The Cincinnati Reds have signed outfielder Anthony Alford to a minor league contract. His deal does not include a non-roster invite to big league spring training, but he will be in “early minor league camp”. That means he could see action with the Reds during games as a “minor league call up”, particularly early on in the spring. And it’s also not unheard of for guys to get a non-roster invite/call up after spring training has started if they are performing well in minor league camp.
Alford has played in parts of six seasons in Major League Baseball. From 2017-2022 he played for the Toronto Blue Jays and Pittsburgh Pirates. He accumulated 240 plate appearances in that span while playing in 102 games and hitting .209/.275/.368. In 2021 he saw his only sort-of regular playing time when he played in 49 games with Pittsburgh and had 148 plate appearances and posted a .717 OPS.
A former top prospect in the Blue Jays organization (he was thrice named as a Top 100 prospect by Baseball America, MLB Pipeline, and Baseball Prospectus), Alford struggled a bit once he reached Triple-A before figuring things out at the level in 2021 and 2022 where he hit a combined .286/.400/.577 in 270 plate appearances.
It was that performance and his lack of playing time in Pittsburgh that opened up an opportunity for him to make the move to Korea to play in the KBO in part of 2022 and all of 2023. During his 213 games in the KBO, Alford hit .288/.359/.476 with 50 doubles, 4 triples, and 29 home runs.
Now he’s back in the United States and he’ll be in spring training with the Reds farm system. The 29-year-old outfielder has experience in all three spots out in the grass. A majority of his time has come in center, but he has significant experience in left field as well. He’s only played in 109 games as a right fielder during his professional career – though his experience in Korea saw him play more right field than center, though 160 of his 175 starts in the field came as a left fielder.
