Reds trade Brian O’Grady to Rays

Earlier this week, the Reds made a couple of adds to their 40-man roster, the result of which ultimately booted Brian O’Grady and Jimmy Herget from the roster. Well, now we know the future of one of those players.

O’Grady was selected by the Reds in the 8th round of the 2014 MLB draft out of Rutgers, and has spent his entire professional career in the Reds organization. Most recently, he was called up to the Major League squad to end the 2019 season after hitting a blistering .280/.359/.550 in 489 plate appearances with the Louisville Bats. In Cincinnati, O’Grady played in 28 games, receiving 48 plate appearances and hit .190/.292/.429 with two dingers.

A little more surprising than all that, O’Grady worked primarily out of center field in his time with the Reds, playing 56 of his 79 big league defensive innings up the middle.

The recent additions of Travis Jankowski as a depth center fielder along with Nick Martini as another depth piece outfielder in general (both from the Padres) made O’Grady expendable in the eyes of Reds management. The idea of the Tampa Bay Rays as the team that sees a little something in O’Grady is a little discouraging to this writer, as it is an organization that is much more often correct on these types of player evaluations.

Still, at least the team was able to squeeze out a little bit of value, rather than lose O’Grady for nothing at all.