The Cincinnati Reds have traded for relief prospect Zach McCambley in a deal with the Miami Marlins that saw outfielder Rece Hinds moved to the National League East in the transaction. Hinds was designated for assignment over the weekend when the Reds needed to clear a spot on the 40-man roster for catcher P.J. Higgins.
Zach McCambley was the 3rd round pick by the Marlins back in 2020. Since then he’s spent much of his career between Double-A and Triple-A but hasn’t been able to reach the big leagues. Back in December he was selected by the Philadelphia Phillies in the Rule 5 draft.
He pitched in eight games for the Phillies in spring training. On the good side of things he allowed one earned run in 7.1 innings. On the not-so-good side he walked six batters and hit another one while striking out just four batters. That performance didn’t inspire faith that he could get it done in the big leagues all season and Philadelphia sent him back to Miami when he wasn’t going to make the 26-man roster.
In Triple-A this season, the recently turned 27-year-old right hander has been pitching in a multi-inning role for Jacksonville. He’s thrown 26.2 innings in 13 games, topping out at 3.0 innings three times this season and only pitching one inning one time.
Much like his time in spring training there’s some good and some not-so-good in there. On the good side of things his ERA is 2.36 on the season and he’s given up just 17 hits while striking out 32 batters. He’s also got a career best 53.8% groundball rate this season, which is well above-average (42% is the MLB average).
On the flip side of that he’s still struggling to throw strikes. For the most part in his career that has been the case. But in 2025 he made big strides and had a career low walk rate that was just 8.8%. But this season that’s nearly doubled and he’s walking 15.7% of the batters he is facing as he’s walked 17 batters. He’s also hit three more. That’s a free pass to first base for 18.5% of the opposing hitters and it’s a rate that is just way too high for a guy to have success in the big leagues where hitters are more patient and make you pay for mistakes even more.
This season Zach McCambley is throwing four pitches – a 4-seam fastball, a 2-seam fastball, a cutter, and a slider. In the past he’s shown a change up at times but he hasn’t thrown one in the regular season in three of the last four years.
He throws his cutter 37% of the time, the slider 30% of the time, his 4-seamer 25%, and mixes in the 2-seamer just 7% of the time. The fastball works 92-96 and tops out at 97 MPH. His cutter works in the upper 80’s, and the slider comes in around 83-85 MPH.