Reds news: Christian Colón designated for assignment

Christian Colón was hitting just .130 for the Reds this season.

The Cincinnati Reds made a move on Friday afternoon, designating Christian Colón for assignment. The journeyman infielder made the Opening Day roster, but his meager .130 batting average and .341 OPS weren’t getting the job done. The Reds, in turn, selected the contract of Tyler Thornburg who was with Cincinnati during spring training and summer camp.

Colón, oftentimes referred to as the World Series hero for the Kansas City Royals in 2015, is a great clubhouse presence and genuinely liked by all of his teammates. However, when you can’t hit your weight at the dish, you’re not long for this league.

Whether it was today or when Mike Moustakas returned from the 10-day injured list, it was apparent that Colón’s time in a Reds uniform wasn’t going to last much longer. For the season, Colón appeared in 11 games and hit .130/.167/.174 with just one extra-base hit.

Taking Christian Colón’s roster spot will be veteran right-hander Tyler Thornburg. The former Milwaukee Brewers reliever spent the past two seasons in Boston. After five successful seasons with the Brewers, putting up a 2.87 ERA, Thornburg’s time with the Red Sox was not met with the same results.

After being traded to Boston in 2017, Thornburg began the season on the inuured list and was diagnosed with thoracic outlet syndrome with required surgery. Thornburg’s performance suffers and his ERA in Boston was 6.54.

With David Bell exhausting his bullpen over the past two games, the move to bring up Tyler Thornburg shouldn’t be terribly shocking. Tyler Mahle, Cody Reed, Michael Lorenzen and Tejay Antone all threw at least two innings of relief over the past two games. With Pedro Strop on the IL, the Reds needed another arm in the bullpen.

Sonny Gray takes the hill tonight for the Cincinnati Reds, as they look to get even with the Pittsburgh Pirates after last night’s 9-6 defeat. Amir Garrett, Nate Jones and Raisel Iglesias all got the night off on Thursday, so hopefully Bell has plenty of available arms if necessary. Of course, with Gray on the mound, they may not be needed.