Josh VanMeter

VanMeter rose from obscurity and debuted with the Reds in early May after hitting 13 home runs in 29 games with Triple-A Louisville to begin 2019. He was used mostly off the bench initially and ended up riding the shuttle before settling in with the big club for good after the All-Star break. While most of his time came in left field, VanMeter also logged starts at four other positions: first base, second, third and right field. He was much better at home and versus opposite-handed pitching, batting just .186 outside of Great American Ball Park and .125 without the platoon edge. The overall numbers cratered in September, and while some of that may have been due to poor batted-ball luck (.174 BABIP), it left the front office looking for an upgrade at what projected to be VanMeter's position in second base. They found one in Mike Moustakas, leaving VanMeter to compete for a utility role this spring.