The Cincinnati Reds are not good. Not only are they bad, but they’re also pretty boring. I’m tired of pretending ownership has a plan or the ability to execute one. The team has been waffling between bad and adequate for years. They’d be a joke if they weren’t so boring. But the Reds aren’t even funny. They’re just bad. You can pick your measurables and they’re all going to say pretty much the same thing. I’m picking fWAR (Fangraphs version of WAR) for this article.
Let’s get right to it. Here’s where the Reds rank in fWAR at every position.
Catcher – 23rdFirst Base – 16thSecond Base – 28thThird Base – 30thShortstop – 4thLeft Field – 9thCenter Field – 27thRight Field – 29thDesignated Hitter – 21stStarting Pitching – 17thRelief Pitching – 28th
Elly De La Cruz and Chase Burns are great. Andrew Abbott Abbott is very good. JJ Bleday has been a pleasant surprise and Sal Stewart has been very solid.
Nothing else has worked. That’s an indictment of ownership and the front office. It’s also an indictment of Terry Francona and his staff and some of the choices they make. Either the hitting philosophy doesn’t work or the hitters are not major league caliber.
You want a competitive team? Here you go.
You keep De La Cruz and Stewart and, I guess, Bleday in the lineup next year. Bleday gets a short leash because we can all read the back of his baseball card.
Burns and Abbott and Greene are in the rotation. Lodolo if he can ever stay on the field.
Steer is a wonderful bench guy who gets 400 plate appearances because guys get hurt, but he’s not an automatic starter because a league average bat is not providing substantive value at first or left or DH.
Everything else is up for grabs. Everything.
We can squint all we want. We can say, “but what if?” and “That guy got hurt though” all we want. But this team, as constructed, ain’t it. If a player isn’t averaging 2.5 WAR/600 PAs then I don’t want to hear it. Everyone on this team, except rookie Edwin Arroyo has gotten plenty of shots.
It gets better because per Doug Gray’s own prospect list, there’s not a lot of help coming. Hopefully, Arroyo can get it together. Hector Rodriguez, probably. Top prospect Alfredo Duno, eventually (maybe next year, if we’re lucky). Maybe Carlos Jorge. But is he really an every day player? I don’t know and it’s time to stop hoping that guys might work out. Oh, and there’s zero pitching in the system, so the Reds are gonna have to pay market rate for that if they don’t want to stink next year, too.
The Reds need to find a way to drastically improve at least a third of the lineup and it needs to come from outside the organization. They also need to start cleaning house in the front office. Perhaps we starting putting people in charge of things who have qualifications other than, “My daddy knows your daddy and so now we get to work together!” I get that pro-sports teams are basically just toys for rich people. But my lord, if they expect us to pay attention they’ve got to do more than this.
