Done deal; Cincinnati reds completes signing of a cent…

Josh Harrison and the Cincinnati Reds have agreed to a minor league contract. It became official on Tuesday afternoon for the club. An invitation to the Reds’ big league spring training is part of the arrangement. If he makes the team, the deal may be worth $1,500,000, according to Mark Sheldon of

Reds.com. Additionally, according to Sheldon, Harrison has an opt-out on March 21.

Before being selected by the Chicago Cubs in the sixth round of the 2008 draft, Harrison was born and raised in Cincinnati. He attended Princeton High School and the University of Cincinnati. He joins his older brother Vince Harrison, who is now the manager of the Dayton Dragons, a High-A affiliate of the Reds, in the organisation.

 

Harrison has played in the major leagues for the past 13 seasons. He played for the Pittsburgh Pirates from 2011 to 2018, making two All-Star teams in 2014 and 2017. He travelled the league after leaving Pittsburgh, playing for the Detroit Tigers in 2019, the Washington Nationals in 2020–2021, the Oakland Athletics in 2021, the Chicago White Sox in 2022, and the Philadelphia Phillies in 2023.

 

In 326 games from 2019 to 2022, he posted a respectable but unremarkable.258/.319/.374 line. That was decent enough, though not quite as good as when he was with the Pirates. Nevertheless, the 2023 season did not turn out as planned for him. With the Phillies, he appeared in just 40 games and hit a meager.204 with three walks (.263 on-base percentage) and a.291 slugging percentage. His 53 OPS+ and.554 OPS were considerably behind his career averages of 95 OPS+ and.712 OPS, and the only season’s results they were better than was his 36-game 2019 season with the Tigers.

 

Josh Harrison has a number of ways to help out defensively. He has filled every position on the field the past two seasons with the exception of catcher, centre field and first base. In that period, he has even pitched in five games.

Harrison needs to hit more consistently than he did in order to make the squad. However, if he can accomplish that, he may provide expertise in filling that kind of role and be able to play wherever on the Reds bench.

Spring training won’t end with an opt-out on March 21st; the team would still play four games in Arizona before returning to Cincinnati to open the season.