Former Padres $33 Million Reliever Traded to NL Central Squad

The San Francisco Giants traded former San Diego Padres lefty Taylor Rogers to the Cincinnati Reds, Robert Murray of FanSided posted on Wednesday.

San Francisco received right-handed pitching prospect Braxton Roxby in exchange for the veteran lefty in what appeared to be a salary dump. The Giants also sent over cash considerations in the trade.

Trade: The Cincinnati Reds are acquiring reliever Taylor Rogers from the San Francisco Giants for right-hander Braxton Roxby, according to sources familiar with the deal.
— Robert Murray (@ByRobertMurray) January 29, 2025

“He’s an accomplished left-handed pitcher that pitched really well out of the ‘pen over the last several years," Reds president of baseball operations Nick Krall said. "I’m really excited to add him -- veteran leadership that just takes the ball and goes and gets outs with the rest of the group.”

Rogers is set to earn $12 million in 2025, the final year of the three-year, $33 million deal he signed with the Giants before the 2023 season. He’s coming off what might have been the best season of his nine-year MLB career.

In 2024, Rogers pitched in 64 games, recording a career-best 2.40 ERA with 64 strikeouts over 60 innings.

However, another Major League Baseball insider thinks the Giants got rid of Rogers for another reason.

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"They didn’t trust him," Grant Bisbee of the Athletic wrote. "By the end of his tenure with the team, he was still getting outs and preventing runs, but he was doing it in the fourth and fifth innings, usually with the Giants behind. He was put into games when all the Giants could do was keep the game close and hope their offense would save them, which … well, it was all they could do."

Rogers, 34, has pitched in the big leagues since 2016, compiling a 3.34 ERA, 83 saves, and a 7.3 bWAR over nine seasons with the Twins, Padres, Brewers, and Giants. He recorded a career-high 31 saves with Minnesota in 2022 and was named an All-Star in 2021.

While with the Padres for the first half of the 2022 season, Rogers appeared in 42 games going 1-5 with a 4.35 ERA.

The move was surprising but necessary.

"He threw 172 pitches in September, and only six of those pitches got a batter to swing and miss. That is a shockingly low rate for a reliever in the modern game. The pitch data was super skeptical about him and had been for a long time," Brisbee added.

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