With the Major League roster now set for the Cincinnati Reds, the organization has also set their alternate site roster that will be in Louisville for the month of April to serve as potential back ups in case of injury or performance issues for the big league team until the minor league season begins the first week of May. The roster has 31 players on it, but that comes with an asterisk, too. More on that below. Here’s what the roster looks like:
Something that you may have noticed about the alternate site roster is that two big names that were in early minor league camp and participated are not on this roster. Top pitching prospects Nick Lodolo and Hunter Greene are both absent from the group of players that will be in Louisville. They will stick back in Goodyear and continue with “regular” minor league spring training that begins on April 4th. Players are reporting and going through the protocols for that right now, but the team will hold their first workouts for minor league spring training in Goodyear on the 4th.
Also missing from the alternate site roster that was a member of early minor league camp are Graham Ashcraft, Ryan Lillie, Lyon Richardson, Mark Kolozsvary, and Chuckie Robinson. They will also be staying back in Goodyear to participate in regular minor league spring training.
The alternate site in Louisville will be hosting 11 games against other alternate sites in the region. There are a limited number of tickets available to purchase to attend those games. You can buy them here.
Matt Ball, Shane Carle, and Dwight Smith Jr., missing too. Also, where is Joel Kuhnel? Those four are all on Louisville’s current roster, so I guess they would be staying in Goodyear as well.
The minor league roster (for Goodyear) isn’t yet available. I’m hoping to have it in a few days. We’ll see where those guys are then.
I assume this is pretty much their AAA roster? I figured Garcia would start in Chattanooga. You would think Dwight Smith and Kuhnel would have been there. I wonder if either are injured?
I think this is just the AAA roster for April. Guys who didn’t get invited to ML camp still need spring training. I’m assuming Joel Kuhnel will be on the AAA roster once he’s ready. But I was a little surprised he didn’t get the invite so maybe there is something there.
Dwight Smith Jr. not being there is a surprise because he’s a guy who was in early camp and is on the older side. Kuhnel wasn’t in minor league camp, so there’s no surprise at all that he’s not at the alternate site – he wouldn’t have been ready. I do wonder about Kuhnel’s health at this point, though, given how the last 8 months have played out and he’s been fairly absent. I will try to remember to ask someone about that.
What about Jesse Biddle? He had a strong spring training even better than Shipley, Alaniz and so on…and he is left-handed pitcher so could be very valuable..
Jesse Biddle had an opt out in his contract and he used it to become a free agent.