Reds add reliever Taylor Rogers in trade with Giants
CINCINNATI ¨C The Reds continued efforts to shore up areas of need on Wednesday when they acquired left-handed reliever Taylor Rogers and cash from the Giants for Minor League right-handed reliever Braxton Roxby.
According to a source, Cincinnati will receive $6 million in the deal after approval from Major League Baseball. That will offset half of Rogers' $12 million salary for 2025. He can be a free agent after the coming season, when his three-year, $33 million contract expires.
¡°We¡¯ve had conversations about this over the last few weeks," Reds president of baseball operations Nick Krall said, "and then this morning, it was something where it started going down the road a little faster and we ended up making the deal."
TRADE DETAILS
Reds get: LHP Taylor Rogers, cash
Giants get: RHP Braxton Roxby
In 64 appearances covering 60 innings last season, Rogers posted a 2.40 ERA and a 1.25 WHIP while walking 22 batters and striking out 64. However, most of his outings were not considered to be in high-leverage situations.
¡°He¡¯s an accomplished left-handed pitcher that pitched really well out of the ¡®pen over the last several years," Krall said. "I¡¯m really excited to add him -- veteran leadership that just takes the ball and goes and gets outs with the rest of the group.¡±
Rogers had better reverse splits in 2024, as he performed better vs. right-handers (.202 average) than left-handed hitters (.284). But over his career, lefties have hit .196 against him compared to a .259 average from righties.
"You¡¯re going to have some reversion to the mean. I think there is a little bit of luck in play there," said Krall, while noting that lefties last season had a .424 batting average on balls in play (BABIP).
Over a nine-season big league career that began in 2016, the 34-year-old Rogers has a 3.34 ERA with 83 saves and a 7.3 bWAR while pitching for the Twins, Padres, Brewers and Giants. With Minnesota, Rogers secured a career-high 31 saves in 2022 and he was an All-Star in '21.
During the past two seasons, Rogers was teammates in San Francisco with his twin brother, Tyler.
Rogers will join Sam Moll and Brent Suter as southpaws in Cincinnati's bullpen.
¡°It takes some of the pressure off of Sam and Brent and pitch back-end innings," Krall said ¡°We weren¡¯t trying to do it but it¡¯s something when we looked at [Rogers] vs. some other players that were out there on both the trade and free agent market, we felt this was a really good fit. When you have a couple [guys] who have thrown a couple of days ago and he¡¯s not available, having another guy that can go get those back-end quality outs is really important.¡±
Cincinnati had been connected recently to free agent reliever Carlos Est¨¦vez, who reportedly agreed to a two-year contract with the Royals on Wednesday. Krall said Est¨¦vez's situation was not related to his adding Rogers.
"We talked and we weren¡¯t there," Krall said. "We had conversations with him and a few other folks and we just felt this was the best thing for the club.¡±
The Reds have made several moves this offseason, including agreeing to a one-year, $5 million contract with free agent outfielder Austin Hays on Tuesday -- according to a source. That deal, which Krall declined to discuss, is pending a physical. Both the Rogers and Hays moves were made possible after the club returned to FanDuel Sports Network for 2025 instead of having local television games produced by MLB Media. The new one-year TV deal gave Cincinnati more money and a limited ability to add salary to its payroll.
Among other offseason transactions this winter, Cincinnati has added infielder Gavin Lux, starting pitcher Brady Singer and backup catcher Jose Trevino via trades. The club also retained free agent starter/reliever Nick Martinez after he accepted a $21.05 million qualifying offer.
Roxby was 0-4 with a 5.21 ERA in 39 relief appearances for Double-A Chattanooga last season. To clear space on the 40-man roster, right-handed pitcher Owen White, who was acquired from the Rangers on Jan. 6, was designated for assignment.