Monday is a big one in terms of administrative deadlines as teams close the books on the 2026 season and look towards 2027. Chief among them is the need for players who finished the 2026 season on the 60-day IL to be returned to the 40-man roster, and that creates quite the roster crunch for some franchises.
Some, though, are positioned well to take advantage of that, and the Cincinnati Reds are one. They entered the day with only 35 players on their 40-man, whereas a team like the San Francisco Giants
was in need of dumping 9 players in order to scale their way down to 40. So, it’s unsurprising that the Reds jumped at the chance at a free fringe player when the option arose, and that’s precisely what happened between them and RHP Duncan Davitt.
Cincinnati claimed Davitt, 27, as well as RHP Paxton Schultz from the Washington Nationals on Monday, the team announced.
Both pitchers made appearances at the big league level during the 2026 regular season, yet both were viewed as fringe and/or depth arms within their two previous systems. Both also have options remaining, which is key as the Reds are going to need to craft a bullpen in 2027 capable of cycling through arms when needed given just how many holes they have in that corner of player development.
Davitt was originally an 18th round pick by the Tampa Bay Rays out of the University of Iowa, and he’s spent time in with each of the Chicago White Sox, Atlanta Braves, and Giants already in his career. He’s got ample experience as both a starter and reliever and at least can boast a career K/9 of 9.4 at the minor league level even though he only has 8.0 IP in his career at the big league level.
Schultz, meanwhile, is a former 14th round pick out of Utah Valley University by the Milwaukee Brewers, who was dealt to the Toronto Blue Jays in 2021. He spent five years in Toronto’s system prior to being claimed off waivers by the Nationals last January, though he does have considerably more experience at the big league level (57.0 IP) than Davitt.
Both arms will fall firmly in the ‘Chase Petty, Zach McCambley, Connor Phillips’ realm of ‘throw something at the wall and hope it sticks’ corner of the Cincinnati bullpen mix, which does have some value. It also wouldn’t be a shock to hear that one, or both, is claimed by another team later in the offseason as the Reds look to use their final 40-man roster spots on more established pieces.
For now, though, they both look like savvy, no-cost additions.
