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    Vladimir Gutierrez (Photo: Doug Gray)
    Photo: Doug Gray

    Reds Triple-A Louisville Bats roster released

    Doug Gray 28

    Today is the day that we get the rest of the Cincinnati Reds minor league team rosters for the start of 2019. The Low-A Dayton Dragons roster came out on Friday. The Daytona Tortugas released their roster early this morning. The Chattanooga Lookouts roster from Double-A was released just before lunch. Now we get the final roster, the Triple-A Louisville Bats.

    Other Reds affiliate rosters

    Louisville – Chattanooga – Daytona – Dayton

    Nick Senzel headlines the Louisville Bats roster. This is a bit interesting because he is not listed on the injured list after injuring his ankle in spring training. The roster is preliminary and is subject to change before the season begins. In fact, it’s going to have to because there are 28 players listed here and that’s over the Triple-A active roster limit. The rest of the outfield for the Bats is quite intriguing. Brian O’Grady and Phillip Ervin will both look to build upon their 2018 seasons that were partially spent with the Bats. Aristides Aquino moves up to Triple-A after spending two seasons with Pensacola, and they’ll all be joined by newcomer Kyle Wren.

    The infield is made up of many guys who saw time with the Bats last season. Nick Longhi saw action with the Bats in the second half, playing both on the infield and in the outfield last season. Blake Trahan and Hernan Iribarren spent their entire 2018 campaigns with the Bats while in the minors. Josh VanMeter spent most of his season there, too – playing in 98 games for Louisville. Chris Okey will make his Triple-A debut when he takes the field for the first time.

    On the mound there are going to be a whole heck of a lot of interesting names. Vladimir Gutierrez is the top pitching prospect on the team. The right-handed pitcher ranks as the organizations 8th best prospect. He posted a 2.92 ERA in his final 16 starts last season in Double-A and will be getting his first taste of Triple-A this season. Keury Mella joins him as one of the other Top 25 prospect on the pitching staff. The 15th rated prospect will be returning to Louisville, where he spent part of his second half in 2018. Reliever Jimmy Herget, the Reds 20th rated prospect will be coming out of the bullpen for the third consecutive season.

    It’s not just prospects, though. Former top prospects who have spent too much time in the Majors to qualify as “prospects” are also on the roster. Sal Romano and Cody Reed both are making the move to the bullpen this season within the Reds organization and should, at least while they remain with the Bats, set up one heck of a relief group.

    Here is the entire Louisville Bats roster:

    PitchersCatchers
    RHPAnthony BassCJuan Graterol
    RHPMatt BowmanCChris Okey
    RHPOdrisamer DespaigneInfielders
    RHPVladimir GutierrezIF/OFNick Longhi
    RHPJimmy HergetIF/OFJosh VanMeter
    LHPIan KrolIFBlake Trahan
    RHPJose LopezIFChristian Colon
    LHPJuan L. MartinezIF/OFSherman Johnson
    RHPKeury MellaIF/OFHernan Iribarren
    LHPCody ReedOutfielders
    RHPJesus ReyesOF/1BBrian O’Grady
    RHPSal RomanoOFPhillip Ervin
    RHPLucas SimsOFAristides Aquino
    RHPJackson StephensOFKyle Wren
    RHPRob WootenOFNick Senzel

    Doug Gray
    Doug Gray is the owner and operator of this website and has been running it since 2006 in one variation or another.

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    28 Responses

    2. This might be one of the better AAA teams that they have had in some time. Legit prospects with really good Career minor leaguers.

    3. Who starts after Lopez, Sims, and Gutierrez? Reed and Romano have in the past, but seem to be moving to the pen. Mella and Despaigne, possibly?

      1. Reed should still be starting IMO. Mahle will be back here once Wood is healthy. They should start Romano now and bump him to the pen once Mahle is sent back down.

    4. Pitching staff has to be one of best in AAA, but this team will struggle to score runs. Interesting to see Okey moving up while dropping in rankings compared to other moving up in rankings yet being in AA….

