The Cincinnati Reds have made four roster moves this afternoon. Elly De La Cruz has been placed on the 10-day injured list with a right hamstring strain that he suffered in Sunday afternoon’s game. The Reds are calling up prospect Edwin Arroyo from Triple-A Louisville to take his spot on the roster. Cincinnati is also calling up left-handed pitcher Brandon Leibrandt from Louisville. He is taking the spot on both the 40-man roster and the 26-man roster of reliever Yunior Marte who was designated for assignment.
Let’s start with Elly De La Cruz. He had played in 276 consecutive games prior to today. Last season he played through a torn quad in his left leg for much of the second half of the season. This year he had been healthy and had played in every game but on a ball hit into the right-center gap on Sunday he had to pull up as he began to reach first base and was left with a single and then he exited the game. He noted after the game that he didn’t believe it’s something bad, but after getting an MRI this morning it was at least bad enough that the team felt he could use time off and now he’ll miss at least 10 days.
Edwin Arroyo is joining the Reds to take over the vacated roster spot of De La Cruz. The shortstop has spent all year in Triple-A with Louisville and he’s been crushing the ball. Still just 22-years-old, Arroyo is hitting .323/.383/.562 through 53 games with the Bats. Last year, while coming off of shoulder surgery, he hit just three home runs in 121 games for Double-A Chattanooga. This year his power is not only back, but it’s better than ever. He’s had nine doubles, five triples, and has hit 11 home runs. The Puerto Rican native has gone 9-for-9 in stolen base attempts, has 18 walks, and 42 strikeouts in his 250 triples to the plate. You can see his career stats here.
His approach has been a bit aggressive this season as he’s had a 38% chase rate in Triple-A (MLB average is 30%). What he has done well is make contact on pitches in the zone, where he’s got a 91% contact rate (MLB average is 86%).
A switch hitter, he’s been much better this season against right-handed pitching where he’s hit .348/.407/.622. In 63 plate appearances against left-handed pitching he’s hit just .245/.311/.377. In the past he’s been as good or better against righties, so it’s possible this is just a small sample size thing. But it could also be that he’s now facing the best pitching minor league baseball has to offer. Tough to truly know at this point given that it is actually a small sample size.
Brandon Leibrandt is joining the Reds for the second time in his career. He made his MLB debut with Miami back in 2020 and pitched 9.0 innings in five games for the Marlins. The next time he was in the majors was with Cincinnati when he pitched in two games and threw 6.1 innings with a 9.95 ERA in 2024.
The 33-year-old lefty pitched in China in 2025 as well as in Triple-A with the Yankees before signing a minor league deal with the Reds this past offseason. He’s made 11 starts for the Bats and has a 5.23 ERA while giving up 61 hits in 51.2 innings along with 14 home runs. What he does do is throw strikes, handing out just 14 walks on the season to go along with 38 strikeouts. You can see his career stats here.
Yunior Marte got lit up in his only appearance with Cincinnati this year. Last week he recorded one out, gave up three hits, walked a batter, hit a batter, and was charged with four earned runs. He’s going to the waiver wire now and if he clears he will have the right to refuse an outright and become a free agent if he so chooses.