Chris Cotillo is reporting that the Cincinnati Reds have signed minor league reliever Rob Wooten to a minor league deal for 2017.
Rob Wooten gets minor-league deal from Reds, per source.
— Chris Cotillo (@ChrisCotillo) December 20, 2016
Wooten spent all of the 2016 season in Triple-A with the Atlanta Braves organization. He’s had limited action in the big leagues, throwing 68.0 innings between 2013 and 2015, all with the Brewers. He had a career 5.03 ERA in the bigs with 22 walks and 53 strikeouts over those 68.0 innings pitched.
He will be 31-years-old in the 2017 season. Last year with Gwinnett at Triple-A he posted a 3.58 ERA in 73.0 innings in 35 games (six starts). He allowed nine home runs, walked just 11 batters (two intentional) and had 60 strikeouts.
Throughout his career he’s been a low walk total pitcher, at least at the minor league level. In 2015, in just 6.0 big league innings, he walked six batters, but that’s been a big outlier to his career.
He showed big time splits in 2016 with the Braves in the International League. He dominated right handers, holding them to a .232/.274/.360 line. Left handers, however, had their way with him. They hit .296/.308/.528 against him with 16 extra-base hits in just 130 total plate appearances. That’s been a trend for him for the last several seasons of his career.
He performed much better in the first half of the season in 2016. In his first 39.0 innings of the season he had a 2.08 ERA with 35 strikeouts and just three home runs allowed. From July through the end of the season in 34.0 innings he had a 5.29 ERA with six home runs allowed and 25 strikeouts.
Rob Wooten Scouting Report
He throws strikes, working with a fastball, slider and a curveball. His fastball works in the 89-91 MPH range with a little bit of sink to it. His slider is his main secondary offering, working in the mid 80’s with short break to it. He will also mix in a curveball in the mid 70’s with 12-6 action.