Contract with Jonathan Broxton hailed as a good move – MLB News
The materialisation of the three-year $21 million contract between the Cincinnati Reds and free-agent reliever Jonathan Broxton is being seen as a positive development for the club.
The deal which includes a $9 million club option for 2016 is significant in the sense that it will allow the Reds to assess Broxton and other pitchers in Spring Training to assign roles for the 2013 Major League season.
When the Reds traded Broxton on July 31 this year, a Trade Deadline deal, they did it through trading two of Minor League pitchers J.C. Sulbaran and Donnie Joseph to the Kansas City Royals.
"We had that feeling when we traded for him," Reds' assistant general manager Bob Miller said. "That was one of the reasons we were willing to give up those two young pitchers for Jonathan. We looked at him as something past a short term two months. He was somebody we'd like to have in the organization for a good, long while."
This turned out to be a sagacious decision with tactical gains coming to the Reds way. Not only it allowed enough space to the Reds to manoeuvre, it gave them room to make bigger moves in the days to come.
For instance, Aroldis Chapman – who the Reds intended to use as the starter when the season kicked off, was first used as relief pitcher and then as a closer as injuries plagued the likes of Ryan Madson and Nick Masset.
Moving Chapman would not have been easy had it not been for Broxton to succeed as a setup pitcher. His assuming that role not only strengthened the bullpen, but also helped it to stay atop the National League Central.
Such was the performance of bullpen and rotation that the Reds mostly occupied the top slots. That is what they want to repeat next year as well with a right combination of pitchers available to them now.
If injuries do not affect the pitching line-up, the Reds have an enormous opportunity to tap in the potential of their pitchers and build up a solid foundation for a successful season – moving beyond the regular season.
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