It appears that the Cincinnati Reds have managed to hold on to LHP Ismael Guillon, as the enigmatic lefty hurler cleared waivers and was outrighted to AAA Louisville on Friday. Guillon was designated last week when the Reds signed RHP Burke Badenhop to bolster their big league bullpen, a somewhat surprising move given Guillon's upside and the middle-aged riff-raff also on the 40-man roster at the time, but at least he'll be kept around in the organization to continue to develop. Perhaps the Reds reached the decision that they no longer view him as a starting pitching prospect, and therefore weren't convinced he was worth a spot on the roster; keeping him around and trying him as a bullpen arm is an intriguing project they'd apparently like to undertake, though. Also worth noting is that Guillon has been invited to big league camp at Spring Training.
From The Enquirer, we got some input from GM Walt Jocketty on the Reds' expectations for 2015 via John Fay, and there's still a solid amount of optimism within the team's front office. It's hard to compare "being optimistic for a breakout" to "being optimistic for a return to form," but it's clear the Reds appear to be hoping for as much of the latter for 2015 as they did for the former prior to 2010. There's no denying that if a plurality of Joey Votto, Homer Bailey, Jay Bruce, Brandon Phillips, Zack Cozart, and 1st half Billy Hamilton return to form, the Reds will have a much better shot at being successful than they did in 2014, but it's hard to place heavy expectations on that after such a disappointing 2014. Walt's holding steady to that scenario's probability, however, which means we all get to as well. Also of note here, I think, is that Jocketty seems to think Brennan Boesch may bring more to the big league table in 2015 than we may be giving him credit for. Once again rooting for a return to form, it seems.
Over at Reds.com, Mark Sheldon continued running through his Spring Training preview series, and his latest effort focuses on the youth in the Reds' system that will be in big league camp in 2015. It's a Who's Who of the Reds top prospects, and while that shouldn't be surprising, it's at least an additional sign that a lot of the talent that's in the Reds system is getting much closer to being big league ready. For the last two seasons, the bulk of the talent on the farm had been so farm down the rungs of the minors that they were largely absent in big league camp, but that's certainly not the case for 2015. The bulk of the team's Top 10 will be around, including each of MLB.com's Top 4 prospects and the mystery that is Raisel Iglesias.
This is a dog in a Reds shirt.
Donald Lutz got his new bats shipped in, and he's ready to get to dingering.
Finally, FanGraphs' Dave Cameron listed the off-season moves that he found the worst, and be excited that the Reds didn't crack the list. So, they've got that going for them...which is nice.