Over the last week the Cincinnati Reds bullpen hasn’t exactly left fans feeling great. Last night in Chicago was another game that didn’t go as hoped as the Cubs scored two runs in the 9th inning, including a walk-off home run after the Reds had taken the lead in the 8th inning. The loss was the 4th in a row for the team and the 5th win in a row for the Cubs as they have vaulted past Cincinnati to overtake the division lead during this stretch.
While all of this was happening, the Reds made a roster move down in Triple-A, releasing 12-year big league veteran Andrew Chafin. He was released at the end of spring training by the Minnesota Twins after pitching in six games and allowed two runs on four hits and three walks in 6.0 innings. During the 2025 regular season he pitched with the Washington Nationals and Los Angeles Angels, throwing 33.2 innings with a 2.41 ERA.
Cincinnati jumped in and signed him on March 27th to a minor league deal. He was assigned to Triple-A Louisville and in the first five weeks of the season he allowed one earned run in 9.1 innings pitched while giving up four hits, walking six batters, and he struck out eight batters.
The 35-year-old had an opt out and he took it because the Reds had not added him to the big league roster. In situations like this the move is considered a release. If you have questions about why a player who had a 2.41 ERA last year in the big leagues and had allowed one earned run in five weeks in Triple-A was let go you probably aren’t alone. But there could be two reasons for that.
The first reason is that he’s throwing his fastball in the 80’s more often than he’s not. He picked up some velocity as the month went along and was averaging 88.7 MPH from April 14th through the end of the month after averaging just 87.2 in the first two-and-a-half weeks of the Triple-A season. Still, he only hit 90 MPH in one outing this season. The other reason could be that he had six walks in his 9.1 innings, though that would seem to be a bit short-sighted. Four of those walks came in 0.2 innings on April 1st. Since then he’s walked one batter.
In the end it was probably as simple as Cincinnati just didn’t think that his mid-to-upper 80’s fastball was enough to get big league hitters out. After his performance this season, and last season, he wanted to see what other opportunities were out there if the Reds weren’t going to call him up. And that makes sense from his perspective. There’s always a chance that he re-signs with Cincinnati after seeing what else is out there.
You can see the career stats for Andrew Chafin here.