Reds Designate Sam Moll For Assignment

The Reds have designated left-handed reliever Sam Moll for assignment, the team announced. Moll’s roster spot will go to righty reliever Graham Ashcraft, who is returning from the 60-day injured list.

This could be the end of Moll’s run in Cincinnati, which acquired him from the Athletics for righty Joe Boyle before the 2023 trade deadline. Moll was a reliable member of the Reds’ bullpen through 2024. Over his first 62 1/3 innings with the team, he logged a sterling 2.31 ERA and a strong 48.1% ground-ball rate over 62 1/3 innings. Moll dealt with shoulder troubles last year, however, and only contributed 18 1/3 innings of 6.38 ERA ball.

The soft-tossing 34-year-old has been healthier this season, but he has not gotten back to the form he showed before the shoulder problems cropped up. After yielding two earned runs in an inning of work in a 10-7 loss to the Brewers on Friday, Moll owns a 4.79 ERA over 56 1/3 frames. A career-best grounder rate (51.6%) has not canceled out below-average strikeout and walk rates of 21.8% and 11.7%, respectively.

The out-of-options Moll is hitting waivers with a lifetime 3.98 ERA, a 23.9% K rate, an 11.1% BB rate and a 48.6 GB percentage over 235 major league innings. Moll will not be eligible to pitch in the postseason if a team claims him, but he does come with two more years of arbitration eligibility. He is earning an $875K salary this season.

If Moll passes through waivers, he has enough service time to reject an outright assignment to Triple-A Louisville. Moll came into the season with four years and 23 days of service time. He is now over the five-year threshold, giving him the ability to collect the rest of his salary if he declines an outright.