Cincinnati Reds sign RHP Zack Godley to minor league deal

Players who are not currently on the 40-man rosters of the 30 Major League Baseball teams are reporting to spring training in a nearly per-usual fashion at the moment. That means a flurry of minor league signings have popped up in recent days, as teams attempt to uncover some diamonds in the rough to help at varying levels as calendar year 2022 rolls on, even if the big league slate is going to be impacted by this idiotic lockout.

The Cincinnati Reds joined that fray over the weekend, signing veteran right-hander Zack Godley to a minor league deal. The Enquirer’s Charlie Goldsmith relayed the news.

Godley, 32 in April, has had his moments as a big leaguer. Back in 2017, he fired 155.0 IP of 139 ERA+, 3.41 FIP ball for the Arizona Diamondbacks, racking up an impressive 4.2 bWAR in the process. While B-Ref’s version of WAR soured on him entirely in a follow-up 2018 season, FanGraphs viewed the 178.1 IP of 3.82 FIP he posted that year as worth 2.4 fWAR (after viewing his 2017 at 3.5).

That the 7-year MLB vet has career bWAR and fWAR marks that are lower than those seasons combined shows that it’s been a bit of a tough go for him since then. He has since bounced around the Boston and Milwaukee organizations, throwing just 3.1 IP at the big league level in 2021. He’s evolved into mainly a cutter/curve pitcher, his fastball never really topping out at more than 90-ish mph anyway, and perhaps that’s something that Derek Johnson thinks he can tap into to mold Godley back into an effective arm at the big league level.

If not, someone’s going to need to pitch to the hitters who are in camp at the moment.