Reds Select Will Banfield, Outright P.J. Higgins

The Reds announced that catcher Will Banfield has been selected to the 40-man roster and optioned to Triple-A Louisville. Fellow catcher P.J. Higgins has been outrighted to open a 40-man spot. It wasn’t previously reported that Higgins was off the 40-man roster so it seems Cincinnati quietly put him on waivers a few days ago.

Banfield, 26, signed a minor league deal with the Reds in the offseason. He presumably had some kind of opt-out or upward mobility clause in that deal, as that usually explains why a team would add a player to its roster but then immediately option him back to the minors. Giving him the 40-man spot prevents him from getting away but doesn’t require the team to bump anyone else off the active roster.

It has been a good season in Louisville for Banfield so far. He has six home runs in 189 plate appearances, a .281/.337/.439 line and 103 wRC+. That indicates he has been 3% better than league average, though he’s gotten some help from a .344 batting average on balls in play.

Banfield has a good defensive reputation, so it’s possible the Reds view any offensive output as a bonus. He hit just .233/.285/.343 at the Triple-A level across 2024 and 2025 but still got a brief look in the majors with the Reds last year, getting into seven games. He was non-tendered at the end of the year and then re-signed his aforementioned minor league deal.

The Reds have Tyler Stephenson and Jose Trevino as their catchers at the big league level. Higgins was on the 40-man but on optional assignment. It seems the Reds preferred Banfield in that job, so they have swapped him in. Stephenson is an impending free agent and Trevino’s deal is only guaranteed through 2027, so there could be some long-term openings for playing time. Banfield can be optioned for the rest of this year and one additional season.

Higgins, 33, also signed a minor league deal with the Reds in the offseason. He was added to the roster in April, outrighted in May, but then selected back to the roster a few days later. Around the transactions, he took 32 plate appearances in 14 games and hit .231/.276/.269. He now has a .212/.289/.340 line in 286 career trips to the plate. He has generally received favorable marks for his defense in the minors.

Since Higgins has been previously outrighted in his career, he has the right to reject this outright assignment and elect free agency. The last time the Reds outrighted him, he accepted and was back on the roster a few days later. Now that Banfield is ahead of him on the chart, perhaps that makes him more likely to test the open market.