And they did it for cold, hard cash!
It was something of a rough holiday season for right-hander Owen White. Designated for assignment by the Texas Rangers after the signing of reliever Hoby Milner, White was stuck in DFA limbo during the one time of year when the usual seven-day window was extended due to the proliferation of holidays, his baseball future therefore up in the air at the worst possible time.
The former Top 100 prospect finally found a new home on Monday, however. The Cincinnati Reds acquired him from Texas in exchange for cash considerations, giving Derek Johnson and the Reds pitching gurus an interesting arm to work with on a very low-risk move.
A former 2nd round draftee, the 25 year old White has struggled terribly in his extremely small big league sample size. He’s yielded a trio of dingers and 13 ER in just 7.0 IP across 5 appearances (all in relief), and his efforts in the offense-happy Pacific Coast League (AAA) last year weren’t markedly better, either (99.0 IP, 5.64 ERA, 1.57 WHIP, 1.81 K/BB).
Still, he’s not too far removed from being praised as a Top 100 overall prospect, as he checked in 59th on Baseball America’s pre-2023 list as well as 66th on the pre-2023 list by MLB Pipeline. He struck out 104 batters across 80.1 IP during a 2022 season that saw him pitch at both A+ Hickory in the South Atlantic League and AA Frisco in the Texas League, a year in which he limited contact much better an pitched to a tidy 3.59 ERA and 1.16 WHIP.
White still has an option remaining, making this already low-risk/decent-reward move that much less of a major move. Ideally, the Reds have identified a player on whom they bought low, one with upside that he’d flashed in the past and can rekindle - and they’ll even have the chance to stash him in AAA to figure it out all year in the process.
This is precisely the kind of move the Reds needed to make in the wake of the Tommy John surgeries for both Brandon Williamson and Julian Aguiar, ones that eliminated a lot of depth from their ranks. While White has been used exclusively as a reliever in his intial big league time, 61 of his 78 minor league appearances since 2021 have been as a starter.
