The Cincinnati Reds made one final trade as the trade deadline closed in on Thursday evening. The Reds sent right-handed pitching prospect Kenya Huggins to the Sacramento Athletics in a deal that is bringing utility player Miguel Andujar.
It’s worth pointing out that Miguel Andujar is a rental acquisition. He’s a free agent after this season. That means that Cincinnati’s front office was comfortable trading Huggins for two-three months of Andujar.
The Reds selected Kenya Huggins was selected in the 4th round of the 2022 MLB Draft out of Chipola Junior College. Since then he’s spent the last three seasons pitching for the Daytona Tortugas. But a lot of the time in 2024 and for half of 2023 was spent on the injured list after he injured his elbow and underwent Tommy John surgery.
This season the 22-year-old returned to the Tortugas rotation and made 15 starts, with three long relief appearances mixed in. He threw 63.1 innings and allowed just 44 hits, three home runs, 26 walks, and he struck out 57 batters. All of that led to a 3.69 ERA this year. Huggins had recently been promoted to High-A where he joined the Dragons, but he was traded before he had a chance to get on the mound for Dayton.
A 3-pitch guy who has run his fastball up to 97 MPH this season, Kenya Huggins averaged 93.8 MPH on his 4-seamer this season. His change up (88.6 MPH) and slider (86.8 MPH) are both pitches he used often this season – with the change up usage spiking up in a big way from the previous two seasons. Opponents hit the fastball fairly well this season (.302 with a .458 slugging percentage), but they struggled against both the change up (.211 BAA) and the slider (.151 BAA).
In the long run, Huggins profiles better as a potential reliever than a starter. But there’s also plenty of time for him to change that projection. The raw pieces are there already for a good relief profile, especially if his fastball can pick up a little velocity in a relief role.
You can see the career stats for Kenya Huggins here.