Uncustomed Heroes of 2024: Reds

 

The theme of this season for the Cincinnati Reds was trailing off. This team had two major awards candidates in Elly de la Cruz and Hunter Greene, both of whom had immense cases that dulled as the season went on. Greene, as he tends to, got hurt for a month or so despite having his best season to date, while de la Cruz simply cooled off despite leading the league in stolen bases. And as such, the Reds, despite some spikes in productivity and some cool stretches, once again couldn't bring this team to compete. The main issue, once again, was injuries, as the rotation was held together with scotch tape and some of the biggest pieces going into this year, like Matt McLain, Christian Encarnacion Strand, Brandon Williamson and T.J. Friedl, spent too much time on the IL. 

That means that flawed seasons by the regulars who did stay healthy were more exposed. Will Benson has become an everyday guy for this team, despite being fairly one-dimensional as a hitter. This year, in 128 games, Benson hit .187 with 14 hits and 43 RBIs. The man had only 64 hits, and 154 strikeouts. And he wasn't great defensively either.

2025 Prediction: I think keeping him as a bench bat/DH is the better option, and hopefully his aim improves a bit.

Jake Fraley remained a starting outfielder this year and, by and large, did a fair job. In 116 games, Fraley hit .277 with 5 homers and 26 RBIs, plus some average outfield play. Fraley didn't have the exclamation point he'd carried in previous seasons, especially at the plate. I think you can attribute that to the sleepy feel of the lineup as a whole. I don't think he's done really overperforming offensively.

2025 Prediction: A bounce-back year, with 20+ homers.

Graham Ashcraft, since his rookie season, has struggled with both his control and his health. Last year Ashcraft had a good season even if his ERA was drifting towards 5, but he missed a month or so with injuries. This year he was even more injury-limited, and mustered a 5.24 ERA and a 5-5 record in 15 starts. The man has just been unlucky as a major league rotation option, because he's always gonna be valued by this club but the window is never fully open enough for consistent success.

2025 Prediction: Ashcraft is gonna have a month or so where he's one of the best things about the Reds next year. But I don't know if it'll be a full year thing.

Alexis Diaz has thankfully remained a pretty steady closing option for the Reds. Like his brother Edwin, Alexis is not immaculate, and he'll have the occasional blown save, but he can still walk away year after year with a pretty strong body of work to show for. This year, despite a 4 ERA, Diaz still had 28 saves and 55 Ks in 60 appearances. Not the 37 he had in 2023, but I don't think the Reds are in any rush to find a new closer at the moment either.

2025 Prediction: 30+ saves. I think he might outdo his brother.

Around when it became clear that the Reds would be without Matt McLain AND Spencer Steer to start the season, and Noelvi Marte as well, the Reds traded for Santiago Espinal from Toronto. Espinal ironically would have finally gotten some starting time had he stayed with the Jays, but he was thrust right in with the Reds, and...was a suitable enough replacement infield choice. In 118 games he hit .246 with 9 homers [MORE THAN FRALEY] and 45 RBIs. Fine enough, though obviously not to the caliber the Reds thought they'd be getting at 3rd this year.

2025 Prediction: Sort of returns to the level of playing time he was at in Toronto before.

One of the surprise heroes of this Reds team was Brent Suter, the former Brewers swingman who, unsurprisingly, found a lot of similar long relief and starting opportunities with this Reds team, much like fellow swingman Nick Martinez. Suter had a nice year, with a 3.15 ERA and 50 Ks in 47 innings. Suter's a very handy guy to have around, because he both can start and close out games, and was great in both situations this year.

2025 Prediction: Will be the Reds' most utilized reliever next year. 

Ty France, in the midst of a subpar year with the Mariners, was swapped to Cincinnati to attempt to fill the hole at 1st. Compared to Dominic Smith, he did the better job, hitting .251 with 5 homers and 20 RBIs, despite some...suspect defensive moments. Kinda sucks how far France seems from his 2021-2022 peak, even 2 years later.

2025 Prediction: DHing somewhere, he has something of a comeback year.

And in the case of a late season reinforcement that went really well, in the deal that brought Frankie Montas to Milwaukee, the Brewers sent swingman Jakob Junis, who's become a really handy guy since his Giants days. Junis was a big star of the second half for the Reds, with a 2.85 ERA in 14 games, including 5 stars. Junis finished the year with a 0.780 WHIP and a 1.2 WAR, both very nice figures for a late trade piece.

2025 Prediction: Honestly I think he goes back to Milwaukee and does decently there.

Coming Tomorrow- Like usual I'm taking the holiday off, but come back boxing day for some extra Rockies. 

