The Reds have despatched Eric Yang outright to Triple-A Louisville, in line with his transaction go online MLB.com. The workforce chosen his contract final Monday, and the catcher made his MLB debut two days later. He was optioned again to Triple-A on Friday and, evidently, faraway from the 40-man roster sooner or later between then and as we speak. There was no prior indication he had been designated for project. Yang doesn’t have the best to reject an outright project, so he’ll stay with Louisville.
Now 26, Yang joined the Reds group at 21 when the membership chosen him within the seventh spherical of the 2019 draft. The UC Santa Barbara alum shortly made a robust impression, batting .290 with an 11.0% stroll price and a 135 wRC+ throughout 51 video games of Rookie ball throughout his first skilled season. He was not a highly-regarded prospect throughout the trade, however Eric Longenhagen of FanGraphs ranked him amongst his prime 30 Reds prospects in 2020. That very same yr, Keith Legislation of The Athletic included Yang among the many “others of observe” under his prime 20 Reds prospects, describing him as “a stable catch-and-throw man who hardly ever struck out in school.”
Following the canceled minor league season in 2020, Yang started to stand up the ranks within the Reds group. He performed for the Excessive-A Dayton Dragons in 2021, and since then, he has bounced forwards and backwards between the Double-A Chattanooga Lookouts and Triple-A Louisville Bats. Nonetheless, he has not made a lot of an impression at any of these three ranges, producing a .613 OPS and 76 wRC+ throughout 192 minor league video games from 2021-24.
Nonetheless, Yang earned his first name to the present final week as a roster substitute for veteran backstop Austin Wynns, who suffered a teres main tear in his proper shoulder. Wynns himself was solely on the MLB roster as a substitute for Luke Maile, who landed on the IL earlier in July with a herniated disc in his again. Thus, the Reds optioned Yang again to Triple-A after they reinstated Maile on Friday. Presumably, they determined they didn’t want to hold 4 catchers on the 40-man roster, so that they should have designated Yang for project shortly thereafter.
Yang made it into one recreation throughout his transient stint with the Reds, pinch-hitting for Tyler Stephenson within the ninth inning of a blowout loss to the Cubs on July 31. He struck out swinging in opposition to Cubs righty Porter Hodge.
