Tony Santillan designated for assignment, Reds call up Alejo Lopez

Photo: Doug Gray

The Cincinnati Reds made another set of roster moves today prior to the second game with the San Francisco Giants, calling up Alejo Lopez from Triple-A, optioning Michael Siani back to Triple-A, and designating right-handed reliever Tony Santillan for assignment.

Alejo Lopez was not on the Reds 40-man roster, so calling him up required adding him to both the 40 and 26-man rosters. He had spent the entire season up to this point in Triple-A with Louisville. He got out to a slow start, hitting just .232 in the first 30 games of the season. He caught fire after that, hitting .340/.439/.495 in the next 55 games (through the end of July) with 33 walks and just 37 strikeouts. Lopez, though, has cooled down in August. In 24 games this month he’s hit just .205, but he’s walked 22 times with just 15 strikeouts in 114 plate appearances. If Cincinnati’s looking to add contact to the roster, he’s the guy who can help do that.

Michael Siani’s stay in Cincinnati – at least for now – was a bit short lived. He did play in three games, but only got one trip to the plate – he walked. He did come off of the bench twice after that and in one game he took over in left field and in the other he was used as a pinch runner and scored.

Tony Santillan missed a full year as he recovered from a back injury suffered in the summer of 2022. When he returned to Cincinnati he only remained with the team for a few days before he was optioned to Triple-A. He was called back up two weeks later and made one appearance before heading back to Louisville and that’s where he remained. In the 15 games after he was optioned back down he posted an ERA of 11.48 and has as many walks as strikeouts – 13 – in 13.1 innings pitched. He’s still capable of throwing in the mid-to-upper 90’s, but his control simply hasn’t been there.