Reds have signed RHRP Pedro Strop (pending physical)

[texasdave]

Reds have now signed 5 of their top 50 Free Agents this year with a chance at a sixth if they can sign Brock Holt. Pretty crazy..

And none of the 5, possibly 6, free agent signees were the 2 they predicted would sign with the Reds - Grandal and Gregorius.

[chicoruiz]

75 posts in the other thread, and 30+ in this one, and no one has used the phrase “Vote For Pedro” yet. You guys are slipping...

[JFLegal]

strop was part of one of the most one-sided trades in mlb history. and he was on the good end of the deal:

PEDRO STROP-JUL 2 2013: Traded to Chicago (CHC) from Baltimore (BAL) with Jake Arrieta and $388,100 for Scott Feldman and Steve Clevenger.

[mth123]

So he could bounce back, but he's a question mark like all the others. My take, every team in baseball says they need bullpen help, yet 29 out of 30 teams didn't think he was worth $1.8 Million. The Reds could win big here, but this doesn't really relieve any of the uncertainty in the bullpen. Hope he's good again, but I take age 35 coming off a bad year with nagging injuries as a sign of decline. Not sure why we expect fewer nagging injuries now that he's a year older.

Lots of upside in the bullpen, but not much in the way of reliability and the one thing a pen needs to be more than anything is reliable. I'm OK with the deal and they won't lose anybody important or break the bank here, but I wanted them to add an actual answer instead of another question. My guess is they now stop looking and I think that's a mistake.

Still, great off-season. Most excited I've been about the Reds since 2013. Moose and Cast filled this team's biggest need. The rest are question marks, but they seem better than the question marks they are replacing.

[Kc61]

Lots of upside in the bullpen, but not much in the way of reliability and the one thing a pen needs to be more than anything is reliable. I'm OK with the deal and they won't lose anybody important or break the bank here, but I wanted them to add an actual answer instead of another question. My guess is they now stop looking and I think that's a mistake.
.

I wouldn’t assume Reds have stopped looking for relievers or anything else. They need to address any weaknesses, there’s a lot of money and credibility on the line at this point. They can’t be ostrich-like if there are weaknesses.

Reds now have Iglesias, Lorenzen, Garrett, Stephenson, Strop and three vacant spots for competition involving veterans (e.g., Bowman, Jones) and younger pitchers (e.g.,Sims, Reed). They still have time to add more guys and will have another shot at the deadline.

Glad they signed Strop, let’s just see how things develop.

[WrongVerb]

I'd really like one more solid lefty in the pen. I hear Josh Hader is available.

[kaldaniels]

So he could bounce back, but he's a question mark like all the others. My take, every team in baseball says they need bullpen help, yet 29 out of 30 teams didn't think he was worth $1.8 Million. The Reds could win big here, but this doesn't really relieve any of the uncertainty in the bullpen. Hope he's good again, but I take age 35 coming off a bad year with nagging injuries as a sign of decline. Not sure why we expect fewer nagging injuries now that he's a year older.

Lots of upside in the bullpen, but not much in the way of reliability and the one thing a pen needs to be more than anything is reliable. I'm OK with the deal and they won't lose anybody important or break the bank here, but I wanted them to add an actual answer instead of another question. My guess is they now stop looking and I think that's a mistake.

Still, great off-season. Most excited I've been about the Reds since 2013. Moose and Cast filled this team's biggest need. The rest are question marks, but they seem better than the question marks they are replacing.

Respectfully one could make a similar remark about each and every free agent signing.

[corkedbat]

Not sure this signing will end up being a steal, but I do think the risk is acceptable. If he doesn't look that great in ST, $1.8M is not a heckuva lot to waive/cut (eat).

[RedTeamGo!]

So he could bounce back, but he's a question mark like all the others. My take, every team in baseball says they need bullpen help, yet 29 out of 30 teams didn't think he was worth $1.8 Million. The Reds could win big here, but this doesn't really relieve any of the uncertainty in the bullpen. Hope he's good again, but I take age 35 coming off a bad year with nagging injuries as a sign of decline. Not sure why we expect fewer nagging injuries now that he's a year older.

