Reds news: Don’t panic, Disco is off to the San Francisco Giants

Anthony DeSclafani’s departure won’t make Reds any less groovy.

The Cincinnati Reds lost veteran starting pitcher Anthony DeSclafani to free agency in what seems to be quite a passive start to the offseason thus far. DeSclafani inked a 1 year $6M deal with the San Francisco Giants Wednesday. The final piece of the Mat Latos trade with Miami from 2014 has now gone out west to bolster a Giants rotation that eerily mirrors what Cincinnati has…more questions than answers.

DeSclafani will join a 1-2 punch in San Francisco that features two former Reds in Johnny Cueto and Kevin Gausman. While some may panic that Cincinnati has yet to make a big move in free agency, the lack of movement suggests to me that the front office isn’t making any hasty decisions. It gives me the impression that every option is being weighed, and money is going to be spent trying to win now, versus rebuilding.

DeSclafani moving on is by no means a situation that warrants Cincinnati fans to go and find their nearest panic button to have on standby. It’s a situation where it was a mutual decision that it was time to part ways.

The Cincinnati Reds could have easily matched or bettered the offer from the San Francisco Giants; it wasn’t like it was a deal that would break the bank. For Cincinnati it just didn’t make sense. The Reds got the most they were ever going to get out of DeSclafani.

Anthony DeSclafani will largely benefit from pitching in a much larger, more pitcher-friendly scene in Oracle Park. Unfortunately for him, Disco will have to see the reigning World Series Champion Dodgers, and the up and coming “Slam Diego”Padres quite often. I don’t look for him to put up much better numbers in his new home.

The loss of DeSclafani brings an already noted need for starting pitching to light, which I’m sure the front office is working on. At the end of the day, losing Disco to Frisco is no big loss. If you migrate over to DeSclafani’s stat sheet, you’ll agree his career line isn’t something to write home about.

DeSclafani has a career record of 37-39, and a career ERA at 4.29 while posting 6.0 WAR. Six seasons in the league has seen him only eat up 656 innings, a little over 100 innings per year on average. Not ideal for a starter, but that’s because he’s spent a good deal of his career injured. DeSclafani went almost two years without pitching due to a sprained UCL and tendinitis.

One thing I like to do to put myself at ease in situations like this is head on over to Twitter. I like to check the pulse of the fan base of where a player just landed. One look at the comments posted to the San Francisco Giants Twitter page and you can see they very much share my sentiments.

Something can be said for loyalty in all of this. Disco was one of the longest tenured Cincinnati Reds on the roster, and for that I am sad to see him go. With baseball being a business and players constantly shuffling around, it’s always nice to see a familiar face year to year. That being said, I can almost certainly reassure Reds fans this move is no reason to panic at the Disco.