training was shut down due to the coronavirus/COVID-19 pandemic we are all now far too aware of as it’s altered how we go about our basic lives. That hasn’t stopped teams around Major League Baseball from operating their business, though. Teams have still been making roster moves. On Thursday, Baseball America released their latest rounds of the transaction sheet and it included four releases of Cincinnati Reds minor leaguers. All four of the players released were pitchers. Carlos Machorro, Felix Jorge, Junichi Tazawa, and Chris Volstad were all released by the organization.
Carlos Machorro was the player who has been with the organization the longest. He signed with the organization out of Mexico back in June of 2014. The right-handed pitcher spent time with the Arizona League Reds, Billings Mustangs, Dayton Dragons, and Daytona Tortugas in the five seasons he spent in the organization. He made one start and appeared in 96 games as a reliever in that span, posting a 3.23 ERA in 167.1 innings where he allowed 137 hits, 10 home runs, walked 63 batters, and picked up 165 strikeouts.
Felix Jorge joined the organization as a minor league free agent in January of 2019. But the former big leaguers (he played with Minnesota in 2017) missed all of last season due to injury. He also missed nearly all of 2018 with the Twins due to an injury – appearing in just two games on a rehab stint with their Gulf Coast League team.
Junichi Tazawa joined the reds organization in August of 2019 when he was signed as a minor league free agent. Last season was the only year since 2008 that he didn’t pitch in the Major Leagues while healthy (he missed all of 2010 with an injury). He appeared in three games after joining the organization – pitching once for the AZL Reds before joining Louisville and making two shutout appearances for the Bats.
Chris Volstad signed with the organization prior to the start of spring training as a minor league free agent. The 33-year-old appeared in three games with the big league club – though he was not in big league camp – and allowed seven hits in 1.1 innings with three walks.