Minor League free agency isn’t as talked about as it’s big league version and there is obviously a good reason for that. But minor league free agency still matters. Most of the time you aren’t going to find players who make a big difference at the big league level in this area, but every so often you can and do. Even when you don’t do that, though, you can find useful players that can supplement the bullpen or bench, and at times even provide some starting pitching depth in the short term. The Cincinnati Reds lost 20 players this week to minor league free agency.
Overall there were 574 minor league free agents (you can see the full list of all players at Baseball America right here), with nearly half of them coming from the Triple-A level. And that makes sense because unless you are released, it takes six seasons after you sign your first contract to reach free agency. Between that and guys who have already reached free agency but were good enough to be re-signed and remain in pro ball, a lot of your free agents will be older but players good enough to stick around for a while.
The Cincinnati Reds saw 20 players become free agents and 13 of them have big league experience. That’s going to cause some depth issues in the upper levels if they can’t replace most of them with similar types of guys over the next 4-5 months.
Here’s the breakdown of the players who are now free agents:
| Position | Player | Position | Player |
| RHP | Tejay Antone | RHP | Adam Plutko |
| LHP | Charlie Barnes | 1B | Edwin Ríos |
| RHP | Alan Busenitz | LHP | T.J. Sikkema |
| RHP | Buck Farmer | RHP | Josh Staumont |
| RHP | Arij Fransen | RHP | Lenny Torres Jr. |
| C | P.J. Higgins | LHP | Joel Valdez |
| INF | Levi Jordan | 3B | Davis Wendzel |
| RHP | Brandon Komar | RHP | Zach Willeman |
| LHP | Evan Kravetz | C | Eric Yang |
| LHP | Drew Parrish | LHP | Alex Young |
Don’t be surprised if a few of these guys wind up back with the Cincinnati Reds before the 2026 season begins. Several of the guys on the above list were free agents in 2024 and came back – P.J Higgins, Levi Jordan, and Edwin Rios all wound up re-signing. If those three come back again it would be a bit of a surprise given that none of them got to the big leagues with the Reds in 2025 and will likely be looking at a different opportunity that may give them a better chance of doing that if they get the job done in 2026.
Among the 20 players that are now free agents, 15 of them were pitchers and just five of them were position players. That split is interesting as last year it was a 10/10 split. The Reds are likely going to have to do a lot more shopping around for arms this offseason than they did last year as there are likely more spots to fill (guys returning from injury may cut into the number of spots needed).
One player who was going to be a free agent is sticking around. Jose Franco would have been on this list but Cincinnati added him to the 40-man roster in order to retain his services. Now that he’s on the 40-man roster he will be around for at least the next six seasons if the Reds want him to be, and could be around for the next nine years in a scenario where he is optioned the next three seasons and doesn’t accumulate a year of service time in those three years before then being in the big leagues the following six years after that, which is when he would then reach free agency.
From the Useless Information Dept., Minor League FA Division: Catchers
Looking over the list of all minor league FA’s in the BA article, I started noticing more than a few former Reds draft picks/signees that were catchers.
These were (in no real order):
Chris Okey
Joe Hudson
Mark Kolozsvary
Daniel Vellojin
Chad Tromp
Eric Yang
That’s like 10% of this year’s FA catchers.
I have no idea what it means, if anything. One possibility is just that we drafted college catchers with a certain baseline of catching skills that enables them to stick around the game. I also thought maybe Corky Miller can simply really teach catching. Who knows, but not me.
Next piece of useless information. We have used a fair amount of draft capital trying to get a catcher over the last ten drafts.
1 CB-A pick (Mat Nelson)
2 2nd round picks (Logan Tanner, Okey)
1 CB-B pick (Jackson Miller)
2 5th picks (Cade Hunter, Conner Burns)
1 6th round pick (Jacob Friend, Hudson)
1 7th round pick (Jay Schuyler)
1 9th round pick (Ryan McKrystal)
1 10th round pick (Casiano)
1 13th round pick (Michael Trautwein)
There are 5-10 others drafted that barely made a dent, as well. So 15-20 draft picks over ten drafts. Seems pretty standard.
Besides the above FA’s, Nelson, Schuyler and Miller are out of baseball, Tanner is converting to pitching, Trautwein is at AA/AAA, Hunter and Burns are at AA, McKrystal is at Hi-A, Friend is at A and Casiano is at R ACL.
It’s not so much that it must be very hard to draft or sign catching and get it to the major leagues. There is no doubt that it definitely is very hard to do that.
Makes you really appreciate what we might have in Alfredo Duno. It also makes the development (or acquisition) of someone like Burns, McKrystal or Trautwein as a home grown, low cost back-up carry some weight. Though a long, long way away, a kid like Jirvin Morillo in the DSL or ACL can also raise a few hopes.
In the meantime, Duno looms large.
We haven’t had much success domestically drafting catchers with the exception of Stephenson. Maybe focus on good young catchers in Latin America and develop them through the minor leagues. Blake Sabol just got released by the White Sox and might be a good pickup on a minor league deal. He’s still 27 and can play some OF also. We lost Higgins and Yang and he could join Banfield and Trautwein at Louisville.
Sabol, of course, was a Red-for-a-day, and would make a fine Red of some sort again, though I expect he’ll have plenty of offers. Looks like they’ll go with Banfield on the 40-man as long as possible, and fill in the Lookouts and Bats rosters from this list later in the spring.
To pick up on Dave’s point, there is a gap between Banfield and Duno, and a big risk if both falter in some way – injury or underperformance.
It’s been a while since I ran the numbers – maybe a decade or so – but catchers were far and away the least likely position to reach the big leagues. High school catchers were far and away the worst picks teams could make.
That said, I would say the Reds have been solid with the picks of Tucker Barnhart and Tyler Stephenson as they’ve held down starting jobs for the Reds at catcher for most of the last 11 years?
Of course they’ve also drafted a lot of catchers who haven’t been able to hit the ball out of the infield, as Dave rightfully pointed out.
Catching is tough.
José Franco is going to pitch in LVBP Venezuelan Winter league apparently…At least, he’s preparing himself to join Navegantes del Magallanes later this month according to people linked to the team…I will be surprised if he pitches this winter…
Do you have a link to this information? I’d be interested in checking it out.
That was shown on X by a couple of reporters who are linked to the team and this following article (it’s in spanish language) was written by a serious sport journalist in Venezuela:
https://elemergente.com/2025/11/el-magallanes-consigue-el-permiso-de-un-abridor-roster-de-40-para-atender-su-crisis-segun-reporte.html