Cincinnati Reds Press Clippings February 7, 2017 THIS DAY IN REDS HISTORY 1936-Reds players and officials sail from New York to San Juan, Puerto Rico for spring training. They will open spring training on February 10th 1942 - The Cincinnati Reds stir the hometown fans by selling popular catcher Ernie Lombardi to the Boston Braves, where he will win the National League batting title this season with a .330 average. MLB.COM Improved pitching depth key for Reds in 2017 DeSclafani set to anchor rotation, while bullpen options abound By Mark Sheldon / MLB.com | @m_sheldon CINCINNATI -- For the Reds to have any hope of taking a much-needed step forward to transition from rebuilding in 2017, there must be a big difference from the makeup of the '16 team. As it often does, it all comes down to pitching. Reds manager Bryan Price believes he has enoug h of it in '17 to have more success. "I'm not looking at 2017 to be a replay of 2016, because we say it's a rebuild," Price said. "I'm looking for 2017 to be a significant improvement over 2016. In order to do that, you have to have pitching depth in the rotation and bullpen. I think we've satisfied some of those issues we had last year. Now we have to stay healthy." Beset by injuries and a lack of experienced depth, Reds pitchers ranked 14th out of 15 National League teams last season with a 4.91 ERA as the team went 68-94. They also smashed a Major League record by allowing 258 home runs. The rotation provided the fewest amount of innings in the Majors, while the bullpen led all of baseball in homers and walks allowed and hit batsmen. Cincinnati expects to have a healthy ace in Anthony DeSclafani, who didn't debut until late June last year. Homer Bailey is believed to be healthy and all the way back from Tommy John surgery. Brandon Finnegan worked 172 innings in his first full year as a starter in '16 and is expected to keep developing. After general manager Dick Williams took advantage of Dan Straily's peak value and flipped him for three prospects in a trade with the Marlins, free agent and ground-ball-inducer Scott Feldman was signed to pick up the innings and add a veteran presence. The fifth spot will be a wide-open battle with some talented young arms competing, including power pitchers Cody Reed, Robert Stephenson, Amir Garrett and Sal Romano. Tim Adleman, formerly from independent baseball, showed he can handle the Majors, and soon-to-be 40-year-old Bronson Arroyo will be in camp as a non-roster invitee to see if he has anything left after missing two years with arm injuries. Among the prospects, those who lose out on a rotation spot could still make the team as a reliever. Pitchers and catchers have their first workout on Feb. 14 and the first full-squad workout at the club's Spring Training home in Goodyear, Ariz., is Feb. 17. "If we become a better team because they spent half a season or a season in the bullpen, let's have a better team and let them get experience pitching out of the bullpen," Price said. "It doesn't mean they will never start again." Frankly, it's a bullpen that can only improve in '17. It got a potential boost with free agent Drew Storen, who signed a one-year, $3 million contract with added incentives. Storen had a career-high 43 saves with the Nationals in '11, but isn't necessarily the closer. Raisel Iglesias, Michael Lorenzen, Tony Cingrani and Storen could be the closer on any given day. Iglesias and Lorenzen -- previously starters -- provided an instant boost when they returned from injuries in June and worked out of the bullpen, sometimes pitching up to three innings. "We're going to try and do a lot of things that I think a lot of people took notice of in the playoffs and World Series," Price said. "It was something that we were doing in the back-third of our season and we'll continue to do that. We'll be able to utilize a pitcher that can throw multiple innings late in the game, set up or close." Williams believed strongly in the pitching upgrades his club will have. "We think that getting players healthy, young guys coming up and some investments in players from the outside," he said, "tho se three things will improve our pitching dramatically from last year." Mark Sheldon has covered the Reds for MLB.com since 2006, and previously covered the Twins from 2001-05. Follow him on Twitter @m_sheldon and Facebook and listen to his podcast. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs. Mesoraco aiming to bounce back from injuries Catcher limited to 18 starts behind plate over past two seasons Mesoraco aiming to bounce back from injuries By Mark Sheldon / MLB.com CINCINNATI -- With one week left before pitchers and catchers report to Spring Training, general manager Dick Williams still might have another transaction or two left to make. While one of those transactions was expected to be the addition of catching depth as a contingency for the rehabilitating Devin Mesoraco, signing a catcher to a Minor League deal before camp seems unlikely. "I don't know if we'll know anything definitive on Devin until he gets on the field and in games," Williams said. "We continu e to be encouraged by what we're seeing in the rehab process. He's taking batting practice. He's doing catching drills. We haven't had any setbacks there. I think the next step is getting him into games and seeing how he responds to games." Mesoraco had right hip and left shoulder surgeries in 2016 and left hip surgery in 2015. He's been limited to 18 starts behind the plate the past two seasons. Devin Mesoraco sees Darin Ruf attempting to steal and throws him out at second to end the top of the 9th inning The Reds will have six catchers in camp this spring, including Mesoraco, Tucker Barnhart and Rule 5 selection Stuart Turner on the 40-man roster. Barnhart stepped up and took on the regular catching duties last season and would do likewise this season, if the re is a need. "I don't see any major signing there," Williams said. "We'll just have to see how [Mesoraco] responds and whether or not we h ave enough guys to cover the issues. We'll have to assess how a guy like Turner performs, how Tucker's health is and how he's performing before we add more guys. Hopefully Devin will have a good spring and we'll be off and running." Williams did not rule out other moves being made. "We still have a spot or two in camp," he said. "We're still looking to see what need is most importan t, but we're down to the last spot or two." The Reds are still working to sign former Rays outfielder Desmond Jennings to a Minor League contract with a camp invite. "We're close on that," Williams said. As for pitcher Bronson Arroyo, who agreed to a Minor League contract and camp invite on Thursday to compete for a rotation spot, the deal isn't official just yet. "It's more of a matter of logistics and getting the paperwork done," Williams said. "He's already out there. It will take a c ouple of days to get that physically signed." Truck Day creates buzz for new season Reds' gear heading west as Spring Training workouts approach Mr. Redlegs helps load the Reds' Spring Training truck bound for Goodyear, Ariz. By Mark Sheldon / MLB.com CINCINNATI -- When exactly 13,104 baseballs are loaded onto a large truck parked inside the bowels of Great American Ball Park, it can really mean just one thing. Reds' Spring Training is about to arrive because that truck is headed west to Goodye ar, Ariz. Truck Day was another smooth operation on Monday morning. Pallets loaded with equipment, suitcases, office supplies, medical and training staff supplies, video and computer equipment, kitchen and food items and more all went into the 53-foot trailer without complication. Joining the baseballs in the truck are 1,000 bats, 160 buckets of bubble gum, 120 batting helmets and 100 cases of sunflower seeds. The process was overseen by Rick Stowe, the Reds' vice president of home clubhouse operations. Stowe and his staff have b een preparing for weeks to have everything organized and ready at the loading dock for Monday. "We have the bare necessities at our facility that kind of allows us to be as efficient as possible," home clubhouse assistan t Tony Walter said. "We don't have to take the amount that we used to. But there's a lot of stuff that we need to get out there." In addition to baseball needs, personal ones were also handled by the staff. There will be portable cribs, toys and a tricycle also going on the truck. "It's a lot of family stuff. There are a lot of families. Everybody comes with us sometimes," Walter said. "It's pretty tame this yea r. We've had boats, motorcycles, scooters, all sorts of random and unique stuff. This year, it's pretty much all business." The truck is set to depart Cincinnati on Tuesday afternoon and scheduled to arrive at the Reds' player development complex in Arizona on Friday morning.