Cincinnati Reds Sign Pedro Strop to a One-Year Deal
The Cincinnati Reds have been searching far and wide for signings during the MLB offseason. It was only a few days ago that the team brought Nicholas Castellanos on board, while at the beginning of January, Shogo Akiyama signed with the club as its first Japanese player. Yet, the rumor mill had been circulating for several days about the potential for the Reds to sign Pedro Strop.
According to those same rumors, the Reds were very close to bringing Strop on board, which would certainly add some additional intrigue to the NL Central team. Strop usually takes the position of right-handed reliever, and that would serve the team exceptionally well.
Of course, there had also been a little bit of a negative reaction to the Strop rumor from the Reds fans, as he did end up in a confrontation with the team’s outfielder Yasiel Puig. Essentially, Strop ended up plunking Puig on the thigh during a game last June. This brought Puig’s anger out and the two of them had heated words, with Strop referring to his supposed enemy as “stupid” following the match’s conclusion.
Of course, the offseason is in effect at the moment, and hopefully, both Puig and fans of the Reds can put the incident behind them. Especially considering that the deal to sign Strop went through on January 30, 2020 for a reported $1.8 million. Yet, perhaps there’s another reason why the Reds fans aren’t so exceptionally excited over his signing – last year saw him play his worst season as a professional. Strop only appeared in 50 games and he finished the 2019 season with a 2-5 record, 49 strikeouts, 10 saves and a 4.97 ERA.
Can Strop Turn It Around?
It’s likely that Reds supporters will be looking to Strop to turn things around for the 2020 season so that he plays much more like he did in 2018 – one of his best seasons as a professional. He even had a career-high of 13 saves in that season. Sports bettors will likely want to see him bring the Cincinnati team up the rankings, and multiple sports books will be taking bets on the MLB 2020 season. You’ll actually be able to find some of the top bookmakers through the Nostrabet website, and all you need to do is visit nostrabet.com/en/ in order to seek one out.
The 2018 season wasn’t Strop’s only good year though, and he has actually had some great gameplay in his career. In fact, he’s only allowed a single home run in 22 games played, so potentially, the 2019 period was just a down time for him.
Of course, there’ll be no missing out on Strop when he’s on the field, as he’s known for wearing his baseball cap in quite an odd way – slightly crooked to the left. Obviously, he passed the physical that all players have to go through before a signing can take place, and the Reds management team were happy with what he can potentially bring to the club in 2020. Time will tell if he follows through with that.
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