Last Remaining Diaz

 

First of all, the 'oh no, what are we gonna do' reaction in response to Edwin Diaz's injury from Mets fans? Very unfounded. You have David Robertson in the ninth, and then you have Adam Ottavino ready to go. You guys are perfectly fine, and the pen is still as strong as it was. Edwin isn't like a 'magic hat' guy, like you guys aren't completely out of luck without him. He'll be back next year, you guys are still great.

But yes, having Edwin Diaz out all year does put more pressure on Alexis Diaz, his younger brother who is embarking on a sophomore season after turning heads in his rookie year and being absolutely unhittable in a relief role. Plus, now the closing role in Cincinnati is basically his, so now Alexis has to close games in a year where his brother cannot close games, a year after he closed games really well.

Look, if this wasn't a Diaz brother I'd be concerned, cause Alexis is actually doing a nice job so far. So far he's got a 2.45 ERA with 6 saves in 13 appearances, and is one of the team leaders in WAR. He's not as showy as someone like Jordan Romano or Kenley Jansen, but the name of the game is efficiency, not abundance, and Diaz is a very efficient relief arm. He's also lucky enough to be part of a very strong bullpen, consisting of people like Derek Law, Ian Gibaut, Lucas Sims, Alex Young and Buck Farmer. Considering that there's so many homegrown Reds relievers like Tony Santillan and Tejay Antone that are injured right now, having all these cheap roster additions working insanely well is a good sign, especially for the bullpen to be this united.

Now...let's be clear for a moment. I'm aware that this is the Reds. And I'm aware how badly the White Sox stampeded upon them earlier today, but did ya notice that the relievers that gave up all the runs were the two relievers that aren't doing well for the Reds at all this year? Casey Legumina, which sounds like the name of an anthropomorphic bean in an animated film, and Reiver Sanmartin. All the other relievers that stepped in held 'em off. Young, Farmer, Luis Cessa and...backup catcher Luke Maile. Huh.

There is something troubling about the White Sox roughing up Graham Ashcraft, who, to date, has been the Reds' best pitcher. Greene, Lodolo and now Ashcraft have had some rough starts over the last few weeks, but I don't think that really dulls their value very much, especially for this team. There's still a ton of lineup issues, and keeping Elly da la Cruz down in Louisville is making less and less sense considering how inefficient Jose Barrero has been, but...as far as bad teams go, the Reds have a lot of plus sides, and the pitching is better than it's been in other dire years of theirs. Hopefully Diaz keeps it up and ensures that someone in that family continues to kick ass this year.

Coming Tomorrow- Every year since 2019 he's been on a different team, by no fault of his own. Has he finally found a keeper?

My Brother the Red

 

It was very late in Alexis Diaz's strong rookie season that I realized he was Edwin Diaz's brother.

Seriously.

The season had gone by, the Reds weren't doing very well, and sticking to the top of the WAR leaderboards was this unknown sturdy reliever named Alexis Diaz, and I just sort of let it slide. You know, it kinda tracked that the best person on the Reds was some reliever having a good year.

And then the Reds played the Mets...and Alexis' family was there to see Alexis square off against...his older brother Edwin. And then it clicked. Yeah. 1.72 ERA, 70 Ks over 52 innings of relief. That's something Edwin would do. 

It's kind of cool that Alexis is embracing middle relief before he inevitably gets crammed into a ninth inning role. Because the Reds certainly are threatening. With no Amir Garrett, no Tejay Antone and no Tony Santillan, the Reds really need an established relief guy in the ninth, and Hunter Strickland is clearly not who he was years ago. And yeah, Diaz has 6 saves already. I honestly think he works best in middle relief as a knockout setup option. Low stakes are good for Diazes. When you put the pressure on, they are capable of success, but maybe not for long periods of time. 

As for the Reds themselves...yeah, not a great deal going on right now. T.J. Friedl has finally begun hitting, he's at .275 with a 1.1 WAR. Jake Fraley is hitting, he has 8 homers, even if he's not quite as composed as he was in Seattle. Donovan Solano is still a good piece to have around, even if he's pretty much a replacement player now. Everybody else is either injured or sucking. And to witness a Reds season without Joey Votto, Mike Moustakas, Hunter Greene or Tyler Stephenson? Man, the Reds are lucky they have such a good stadium, because this month is gonna be dire.

The good news is that as bad as the Reds are, they're nowhere near the 100-game-loser they looked like in April. As a matter of fact, because of the lack of true tanking this year, there are more teams close to 100 wins than there are 100 losses, and more teams have at least tried to win now instead of just losing for draft picks. The Reds could have completely mailed it in, but their young rotation, some insane sources of power and some players that have since been traded saved them a lot of heartbreak, and made them a better team than the Pirates. They just couldn't make them particularly good.

Coming Tonight: A former Yankee being relied upon for his defense, mostly because his team isn't hitting save for the two guys everybody comes to see.