The Cincinnati Reds may be 7.0 games out of first place and 6.0 games out of a Wild Card slot with their best hitter, Nicholas Castellanos, on the IL and playoff odds nearing single digits, but gosh darn it, they’re not giving up!
In fact, they’re acquiring a pretty good reliever from the Rockies,
The Reds are finalizing a deal to acquire RHP Mychal Givens from the Rockies, per source.
— Mark Feinsand (@Feinsand) July 28, 2021
The Reds bullpen has been the worst in MLB this season (5.36 ERA, 30th) so Givens will certainly help their cause. Perhaps he’s far removed from his best seasons with the Orioles (6.1 WAR from 2015-2019), and perhaps his peripherals are a little rough around the edges (11.3 BB%, 4.15 FIP), but he’s getting results: 2.73 ERA and still striking out plenty of batters (27.4 K%) this year.
And since returning from the Injured List (strained lower back) on July 7th, he’s been even better: 2.57 ERA, 3.72 FIP; 30 K%, 10.0 BB%.
There’s not a huge overlap with the Cubs interests here – Givens is in tier below Ryan Tepera (and many tiers below Craig Kimbrel) – but this does take at least one right-handed relief option off the table to a team that was never going to trade for Tepera or Kimbrel. So in that respect, it’s probably net-good for the Cubs trade efforts over the next 48 hours. The return is not yet known, but I’ll update this post when it comes out.
UPDATE: Here’s part of the return:
Givens goes to Reds. 2 pitchers including RHP Case Williams, go to Rockies. The other is another A level pitcher. Williams in earlier deal had gone the other way, from Colorado to Cincy.
— Jon Heyman (@JonHeyman) July 28, 2021