DEAL DONE: World Class Ace gets $7 million signing bonus as part of $55 million, 4-years contract with Reds which saw him….

As part of the agreement announced Dec. 12, Candelario will donate 1% of his salary each season to the team charity.

Candelario played for Washington and the Chicago Cubs last year, batting .251 with 22 homers and 70 RBIs in 140 games. The switch-hitter also had 39 doubles.

A New York City native who turned 30 on Nov. 24, Candelario can play first and third base. He also could be part of Cincinnati´s lineup as a designated hitter.

Right-hander Frankie Montas, whose $16 million, one-year contract was announced Tuesday, can earn an additional $300,000 in performance bonuses for starts in 2024: $100,000 each for 18, 20 and 22. Montas has a $14 million salary this year, and his deal includes a $20 million mutual option for 2025 with a $2 million buyout.

He would get $100,000 bonuses for making the All-Star team, winning a Gold Glove or Comeback Player of the Year, or for World Series or League Championship Series MVP. He would get $250,000 for winning the Cy Young Award or MVP, $150,000 for finishing second or third, and $100,000 for fourth or fifth.

The Cincinnati Reds have signed left-handed reliever Justin Bruihl to a minor league contract for the 2024 season and extended him an invitation to big league spring training.

In 2023 the lefty reliever split his big league time between the Los Angeles Dodgers and the Colorado Rockies. With the Dodgers he performed well, posting a 4.07 ERA in 24.1 innings. But in seven games after the Rockies purchased his contract from the Dodgers he allowed six runs in 3.2 innings – good for an ERA of 14.73.

In parts of three seasons with Los Angeles in the big leagues, Justin Bruihl threw 66.2 innings with a 3.65 ERA, 59 hits allowed, had 21 walks (though five were intentional), and he struck out 43 batters. His short stint with Colorado bumped his career ERA up to 4.22 through 70.1 innings.

Some of the 2023 season for Bruihl was spent in Triple-A. He posted a 2.04 ERA in 17.2 innings with Oklahoma City while in the Dodgers organization. In nine games in Triple-A Albuquerque with the Rockies organization he posted an ERA of 5.59. You can see his career stats here.

Some interesting things happened in 2023 for the lefty reliever. Bruihl picked up the usage of his 2-seam fastball in a big way – nearly tripling it’s use to 35%. That uptick came mostly at the expense of his cutter, which dropped from 60% in 2022 down to 34% in 2023. He also threw his slider 30% of the time in 2023, but that was in line with where it had been the previous two seasons.

That information, though, is only looking at his full season. When he was with the Dodgers his 2-seam usage was 32% and his cutter usage was 37%. Once he got into the Rockies organization his 2-seam usage spiked to 45% and his cutter usage dropped to 27%.

The results from his time with the Dodgers and his time with the Rockies were dramatically different – both in the big leagues and in Triple-A. The Dodgers are known for how well they can utilize their pitchers strengths and the Rockies are basically a laughing stock around the league in how little the can develop pitching.

It will be interesting to see how his pitch usage plays out in 2024 with a team that’s generally been viewed as one of the better ones of late with regards to pitching philosophy.

Looking at his big league splits, there’s a big gap between how lefties hit against him and how righties do. In 131 plate appearances against left-handed hitters they’ve managed a line of .190/.240/.240 without a home run. Right-handed hitters, though, have posted a .296/.391/.504 line against him with seven home runs in 163 plate appearances.