The Cincinnati Reds have traded right-handed pitching prospect Joe Boyle to the Oakland Athletics. Cincinnati acquired left-handed reliever Sam Moll and an undisclosed amount of international signing cap space from Oakland in return.
When Cincinnati selected Joe Boyle in the 5th round of the 2020 draft they knew that they were taking a pitcher with elite stuff and a pitcher who struggled to throw strikes with any sort of regularity. To Boyle’s credit, he has improved upon his ability to throw strikes. But that improvement still has left a lot of walks.
In his 204.1 innings pitched since being drafted, Boyle has walked 173 batters. He was promoted to Double-A late in the 2022 season and has spent all of 2023 there, as well. In his 110.0 innings pitched in Double-A he’s walked 100 batters with 153 strikeouts and he’s posted a 4.58 ERA.
Cincinnati has used Boyle as a starting pitcher since they drafted him. It’s tough to believe that anyone actually thinks he is going to ever throw enough strikes to be a starting pitcher long term. Keeping him in the rotation, though, has allowed him to pitch a lot more and get much needed reps. But what that has also done is keep him from a role that his likely future is in – the bullpen. What does his already incredible stuff look like when he knows he only needs to throw 20 pitches instead of 90-100? Does the control improve at all? Those are questions that the Reds never got to find out. Maybe Oakland will give it a shot and see what happens.
As for the international cap space money that the Reds have acquired – we don’t know how much it was at this point. What we do know is that Cincinnati had spent nearly all of the cap space that they had for the current signing period. Whatever amount they did acquire will allow them to sign more players if they get a look at someone that they are interested in.