The Reds added to their bullpen mix Thursday, claiming right-hander Roansy Contreras off waivers from the Rangers.

Contreras was once ranked as a Top 100 prospect with the Pirates and enjoyed a promising start to his Major League career, but he lost his spot in the Pirates’ rotation and eventually fell off their Major League roster in 2023. He cracked the Opening Day roster with the Pirates this past season but was designated for assignment in May, then spent the rest of the season in the Angels’ bullpen.

Contreras was designated for assignment by the Angels earlier this offseason and subsequently claimed by the Rangers.

Contreras went 2-4 with a 4.35 ERA over 49 games (three starts) and 68 1/3 innings in 2024, earning two saves.

While Contreras was able to induce a good amount of ground balls last season (45.4%) and his fastball still has some zip (94.7 mph average), he struggled to miss bats, instead allowing hard contact. His 18.8% strikeout rate, 10.4% walk rate, 43.5% hard hit rate and 20.9% whiff rate all ranked in the 20th percentile or worse of all qualified pitchers, according to Baseball Savant.

He has a six-pitch mix (four-seam and sinking fastballs, slider, curveball, sweeper and changeup) but will lean on his four-seam fastball and slider the most, and not necessarily in that order. He’s shown a willingness to pitch backward and lean on his breaking stuff over his fastball for extended periods of time, to some success, but hitters recorded a .274 batting average and .645 slugging percentage against his slider last season.

Contreras is joining a Reds bullpen that finished with 37 losses last year, the most in the National League. They re-signed lefty Brent Suter earlier this offseason and selected the contract of relief prospect Luis Mey in November to help bolster the unit.

The Reds now have 39 players on their roster.