Cincinnati Reds: Too many walks will keep Jimmy Herget in Triple-A

The Cincinnati Reds are hopeful one of their young prospects will emerge as replacement for Zach Duke. Jimmy Herget’s lack of control isn’t helping him.

Jimmy Herget is one of the Cincinnati Reds top prospects. The flame-throwing right-hander has a unique delivery that deceives opposing hitters and gives the Reds hope for him to be a key cog in the back end of the bullpen. Unfortunately, Herget’s command of late has been a problem.

When the Rule 5 Draft approached late last year, Jimmy Herget was the lone addition to the Cincinnati Reds 40-man roster. There’s good reason for that. Herget is one of the top young prospects in the Reds farm system and after his ascent through the minor leagues, Herget seemed like a lock to make his major league debut later this season.

Herget has a quirky delivery that makes his fastball difficult to pick up. Herget has varying release points from which his fastball will fly out of his hands and it’s very common to opposing batters fail to make contact.

Jimmy Herget made his way to Triple-A Louisville at the tail end of 2017 and spent all of last season with the Bats. Herget was counted on late in games last season and finished 20 of the 50 games in which he played. Herget owned a 3.47 ERA with 65 strikeouts and 21 walks last season at Triple-A Louisville.

So far this season, Herget has been a far cry from the ascending the reliever that MLB Pipeline ranks as the No. 11 prospect in the Cincinnati Reds organization. Herget has appeared in 10 games thus far and owns an 8.31 ERA. While that earned run average is not good for any pitcher, much less a reliever, the bigger issue seems to be Herget’s command of the strike zone.

Jimmy Herget has walked 13 batters and struck out only 12. His BB9 of 13.5 is a long way away from the 3.2 that he racked up last season with the Bats. His previous stops in 2016 with Daytona (3.3) and 2017 with Pensacola and Louisville (3.0) yielded similar results.

Free passes will not get you an opportunity to make it in the majors. Just ask Robert Stephenson. During Stephenson’s time in the Cincinnati Reds’ minor league system, the right-hander had numbers similar to Herget early in his career. A combined BB9 of 2.8 in 2013 at three different levels of minor league ball lended itself to Stephenson’s rise through the farm system.

However, Stephenson struggled with control once he made his way to Double-A. In 2014, Stephenson’s BB9 was 4.9. Though he made his way to Triple-A Louisville in 2015, his combined BB9 was 4.7 in 2015. Bob Steve made his way to the majors in 2016, but until this season, his inability to command the strike zone kept Stephenson bouncing between the big leagues and Triple-A.

Robert Stephenson finally seems to have gotten control of his errant pitches and now has a 2.8 BB9 early this season with the Cincinnati Reds. If Jimmy Herget hopes to make his way onto the big league roster, he’d be wise to follow Stephenson’s lead and find a way to keep runners off the base paths with free passes.