The Reds announced Thursday that they’ve designated right-hander Yosver Zulueta for assignment in order to open a 40-man roster spot for righty Pierce Johnson, whose previously reported one-year deal with Cincinnati is now official.
A hard-throwing 6’1″ righty, Zulueta has pitched briefly in the majors with Cincinnati in each of the past two seasons. He’s totaled just 22 1/3 innings and been tagged for an unsightly 5.32 earned run average but has some more encouraging underlying traits. Zulueta averaged a blistering 98.1 mph with his four-seamer this past season and has fanned 24.8% of his opponents in the majors and kept a hearty 54% of batted balls against him on the ground. However, a paltry 8.4% swinging-strike rate and 25.4% opponents’ chase rate don’t really support that strikeout rate, and Zulueta has also walked 10.9% of his big league opponents.
Zulueta has a solid Triple-A track record, including 60 1/3 frames of 3.78 ERA ball in 2025. He punched out more than 31% of opponents with Louisville in 2025 but also issued walks at a near 13% clip and plunked another two percent of the batters he faced (five of the 250). In parts of four Triple-A campaigns, the Cuban-born righty has a 3.74 ERA, 27.5% strikeout rate and 14% walk rate.
Based on his velocity, ability to both miss bats and generate grounders, and the fact that he still has a minor league option year remaining, Zulueta seems like the type of low-risk bullpen arm who could appeal to other clubs via a small trade or waiver claim. The Reds will have five days to work out a trade before he has to be placed on waivers, which would be another 48-hour process. His DFA will be resolved within a week’s time.
