Earlier today the Cincinnati Reds signed right-handed pitcher Ben Lively to a minor league deal and invited him to big league spring training. The team announced that move on their social media platforms. In the transaction logs for the day, though, was another move that they didn’t announce: They invited minor league outfielder Lorenzo Cedrola to big league camp, too.
Originally signed by the Boston Red Sox, Lorenzo Cedrola joined the Reds organization in 2018 when he was acquired in exchange for international bonus pool spending money (the Reds sent no money, but did trade some “cap” space that allowed the Red Sox to spend more money).
While Cedrola had been solid in his two seasons since joining the Cincinnati organization, it was his 2021 season where he really broke out. After not playing in 2020, the Reds sent the outfielder to Double-A Chattanooga where he spent the year with the Lookouts. In 106 games he hit .320/.356/.461 while hitting as many home runs, 9, as he had hit in his entire career up to that point. He would add a 10th home run after joining Triple-A Louisville for the final 10 games of their extended season.
Lorenzo Cedrola has some things that stick out on his scouting report. He’s a good defender in center, has above-average to plus speed on the bases, and at the plate he makes a ton of contact. For his career he’s only struck out in 11.8% of his plate appearances.
With all of that contact, though, comes a low walk rate. That’s usually a trade off of making tons of contact because you don’t tend to get deep into counts when you put the bat on the ball when you do choose to swing it. The power had always been almost non-existent in the past, though there was reason to believe there was a little more in there than he was showing. That showed up in 2021 with a career best 36 extra-base hits that included 10 of his 19 career home runs. He’s never going to be a real power threat, but he showed enough last year to at least give pitchers a reason to respect the fact that they can’t just go dead-red against him and expect to not pay the price.
The Cincinnati Reds Non-Roster Invitees
So far this offseason the Cincinnati Reds have extended spring training invitations to 12 players. There are likely more to come before things get started – whenever that happens to be as the owners currently have locked out the players until a new collective bargaining agreement is signed. Here’s the list of players that have received an invite:
The Pitchers
- Brandon Bailey
- Kyle Dowdy
- Ben Lively
- Connor Overton
- Trey Wingenter
The Catchers
- Aramis Garcia
- Andrew Knapp
The Infielders
- Jake Bauers
- Allen Córdoba
- Cristian Santana
The Outfielders
- Trey Amburgey
- Lorenzo Cedrola