Alfredo Simon had the opportunity to re-establish himself as a big league starter with the Cincinnati Reds. Eleven starts into the 2016 season, it’s safe to say that Simon and his 9.11 ERA no longer have any value in the Reds’ rotation.
Simon will soon transition to the bullpen once the Reds deem enough service time has passed to prevent Simon’s eventual replacement — either Cody Reed or Robert Stephenson — from qualifying for Super Two salary arbitration eligibility too soon.
The Reds signed Simon for the 2016 season at a base salary of $2 million. Had Simon produced the kind of year he had as a starter for the Reds just two years ago in 2014 (3.44 ERA in 34 starts), his trade value would have been a boon for the Reds.
But Simon didn’t even come close to the 5.05 ERA he recorded in 31 starts last year for the Detroit Tigers.
Simon had to wait until spring training was almost over before he even received his offer from the Reds. Now that his time as a starter for the Reds is coming to an end, this could be the last gasp of his big league career.
A shift to the bullpen might help Simon salvage some of his lost value, but the likelihood is that the Reds won’t stand to gain any viable prospect for Simon by trading the 35-year-old right-hander. If he performs decently out of the pen up to the end of either trade deadline, the Reds might find another team to pay the rest of Simon’s salary for this year.
Simon might actually help stabilize a historically bad Reds’ bullpen, which now ranks fourth-worst in ERA since 1913 with a whopping 6.73 ERA.
Simon may beat two other former Reds’ starting pitchers to the bullpen in Raisel Iglesias and Michael Lorenzen, who are both scheduled to return from injuries by the end of June.
Those three in the bullpen together might just help an ineffective Reds’ front office save some face from assembling one of the worst bullpens in the history of baseball.
Robb Hoff writes about the Cincinnati Reds for OutsidePitch MLB. You can follow him on Twitter and Facebook.
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