Reds add Tyler Stephenson, three others to taxi squad

The Cincinnati Reds are making a long road trip, starting today in Kansas City with a doubleheader against the Royals. Tomorrow they will head over to St. Louis to play the Cardinals for in a 4-game set through Sunday, and then take a trip up north to Milwaukee where they will play the Brewers. Since their last road trip, Major League Baseball has taken the taxi squad size limit from three players (as long as one is a catcher) and added two more to it (as long as one is a catcher), leaving teams with five spots.

The Reds chose to use all five spots, though technically for today, they are only using four. Catcher Tyler Stephenson is joined by two infielders – Christian Colón and Alex Blandino – as well as outfielder Mark Payton on the taxi squad. Infielder Robel García has been added to the roster for today’s games in Kansas City as the “extra man” that teams can have for doubleheaders. If everyone gets through the games healthy, it would be a logical assumption that tomorrow will see García be optioned back to the Prasco Park roster and then added to the taxi squad for the remainder of the road trip (unless of course they call him back up).

Of the five players, two of them are not on the 40-man roster – Christian Colón and Mark Payton. That is important to note because if they are used during the road trip, the team will need to make moves in order to put them on the 40-man roster and activate them on the big league roster. Tyler Stephenson, Alex Blandino, and Robel García are already on the 40-man roster and wouldn’t require any further moves to be added other than someone on the active roster either being optioned in their place, or by having them replace someone on the roster who were to go onto the injured list.

And with five players now removed, temporarily at least, from the Prasco Park roster, here’s how it looks there now: