Cincinnati Reds to acquire Kevin Newman from Pittsburgh Pirates

The Cincinnati Reds continued their shuffling of deck chairs on Friday, apparently agreeing to acquire infielder Kevin Newman from division rival Pittsburgh just hours after agreeing to deal Kyle Farmer to the Minnesota Twins.

The Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal, per usual, was on the news.

Newman, 29, is akin to Farmer in that he, too, is in his second year of arbitration eligibility this winter, but as MLB Trade Rumors’ projection notes, he’s due just ~$2.8 million for the 2023 season, a far cry from the ~$5.9 million due Farmer.

Surely that kind of financial maneuvering was of zero interest to the persistently frugal Reds. Surely.

For the record, Marcels projects Newman to hit .243/.290/.340 in 2023, while Steamer has him pegged for a much more robust .265/.308/.365. He hit .274/.316/.372 last season with Pittsburgh in 309 PA, and that’s enough poor triple-slash line extrapolation from FanGraphs and Baseball Reference for me for one evening.

In exchange for Newman, the Reds will be sending reliever Dauri Moreta to Pittsburgh, according to The Athletic’s Rob Biertempfel.

The 2023 Cincinnati Reds sure are taking shape, folks. Be aware.