The Reds announced this morning that they have selected the contract of right-hander Carson Spiers from Triple-A Louisville. He will take the spot of Chase Burns, who is going on the 15-day injured list for a right groin strain. That move is retroactive to September 19th. To clear a 40-man spot for Spiers, outfielder TJ Friedl has been designated for assignment.

The move may spell the end of Friedl’s once-promising tenure with the Reds. He signed with Cincy back in 2016 as an undrafted free agent and worked his way to the Majors by 2021 for a cameo of 36 plate appearances. In the following season, Friedl batted a roughly average .240/.314/.436 across 72 games, showing decent power while limiting strikeouts to an excellent 15.5%. As an outfielder, his defensive grades were middling, though it still appeared the Reds had a promising young player on their hands.

Friedl made good on that with a strong performance in 2023. In 556 plate appearances, he batted .279/.352/.467 with 18 home runs, 27 stolen bases, and a 117 wRC+ that made him the Reds’ second-best qualified hitter behind Spencer Steer. Friedl also improved defensively and earned +6 Outs Above Average for his outfield work, while Statcast ranked him in the 85th percentile by Fielding Run Value. All told, Friedl’s contributions were worth 4.1 wins above replacement in the eyes of FanGraphs.

There were warning signs underneath Friedl’s performance at the dish. While his .308 average on balls in play wasn’t outrageously high for a player with his speed, he ranked in the 11th percentile or lower for average exit velocity, hard-hit percentage, and expected slugging, all of which hinted at a decline in power in his future.

That began in 2024. Friedl did hit 13 homers in 85 games, but his slugging percentage fell from .467 to .380 as his hard-hit metrics remained near the bottom of the league. Injuries may have played a role in that. Friedl made three separate trips to the injured list for a right wrist fracture, left thumb fracture, and right hamstring strain, the latter of which cost him just over a month. Working around those injuries, Friedl posted a 93 wRC+, indicating he was 7% worse than the average hitter.

Friedl’s power continued to decline in 2025. He had a .117 isolated slugging in 685 plate appearances, well below his .189 ISO from 2023. At the same time, he bounced back to post a 112 wRC+ thanks to an uptick in walks and better luck on batted balls. He wasn’t as strong of a defender, but FanGraphs still pegged him for 3.1 WAR.

The bottom fell out for Friedl in 2026. Unlike 2024, he has been healthy all season but simply not very productive. He carried a .179/.259/.256 slash line and a 44 wRC+ through June 3rd, at which point he was optioned to Louisville for the first time since 2022. He returned on June 28th and has since taken 94 plate appearances, but the resulting wRC+ of 40 showed little improvement from his results early in the season. Cincinnati optioned Friedl back to Louisville yesterday and is now cutting him from the 40-man roster entirely.

Friedl entered this year with over three years of service time. He is earning $3.8MM in his first arbitration year, as noted in MLBTR’s Payroll Tracker. With that service time, Friedl can reject an outright assignment in favor of free agency, but that would mean forfeiting what’s left of his guaranteed money. He figures to clear outright waivers, as he did back in August when the Reds attempted to offload his salary. When that happens, he’ll stick out the rest of the year with Louisville. The Reds figure to non-tender Friedl after the season, though they could consider re-signing him to a cheaper deal.

Turning to Burns, the breakout ace ends his season with a 2.86 ERA over 154 1/3 innings along with an excellent 29.4% strikeout rate. Pairing that with good control and average batted ball luck, Burns was also viewed favorably by ERA estimators like xERA (3.24) and SIERA (3.46). Altogether, he’s been worth 4.3 fWAR and ranks as the Reds’ most valuable starter despite technically not having enough innings to qualify.

The team limited Burns to three innings in each of his last three starts. This IL placement will give him a respite from the groin injury as well as a head start on the offseason, as the Reds are out of the playoffs and don’t need Burns for one more start right now. Hunter Greene underwent Tommy John surgery last month and will miss all of 2027, so Burns will once again serve as the team’s ace. The 23-year-old is under contract through 2033, thanks to a $105MM extension he signed back in July.

Spiers underwent elbow surgery last year and has not appeared in the Majors in 2026, instead spending most of the year on the minor league 60-day IL. He has a 5.69 ERA and a middling 19.3% strikeout rate in 117 big league frames from 2023-25, all with the Reds. He did not earn service time while on the minor league IL, so he’ll end this season with just under two years of service.