This afternoon the Cincinnati Reds added five players to the 40-man roster. Cincinnati added pitchers Hunter Greene, Alexis Diaz, Daniel Duarte, and James Marinan, as well as outfielder Allan Cerda. The five players will not be eligible to be selected in the upcoming Rule 5 draft thanks to their now being a part of the 40-man roster.
As I wrote earlier this past week, I expected Hunter Greene, Alexis Diaz, James Marinan, and Allan Cerda to be added to the roster. The one that was surprising to me was Daniel Duarte. In my coverage I did not even mention him. That is entirely on me. He was not on my Rule 5 eligible list because that’s a list that I made at the start of the season. Duarte signed with the Reds in June and I never added him to my list and so when I was going over players to discuss I screwed up and never even had him as a consideration.
Here’s what I wrote about Daniel Duarte over at Redleg Nation when the moves were announced:
Daniel Duarte had signed with the Reds organization as a minor league free agent in February of 2020. But in June, with no season taking place, the Reds released him. He didn’t get a contract in 2021 from an affiliated team until late June when the Reds signed him again. They quickly moved him from Goodyear where he threw one “warm up” game before moving him to Dayton for two weeks before he left to go play for Mexico in the Summer Olympics. He returned a month later and joined Chattanooga where he spent the next month before finishing up in Triple-A for the last two weeks of his season. Between all of his stops he posted a 4.56 ERA in 23.2 innings while giving up 21 hits, three home runs, 12 walks, and he struck out 32.
Quick Scouting Report
Duarte throws his fastball in the 94-96 MPH range and will touch higher on occasion. He also mixes in a solid breaking ball in the low-80’s. He’s thrown strikes throughout his career.
Cincinnati only had five spots open on their 40-man roster, so they could only add five players without having to designate someone for assignment to clear a spot. There are still some interesting names out there who were left off of the roster that other teams could be interested in.
From how I see the players, and be certain that other organizations are going to have their own hierarchy of how guys rate out, I believe that Eduardo Salazar and Joel Kuhnel are the Reds prospects at the highest risk of being selected.