Cincinnati Reds: Jared Hughes has been dominant this season

Jared Hughes recorded his fourth save of the season on Sunday for the Cincinnati Reds. Hughes has quietly been putting together a dominant season.

Jared Hughes signed a two-year deal with the Cincinnati Reds this past offseason, and it appears to be paying big dividends for the Redlegs. Hughes nailed down his fourth save of the season on Sunday after pitching the final two innings and helped the Reds end a 13-game losing streak to St. Louis.

Billy Hamilton made two outstanding catches in the outfield to help Hughes. Hughes who went 2 innings, allowed no hits, 1 walk and had 3 strikeouts.

Over his last 10 games, Hughes has gone 11.2 innings and allowed no runs. During that stretch he allowed only 9 hits, walked 4 batters and struck out 7. Hughes recorded 3 saves and 1 hold over those 10 games.

Taking his last 15 games into consideration, Hughes has 14 strikeouts over 19.1 innings and allow only 1 run.

One of the most impressive statistics this season for Jared Hughes is that he’s only allowed one home run. For a team that’s allowed an NL-leading 96 home runs on the season, Hughes propensity for keeping the ball in the yard is extremely valuable for this club late in games.

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Over the first 7 years of his career, with Pittsburgh and Milwaukee, Hughes had a 2.85 ERA and 1.271 WHIP. Hughes is touting a 1.02 ERA and 0.934 WHIP this season. Those numbers are career-bests for Hughes if he can maintain this level of dominance.

While a lot of the focus has been on developing young pitchers, having a solid veteran presence like Hughes in the clubhouse is extraordinary valuable. Raisel Iglesias is the closer for the Cincinnati Reds and has 9 saves on the season. However, if the Reds were in position to contend this season, odds are Jared Hughes would be in that position.

Hughes’ ERA, WHIP and WAR are better than Iglesias’. Iglesias (3.3:1) does have a slightly better strikeout to walk ratio than Hughes (3:1), but has pitched 8.1 fewer innings so far this season.

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Iglesias could become the subject of a trade as the summer goes along. The Reds now have another arm in the bullpen that’s more than capable of picking up saves.

The two-year $4.5 million deal that Hughes signed in December looks like a steal with how he’s performed thus far for the Cincinnati Reds. The Reds hope Hughes dominance continues throughout the summer and perhaps rubs off on some of his teammates.