The Cincinnati Reds have acquired right-handed pitcher Yosver Zulueta from the Toronto Blue Jays. Francys Romero is reporting that the Reds claimed the pitcher off of waivers this afternoon. To make room on the 40-man roster, Cincinnati moved Matt McLain to the 60-day injured list and optioned Zulueta to Triple-A.
Yosver Zulueta is a 26-year-old pitcher out of Cuba, who came to the US back in 2020. He missed that year while recovering from Tommy John surgery. He returned to the mound in 2021, but pitched in just one minor league game that season with Toronto’s Single-A club in Dunedin. He faced one batter and tore his ACL while covering first base on the first play of the game.
In 2022 he split time starting and relieving at all four levels of full-season ball in the minor leagues, posting a 3.72 ERA in 55.2 innings. In the 2023 season he was with Triple-A Buffalo all year and posted a 4.08 ERA in 38 relief appearances and seven starts. He threw 64.0 innings, allowed just one home run, but walked 45 batters and hit 10 more. He did strike out 73 hitters along the way. You can see his career stats here.
Spring training didn’t go well for him. He only pitched in five games, but in his 5.0 innings he allowed six earned runs on seven hits and four walks. Zulueta struck out just two of the 25 batters that he faced.
A hard-throwing righty, Zulueta averaged 96 MPH last season with both his 2-seamer and his 4-seamer. He also mixes in a change up, a slider, and a curveball. Since the start of 2023 he’s leaned more on his 2-seamer than his 4-seamer, and he’s really dropped off the usage of both his curveball and change up – almost to the point where he’s been a fastball (though there were two fastballs) and slider guy exclusively.
There’s probably some upside with his stuff. But he’s a 26-year-old who has had a history off strike-throwing problems, too. If he can hone in his control a little bit, his high ground ball rate would play well with his ability to miss bats.
In terms of his contract, he’s still under team control for at least six seasons. He’s never pitched in the big leagues. Zulueta also has two option years remaining (including this year).
