It would appear that the Cincinnati Reds have signed two guys with big league experience to minor league deals. Both Irving Falu and Jose De La Torre are now listed on the Pensacola Blue Wahoos roster.
Irving Falu has spent small amounts of time in the big leagues over the last three seasons. The 31-year-old infielder has 130 career plate appearances with a .277/.320/.345 line in his big league career, though most of that came in 2012 with the Royals. Falu is a switch hitting utility infielder who has spent time at second, third and shortstop. He also has some experience in the outfield.
The last six years have all been spent at the Triple-A level with either the Royals or the Brewers organization and he’s hit .284/.342/.364 with nearly as many walks as strikeouts. In the minor leagues he has shown elite level contact skills, striking out in just over 8% of his plate appearances at the Triple-A level and even in limited big league action he has struck out just 10.7% of the time. He doesn’t have much power to speak of, but if he can actually play any kind of defense he could be a decent option as a utility infielder who can provide contact off of the bench at the big league level and if nothing else provides depth in the minors in case of an injury.
The Reds also picked up right handed reliever Jose De La Torre. He pitched for the Boston Red Sox in the 2013 season, throwing 11.1 innings with a 6.35 ERA, 10 walks and 15 strikeouts. The strikeout rate was very high, but so was the walk rate. Prior to the 2014 season, De La Torre hadn’t had an ERA over 3.00 since the 2007 season in the minor leagues, but he struggled for Triple-A Nashville as he posted a 5.97 ERA in 28.2 innings. He misses a lot of bats, having to go back to that same 2007 season to find a year where he didn’t strike out at last as many hitters as innings pitched, but his walk rate has been a bit higher than you’d like to see as well.
De La Torre has a good arm, throwing a fastball in the 92-94 MPH range and he’s topped out at 96 MPH in the big leagues. The now 29-year-old uses both a two and four seamer as well as a slider and a splitter. If he can improve his control some he could be a very useful arm for the bullpen.