The Reds have sent right-hander Alan Busenitz outright to Triple-A Louisville, per his transactions tracker at MLB.com. That indicates he went unclaimed on waivers after being designated for assignment last week.
Busenitz, 34, had the right to elect free agency but it appears he has chosen to accept this assignment. He pitched in Tuesday’s game for the Bats, tossing two scoreless innings. That will give the Reds an extra bit of non-roster depth.
The Cincinnati pitching staff is pretty banged up at the moment. Each of Andrew Abbott, Hunter Greene, Nick Lodolo and Christian Roa have hit the injured list this month. The club already had Graham Ashcraft, Brandon Williamson, Brent Suter, Ian Gibaut and Tejay Antone on the shelf, so it adds up a lot of absences.
They are currently two games into a stretch of playing eight games in seven days thanks to a double-header coming up on Friday, so the group of guys who aren’t on the IL might be fairly taxed in the coming days, which could lead to them reaching into their depth from time to time.
Busenitz signed a minor league deal with the Reds in the offseason and has now tossed 57 Triple-A innings for the year over 41 appearances. He has allowed 3.79 earned runs per nine innings with a 21.6% strikeout rate, 7.6% walk rate and 42.7% ground ball rate. He was selected to the big league club last week and tossed one inning for them, but allowed three earned runs. He now has a 4.71 ERA in 65 big league frames dating back to his 2017 debut.
If the Reds need a fresh arm in the future, particularly one capable of tossing multiple innings out of the bullpen, Busenitz could perhaps get back to the majors and have a chance to add to his totals.
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