Cincinnati Reds Trade: Mat Latos, Alfredo Simon Headed Out

The Cincinnati Reds and the Miami Marlins will trade starting pitchers, reports surfaced Thursday.

The Reds will give up starting pitcher Mat Latos and receive pitcher Anthony DeSciafani with minor-league catcher Chad Wallach. Although Latos' season was limited last year due to injury, he went 5-5 with a 3.25 ERA. In his 153 career starts, Latos has a win-loss record of 60-45 with an ERA of 3.34.

"We had certain goals we set when we came to San Diego and we're slowly getting to the point where we achieve those goals and it's a kind of been a two-or-three step process to put us in a position to being contenders next year," the Reds' general manager, Walt Jocketty said in the press conference reported by Cincinnati.com.

DeSciafani made 13 appearances, five of them were starts, in 2014. He went 2-2 with a 6.27 ERA. During his run between Double-A and Triple-A, DeSciafani went 6-7 with an ERA of 3.78. Wallach, who played for the low Class A Greensboro and high Class A Jupiter last year, hit .322 with a .457 slugging percentage. He recorded seven homeruns, 22 doubles and 57 RBI in 97 games.

The Reds have also sent right-hander, Alfredo Simon to the Detroit Tigers in exchange for two minor-league players, Jonathan Crawford and Eugenio Suarez.

"We had great reports from him [Crawford] in the draft and also this past year," Jocketty said. "He's a guy who adds to our pitching depth and as you know, we try to build our organization around pitching as much as we can. Suarez adds substantial depth to our middle infield, which is a weakness for us as an organization."

The trades will help clear up the Reds' payroll, allowing them to make other moves.