After umbilical hernia surgery, Pagán ready to contribute to 'pen

GOODYEAR, Ariz. -- Emilio Pagán posts. That’s part of his appeal, and it’s what he values in a Major League reliever.

Over the last six seasons, Pagán is tied for eighth in MLB in appearances, with 335, and one of the things that drew him to the Reds in free agency was the fact that the club had three guys (Alexis Díaz, Ian Gibaut and Buck Farmer) with north of 70 games pitched last year and another two (Lucas Sims and Alex Young) with north of 60.

“That’s how you get out of a losing streak or continue a winning streak,” Pagán said. “Guys who are doing whatever they can to lay it on the line for the team.”

So you can imagine how much it bothered Pagán not to be able to pitch at all in the first two weeks of the Reds’ Cactus League season as he finished his recovery from offseason umbilical hernia surgery.

“It’s been tough, sitting here not doing anything,” he said.

Pagán, who signed a two-year, $16 million deal with Cincinnati, finally did something Saturday, pitching a perfect seventh inning with two strikeouts against the D-backs in the Reds' 7-5 win in his first appearance of the spring. He should have plenty of time to get up to speed and fill a prominent role in this ‘pen. He's also slated to pitch for the Reds on Tuesday after the club's off-day on Monday.

“He’s had a lot of success,” manager David Bell said of Pagán, who had a 2.99 ERA and 0.95 WHIP in 66 appearances for the Twins last year. “It hasn’t come easy for him, and, along with that, comes a teammate in the bullpen that doesn’t have to know that he’s pitching the eighth. He probably will pitch the eighth and the ninth, but he’s willing and able to do whatever to help us win games.”

The key to the Reds getting max value out of Pagán will be him limiting long balls, especially at Great American Ball Park. With the Twins, Pagán lowed his homer rate from 1.7 per nine innings in 2022 to 0.6 per nine innings last year. If he can continue that trend, then his strong career walk (7%) and swinging-strike (14.1%) rates will play up all the more.

Though the 32-year-old Pagán has incentives in his contract for games finished, he said he’s not caught up in his role.

“It’s not on my mind, to be completely honest,” he said. “I wouldn't have been able to say that honestly a few years ago. But I'm at the point now where I've been on winning teams and I've already made more money than I ever thought I would be as a senior-sign, Division 2 third baseman. So to get to this point, like, I'm not worried about the incentive. I just want to go win.”

Pagán’s surgery was optional. He had noticed a bump on his belly button that didn’t cause him any pain, and he decided the offseason was the right time to take care of it.

The Reds were aware of the issue when they signed him.

“We’re planning on winning a division,” Pagán said. “We'd rather get it taken care of now then have it flare up in July or August, and then I'm out for six weeks. So it was definitely the right decision to get it done. It made for a pretty boring offseason for me, training-wise, but physically, right now, I feel great.”

With that physical issue behind him, Pagán appears ready to post in a Reds bullpen loaded with gamers.

“That’s the makeup of each individual we have here,” he said. “And then we’ve got a lot of unique stuff -- unique sinkers, unique sliders, good curveballs … we’ve got it all. And so you mix the element of just having good dudes who want to pitch with the stuff that we have, and we’ve got a chance to be a really special unit.”