Red Reposter: Real Friends

The Reds signed Scott Feldman last night for $2.2 million, which could go up to $4.5 million with incentives. It’s a one-year deal for a guy who was on the last great Rangers teams, the last great Astros teams and a very good Toronto team. He was also once traded for Jake Arrieta.

Maybe all that bystanding-to-greatness will rub off on the Reds. More likely than that, Feldman will compete for a rotation spot behind DeSclafani, Finnegan, and Bailey. So sayeth C. Trent.

“We're not looking at 2017 to be a replay of 2016 because we say it's a rebuild. I'm looking for 2017 to be a significant improvement over 2016. In order to do that, you have to have pitching depth in the rotation and the bullpen. I feel like we've satisfied those issues. Now we have to stay healthy.”

Price sees Feldman as the fourth starter, but there’s plenty of room for Bob Steve, Reed, Garrett...and Sal Romano and Tim Adleman.

Names not in the rotation conversation: Raisel Igelsias and Michael Lorenzen. Price said that he wants them to be late-inning dudes alongside Drew Storen. Read C. Trent’s link to get an idea of Price’s bullpen usage.

Also, the Reds need to boot a guy from the 40-man in order to get Feldman on it. This could be bad news for Lucas Luetge or Louis Coleman, whomever they are.

In other Trent Rosecrans News, he’s got a scoop on a Muhammad Ali-themed jersey the Louisville Bats are going to wear on June 3. Five months into the Trump presidency, the largest city in Kentucky is going to celebrate a Black Muslim dude and I can’t wait.

Law’s prospect Top 100 has Jesse Winker at #49 and Amir Garrett at #39.

For Winker, Law says “Winker hasn’t changed much at all since high school, physically or in his approach -- but there’s a very high floor, and he’s ready to play in the majors right now.”

Garrett is described as “so loose and easy that he can struggle to get to the same release point consistently.” He may be a crazy wild-armed air balloon man, but Law Compares the rangy guy to Jeff Samardzija – another hyper athlete who went first to the bullpen but later became a top-of-the-rotation starter.

In not baseball but deffo Cincinnati news, the very-rad Kareem Elgazzar has a series of photos of the 1937 Cincinnati flood and it’s very cool and a thing you should kill some time with today.