Lots of upside in the bullpen, but not much in the way of reliability and the one thing a pen needs to be more than anything is reliable. I'm OK with the deal and they won't lose anybody important or break the bank here, but I wanted them to add an actual answer instead of another question. My guess is they now stop looking and I think that's a mistake.

Still, great off-season. Most excited I've been about the Reds since 2013. Moose and Cast filled this team's biggest need. The rest are question marks, but they seem better than the question marks they are replacing.

Castellanos, Moustakas, and Miley aren’t really question marks - but you do you, man.

[kheidg-]

Not a bad move to bolster the bullpen on the cheap.

At worst, it gets Cubs fans upset. They loved him.

[mth123]

Respectfully one could make a similar remark about each and every free agent signing.

Not really. They signed Castellanos and Moose to market value deals and I think its fair to have expectations of and to count on a certain level of production. Strop is signed to a salary that is well below the average salary for a big league player. He was signed to a lotto ticket deal and that was all he could command though every team in baseball has a need for bullpen help. IMO, that is an indication of how he's viewed by the people making decisions in the game and should be viewed as nothing more than a lotto ticket. He's not a stabilizer (though he could turn out to be). He's just another question added to a stable of guys who are also questions. I have no expectations here. He might be awesome. He might have us longing for Wandy Peralta. That's pretty much a description of most of the pitchers in this bullpen. I don't have any more comfort level with him than I do with Sims, Reed, Deleon, Bowman, Kuhnel or any of the other questions. They need somebody better than those guys.

He's probably better than Romano, so I guess it's an upgrade to the 40 man roster and I'm not really against signing him. Still, I think the pen is a potential fatal flaw on this roster and adding Strop doesn't change that. I was hoping for a bullpen acquisition that would.

[mth123]

Castellanos, Moustakas, and Miley aren’t really question marks - but you do you, man.

Who said anything about those guys? I don't think they are questions either. I'm talking about the bullpen. It's loaded with question marks and little else and adding Strop doesn't change that one bit.

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Not sure this signing will end up being a steal, but I do think the risk is acceptable. If he doesn't look that great in ST, $1.8M is not a heckuva lot to waive/cut (eat).

This I agree with.

[allpurpose]

I think he signed with the Reds just so he can call Puig stupid without every Reds fan getting mad at him.

[allpurpose]

Not really. They signed Castellanos and Moose to market value deals and I think its fair to have expectations of and to count on a certain level of production. Strop is signed to a salary that is well below the average salary for a big league player. He was signed to a lotto ticket deal and that was all he could command though every team in baseball has a need for bullpen help. IMO, that is an indication of how he's viewed by the people making decisions in the game and should be viewed as nothing more than a lotto ticket. He's not a stabilizer (though he could turn out to be). He's just another question added to a stable of guys who are also questions. I have no expectations here. He might be awesome. He might have us longing for Wandy Peralta. That's pretty much a description of most of the pitchers in this bullpen. I don't have any more comfort level with him than I do with Sims, Reed, Deleon, Bowman, Kuhnel or any of the other questions. They need somebody better than those guys.

He's probably better than Romano, so I guess it's an upgrade to the 40 man roster and I'm not really against signing him. Still, I think the pen is a potential fatal flaw on this roster and adding Strop doesn't change that. I was hoping for a bullpen acquisition that would.

Considering most bullpen pitchers are basically just failed starting pitchers I think you're exactly right. Has there ever been a bullpen pitcher who didn't think he was good enough to pitch a no hitter in the 7th game of the world series?

[RedTeamGo!]

Who said anything about those guys? I don't think they are questions either. I'm talking about the bullpen. It's loaded with question marks and little else and adding Strop doesn't change that one bit.

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This I agree with.

Literally every bullpen is full of question marks, it’s the nature of the beast.