MAGNIFICENT TRADE: World star affixes a $3,500,000, multi-years-signature with the Cincinnati Reds

Josh Harrison and the Cincinnati Reds have agreed to a minor league contract. It became official on Tuesday afternoon for the club. An invitation to the Reds’ big league spring training is part of the arrangement. If he makes the club, the agreement may be worth $3,500,000, according to

Josh Harrison and the Cincinnati Reds have agreed to a minor league contract. It became official on Tuesday afternoon for the club.

An invitation to the Reds’ big league spring training is part of the arrangement. If he makes the club, the agreement may be worth $3,500,000, according to Mark Sheldon of Reds.com. Additionally, according to Sheldon, Harrison has an opt-out on March 21st.

Josh Harrison was selected in the sixth round by the Chicago Cubs in 2008. He was born and raised in Cincinnati, where he attended Princeton High School and the University of Cincinnati. He joins his elder brother Vince Harrison, who is now the manager of the Dayton Dragons, a High-A affiliate of the Reds, in the organization.

Harrison has played in the major leagues for the past 13 seasons. He played with the Pittsburgh Pirates from 2011 to 2018, making two All-Star teams in 2014 and 2017. He traveled the league after leaving Pittsburgh, playing for the Detroit Tigers in 2019, the Washington Nationals in 2020–2021, the Oakland Athletics in 2021, the Chicago White Sox in 2022, and the Philadelphia Phillies in 2023.

He had a respectable but unremarkable.258/.319/.374 line in 326 games from 2019 to 2022. That was decent enough, though not quite as excellent as when he was with the Pirates. Nevertheless, the 2023 season did not turn out as planned for him. With the Phillies, he appeared in just 40 games and batted a meager.204 with three walks (.263 on-base percentage) and a.291 slugging percentage. His lifetime stats of a.712 OPS and a 95 OPS+ were far lower than his.554 OPS and 53 OPS+, which were only higher than his 2019 season when he appeared in 36 games with the Tigers.

Josh Harrison has a number of ways to assist out defensively. He has filled every position on the field the past two seasons with the exception of catcher, center field, and first base. In that period, he has even pitched in five games.

Harrison has to hit more consistently than he did in order to make the squad. However, if he can accomplish that, he may provide expertise in playing that sort of position and be able to play wherever on the Reds bench.

Spring training won’t end with an opt-out on March 21st; the team would still play four games in Arizona before returning to Cincinnati to begin the season.