Not satisfied, Reds claim Nefi Ogando

A day after claiming Lisalverto Bonilla, the Reds have now nefariously claimed right-handed reliever Nefi Ogando off waivers from the Pirates. The Bucs had designated Ogando for assignment after claiming infielder Phil Gosselin. They had originally claimed Ogando from Miami back in December. Oddly, the Reds could have claimed Ogando back then, seeing as how they come before the Pirates in waiver priority. It’s possible that the Reds checked their recently arrived copy of Baseball America’s Prospect Handbook and discovered that the Pirates have a much better farm system than they do.

Despite being 27 years old, Ogando has very limited major league experience. He does, however, have a fastball that sits at 95 mph and has hit 100. Despite that and a pretty good slider, he generally hasn’t had good strikeout rates and has also had control problems. He has an option left and would have been good AAA bullpen depth for the Pirates. It’s not a huge loss, though, as they’ll probably have Pat Light, A.J. Schugel, Dovydas Neverauskas and Edgar Santana, among others, in that role.