The Cincinnati Reds made two decisions last November that didn’t seem to mean a whole lot at the time. The first decision was to not protect Josh VanMeter from the Rule 5 draft on November 20th. That was the final day in which teams could add players to their 40-man roster and keep them from being selected by another team. The Reds chose to only add one player, Jimmy Herget. 10 days later the team decided to non-tender Aristides Aquino a Major League contract for the 2019 season. That removed him from the 40-man roster and made him a free agent.
The Reds were a little bit lucky, but a little bit good, too
