Jason Vosler has come to an agreement with the Cincinnati Reds for the 2023 season. He signed a minor league deal with an invitation to big league spring training. That moves the number of players in big league camp to 63.
The now 29-year-old has spent parts of the previous two seasons with the San Francisco Giants at the big league level. In 2021 he struggled while getting 82 plate appearances across 41 games. In that time he hit just .178/.256/.356. Last season he hit much better, getting 111 plate appearances in 36 games for San Francisco. He hit .265/.342/.469 with 6 doubles, a triple, and 4 home runs in that time.That was better than he hit while in Triple-A Sacramento during 2022, posting a .242/.311/.433 line in 94 games with the River Cats.
Almost all of his time came against right-handed pitching in the majors. The lefty saw just 10 plate appearances against left-handed pitching and he went 2-9 with a walk in those trips to the plate. He showed big splits in Triple-A, crushing right-handed pitching by comparison. He hit .273/.347/.521 against righties in 238 at-bats. Against lefties he managed to hit just .180/.237/.262 in 122 at-bats.
Back in 2021 he hit lefties and righties well in Triple-A as he posted an OPS of 1.064 against lefties while walking more than he struck out, and posted an .870 OPS against righties. Something seemed to change last season, though, as he managed just 8 walks and had 40 strikeouts in the minors against lefties.
Defensively he’s played at least a little bit of every position on the field in the big leagues with the exception of pitcher, catcher, and center fielder. In the minor leagues he’s spent most of his time at third base, but has some time at first and second as well. He played a handful of innings at shortstop with the Giants in 2022, but prior to those few innings the last time he saw action at the position was in 2015 when he was in Low-A with South Bend. Don’t expect him to see much, if any time there.
