The Cincinnati Reds have acquired RHP Mychal Givens from the Colorado Rockies in exchange for RHPs Case Williams and Noah Davis.
Williams should be a familiar face for Rockies fans. The team selected him in the 4th round in 2020 out of high school but immediately traded him to the Reds last offseason with Jeff Hoffman for Robert Stephenson. Williams, who MLB Pipeline ranked as the 20th best prospect in the Reds system, has struggled in his first professional season this year. Keep in mind that he is very young. The team traded for Givens at last year’s deadline for infielders Tyler Nevin and Terrin Vavra. They got about a year out of him and flip him to Cincinnati. Also coming along is Davis, who Pipeline had at 26th in Cincinnati’s system. The Reds drafted the high strikeout, high walk starter out of UC Santa Barbera in 2018 (11th round).
Williams, 19, has a 5.55 ERA with 34 strikeouts and 33 walks in 47 innings for Single-A Daytona this year.
Davis, 24, has a 3.60 ERA with 77 strikeouts and 35 walks in 65 innings for High-A Dayton in 2021. In his minor league career, Davis has a 3.44 ERA with 112 Ks and 48 walks in 107.1 innings.
The Reds are making a playoff push and their bullpen is where things are improving the most. They got Justin Wilson, but more importantly, Luis Cessa from the Yankees last night. Now they add Givens, a high-leverage reliever who will be a free agent after this season. He has an elite average spin rate of 2543 rpm on his fastball and he has limited batters to an 86.7 mph exit velocity this season. If the Reds want to make a playoff push, this is the right idea. Davis seems too old for where he is in the minors and Williams is too far away from the majors to worry about. A fine deal for them.
Givens, 31, has a 2.73 ERA with 34 strikeouts and a 4.67 FIP in 29.2 innings for Colorado this year. In his MLB career for the Rockies and Baltimore Orioles, Givens has a 3.36 ERA with 446 strikeouts and a 3.66 FIP in 375 innings.
CarterHud 