This afternoon we’re going to scour the internet and share a few stories of interest about the Cincinnati Reds. There were more than a few of them that have popped up on Monday that seem like they are worth sharing.
The first one is over at Fangraphs. Davy Andrews wrote about the errors by Elly De La Cruz. More specifically he wrote about his throwing errors over the last two seasons. His theory was that De La Cruz shouldn’t have quite as many throwing errors as he does if the Reds had a first baseman who was actually good at receiving throws over at first base. What he believes he found is that no, that’s not exactly the case.
I’m not sure that I completely agree with that conclusion. Andrews thinks that because of how hard De La Cruz throws that he simply isn’t giving enough time for any first baseman to react to a throw that’s short or off target in any way. He didn’t seem to think about the fact that for the most part over the last two years the Reds have handed a lot of playing time at first to very short first basemen who are going to have to play the ball differently than their taller counterparts who can both reach higher and out into the field further to make both scoops and high or wide throws easier for them to make plays on. With that said, I do think that he is at least partly correct in some parts of his conclusion.
Over at RedsMinorLeagues.com I looked back at the season for Cincinnati’s #5 prospect Chase Petty. His season was a wild ride. Not including his three big league appearances with the Reds, his ERA in his first 12 starts of the season was under 3.00. In the next (and final) 14 starts his ERA was over 9.00 and he gave up twice as many hits per 9-innings pitched. He just absolutely fell apart in the second half of the season. And there was a lot going on, including how he completely changed up his pitch usage in a big way in the second half.
Chris Towers wrote about his 2026 Fantasy Baseball breakout candidates over at CBS Sports. While there’s certainly a difference in what makes a player valuable in fantasy and in real games, that is a lot less of a thing for pitchers than position players where defensive value absolutely matters (and for pitchers it generally doesn’t because they just don’t make that many plays of consequence as fielders). Towers’ top breakout pick? Reds pitcher Chase Burns. He notes just how incredible his stuff is, compares him to teammate Hunter Greene, and says he has an “ace tool kit”.
And to wrap things up, Mark Sheldon looked at some “non-Kyle Schwarber” free agents who could potentially help the Reds offense. It’s a list that somehow includes a sub .700 OPS guy and Pete Alonso. There’s also a player on the list who could make a reunion with Cincinnati.
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