Cincinnati Reds activate Sam Moll

The big deadline addition from 2023 will be available for the first time tonight!

While the 2023 Cincinnati Reds were surging to the top of the National League Central last summer, they opted against dipping their toes into the deepest of deep-ends of the trade market ahead of the July 31st trade deadline. The cost, we were told, was simply too high for the key starters, and the club instead opted to hold on to its most prized prospects and play the long game.

That came with a minor exception, however. The Reds did deal 6’8” fireballer Joe Boyle to Oakland for the services of a lefty who stands almost a foot shorter. Sam Moll, the lone addition to the 2023 club that withered down the stretch, came to the Reds and was, to his credit, simply brilliant.

He pitched in 25 games after the deadline, logging 24.3 IP and allowing just 2 - two - earned runs. While the peripherals were slightly worse than his surface numbers, the fact remains that he became one of the absolute best arms in an otherwise shaky bullpen, a role that he was expected to resume in this 2024 season. A shoulder injury sent him to the shelf, however, and it’s taken until today for him to make his return.

The Cincinnati Reds activated Moll on Tuesday afternoon ahead of their game with the Philadelphia Phillies, optioning Casey Legumina back to AAA Louisville to open up a spot on the roster.

Moll joins a bullpen that already features a pair of lefties in Brent Suter and Justin Wilson, so it will be quite interesting to see how manager David Bell divvies up innings with that many southpaws. To their credit, Suter has been equally effective against RHH (.698 OPS for his career) as LHH (.694 OPS), while Wilson has actually been better against RHH than LHH. Moll, meanwhile, struggled last year against RHH while being dominant against LHH, so he may be the guy who gets the role closest to LOOGY under the current MLB pitching change rules.

Welcome back, Sam.