      Guess Bass made it through waivers. Hope he puts together a good season and gets the call back up.

    5. Why is Despaigne even here? Sixteen pitchers…I doubt they can carry that many. With all the AAAA players the lineup everyday should be a challenge for Davis to manage. I thought Bass had been let go?

      1. Only reason I can come up w one despaigne is that reds are trying to keep a Cuban presence as thick as possible. He came out strong when he hit the scene a few years back so when reds picked him up I looked into his stats a little deeper and they are terrible. I have no clue where he fits in….long relief maybe

        1. I, for one, am glad Finnegan’s back in the organization. Before he was designated, he showed up on Chatanooga’s roster. Maybe he starts the season there. In any event, I’m a Finnegan fan for as long as somebody gives him a uniform.

    7. I thought they released Bass. Has anyone ever been moved up faster for doing less than Okey? It’ll be interesting to see how the rotation gets sorted.

      2. ST means less than nothing but Bass looked good the two times I saw him P in late February.

    8. 2 questions:
      When did Guttierrez pass Santillan in development?

      And isn’t that a concern for Santillan, a guy folks have been high on for years now?

      Just wondering…

      1. Guttierrez has not passed Santillan in development. The Reds have apparently (and probably correctly) decided that they can and should be patient with Santillan, and want him to start the year at AA instead of AAA.

        Siri and Aquino are pretty much the same story. Aquino is at AAA, and Siri at AA, but the Reds are much higher on Siri than Aquino.

        1. Yeah. Gutierrez spent an entire season in Double-A last year and had an outstanding second half of the year there. Santillan made 11 starts in Double-A last year.

    9. Projected lineup:

      1. Christian Colon, SS
      2. Phillip Ervin, LF
      3. Nick Senzel, CF
      4. Nick Longhi, 1B
      5. Josh VanMeter, 3B
      6. Aristides Aquino, RF
      7. Hernan Iribarren, 2B
      8. Chris Okey, C

      2. Gaterol before Okey at C. If Reds need another C sometime in 2019, Graterol good possibility for that.

      3. At this point, O’Grady seems to be a much more viable player in the big leagues than Aquino, who has done very little in 2 years. I also agree that Gaterol gets the majority of starts, although I think it will be pretty even.

    10. Okey hasn’t done diddly in forever. What ever happened to proving yourself at AA? What an overreach—gheesh!

    11. Think the final 25 should be Bass, Bowman, Finnegan, Gutierrez, Herget, Krol, Lopez, Mella, Reed, Reyes, Romano, Sims, Stephens, Graterol, Okey, Longhi, VanMeter, Trahan, Colon, Iribarren, Senzel, Ervin, O’ Grady, Aquino and Wren. Thought Tromp would be coupled with Graterol. Sparks isn’t on any roster either. They must be injured. Think Martinez should be at Chattanooga as it is the only team with 12 pitchers. He should take the place of Chavez or Hawkins.

    12. This roster looks like it could compete with the mlb roster… that is, if eveyone is healthy.

    14. Here’s to hoping the Bats finally give the Louisville fans something to cheer about. Haven’t had a winning season since 2011 and are having the same problems as Cincinnati with soccer becoming more of a focus locally

    15. Wow, Okey makes it to AAA all the while struggling to maintain Mendoza level hitting.

      Just goes to show how awful their hitting prospects at catcher are (other than Tyler Stephenson).

      (AAA) Okey – career 0.200 hitter
      (AAA) Graterol – 30 year old who hit 0.217 in the majors
      (AA) C Brown – career 0.209 hitter
      (A+) Kolosvary – hit 0.225 last year
      (A+) Lofstrom – career 0.219 hitter

      It would be nice if Stephenson wasn’t the only catcher in their minor league system who wasn’t just a warm body filling a roster spot, with 0.0% chance of making it to the major leagues.

      1. Is Chad Tromp in EST with an injury?

        Based on the catchers that you have pointed out I really hope the Reds draft a few early and/or get a top prospect by trade. The Reds need another prospect to go along with Stephenson.

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