How Cincinnati Reds were built last winter to win – or sell | Press Box Wag

When the Cincinnati Reds doubled down on all that pitching depth over the winter, the value showed up right away as they covered early season injury absences to help get off to a 14-10 start.

“We did it for this reason,” general manager Brad Meador said the first week of the season.

But when the Reds followed that early season high-water mark through 24 games with a 2-12 skid that dropped them 4 1/2 games in the standings in two quick weeks, it was at least a reminder of the other value-added aspect of those signings.

That’s because as much as the Reds are built to win with those moves after last year’s youth-fueled drive into surprising playoff contention, they’re also built to sell at the trade deadline if Plan A keeps going awry.

Free agent pitchers Frankie Montas, Nick Martinez, Emilio Pagán and even Brent Suter and Justin Wilson are all signed to short-term contracts, providing the kind of nimble roster and payroll movement sought by every team this side of Los Angeles or New York.

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None of those pitchers are assured of being under contract beyond this year, between player options, club options and mutual options attached to their deals.

All of them suggest potential value – some very high value – if they’re made available in a summer trade market that has already begun moving unusually early with trades in the last week of Miami batting champ Luis Arraez to San Diego and White Sox infielder Robbie Grossman to the defending-champion Texas Rangers.

That’s already two declared sellers, and we haven’t reached mid-May.

As high as the price soared for pitching last summer, the Reds could find themselves in another seller’s market if that’s the direction the next month or two takes their season.

“I doubt that it goes down,” Meador said recently when talking generally about the upcoming trade market for pitchers.

In theory, the Reds could sell without it being a rebuild as much as a reset, shedding recently added salaries and veteran pitchers, then reshaping the roster again over the winter around the still-young, still-in-place core.

And if anybody in the room right now doesn’t like that idea, there’s one sure way to prevent Plan B (see: Plan A).

Where There's a Wills...

Elly De La Cruz apparently has never heard of Maury Wills.

“Who?”

You know, the old Dodgers shortstop. Stole 104 bases in 1962.

*Quizzical stare*

Doesn’t matter.

Point is, if De La Cruz keeps this up, he’ll get to know Wills soon enough when he joins him in major-league history.

When the Reds’ young shortstop reeled off those three straight two-steal games at the end of the week, he was back on 100-steal pace again for the season (106.6 to be exact, through Friday night).

Not only would that make him the first to reach triple digits in steals since Vince Coleman in 1987, but De La Cruz would join Wills as the only non-outfielder among the four players in history to reach the mark since SB rules were changed in 1898 to stop counting additional bases on a teammate’s hit as steals (think first to third on a single).

In fact, of the eight players** to steal 90 in a season since then, seven were outfielders: Coleman, Rickey Henderson, Lou Brock, Ron LeFlore, Ty Cobb, Omar Moreno and Tim Raines.

The reason seems obvious: Playing an outfield position usually causes less wear and tear on a player over the course of the season than playing, say, shortstop.

De Le Cruz has started every game for the Reds so far and says he sees no reason why he can’t play all 162. And keep running.

“I plan to keep playing,” he said. “I want to win.”

Now, about that Wills fella and all those steals as a shortstop in 1962. That was the first year the season was extended to 162 games.

But Wills didn’t play in 162 that year. He played in 165.

When the Dodgers and Giants tied for first place in the National League after 162, they determined the league champ with a three-game, regular-season series — by which time the 29-year-old Wills certainly had to be gassed.

So much so that he delivered four hits and stole three bases in Game 165 to help beat the Giants.

The Big Number: 9 1/2

That’s the approximate number of minutes the Reds held their only lead during a just-concluded winless homestand against the Orioles and Diamondbacks. Stuart Fairchild drove in the first run of Wednesday’s game against Arizona with a second-inning single, but the inning ended 12 pitches later, and four pitches into third, the DBacks tied it.

That was the Reds’ only lead in 59 innings, going back to the top of the fourth inning May 1 in San Diego, until Spencer Steer doubled home a run in the first inning of Friday’s series opener in San Francisco.

On Weathering Storms

Whether intentional or not, Graham Ashcraft provided some perhaps-needed perspective on the Reds recent on-field travails during their losing streak.

As he pitched in a 4-3 loss to the Diamondbacks on Wednesday, his phone in the clubhouse was filling up with word from back home in Tennessee that a tornado had touched down on his property.

His house was spared, and nobody was home. “Thank God,” he said. His fence, gutters and the siding on his house were damaged, and his trailered boat was turned sideways. Tennis-ball-sized hail also damaged his aluminum roof, he said.

It was one of the few times his wife was with him during a homestand. And none of his neighbors had any tornado damage at all.

“We got lucky,” he said.

**The List

These are those eight players De La Cruz is chasing with his best-in-class MLB speed this season, and the 14 seasons they combined to steal 90 or more bases (since the current rules defining a stolen base were implemented at the end of the 1800s), listed in descending order of those top single-season marks:

• 130 – LF Rickey Henderson, Athletics, 1982

• 118 – LF Lou Brock, Cardinals, 1974

• 110 – LF Vince Coleman, Cardinals, 1985

• 109 – LF Vince Coleman, Cardinals, 1987

• 108 – LF Rickey Henderson, Athletics, 1983

• 107 – LF Vince Coleman, Cardinals, 1986

• 104 – SS Maury Wills, Dodgers, 1962

• 100 – LF Rickey Henderson, Athletics, 1980

• 97 – LF Ron LeFlore, Expos, 1980

• 96 – CF Ty Cobb, Tigers, 1915

• 96 – CF Omar Moreno, Pirates, 1980

• 94 – SS Maury Willis, Dodgers, 1965

• 93 – LF Rickey Henderson, Yankees, 1988

• 90 – LF Tim Raines, Expos, 1983

Sickness and Health

The Reds believe they’re finally clear of a nearly two-month wave of illnesses that swept through their player roster and staff from March through early May.

And if so they might have a pre-COVID, 5-year-old team policy to thank for it not becoming worse. That’s when a severe flu-like outbreak in Seattle derailed the end of their 2019 season and took so many guys out of action so quickly they instituted a new team policy.

Anyone exhibiting symptoms was to leave the team facility or call in sick and stay home in the first place. And once diagnosed, a player is to stay away from the facility/teammates until the medical staff determines he’s no longer contagious.

“We’ve had it multiple times over the last five years,” team president Nick Krall said. “I don’t want people in the locker room and then lose anybody else. We were down to 10 (position) players a couple days (during the recent road trip).”

He Said It

“This s(—) is embarrassing!”

*That’s part of a tweet sent out by ESPN personality and avowed Reds fan Kirk Herbstreit after a 2-1 loss to the Orioles during the second game of the recent runs-deprived homestand. It was the team’s fourth straight loss.

They lost the next four, too. Still waiting for the word Herbstreit comes up with for that.

Giant Win?

How big was that 4-2 win by the Reds Friday night in San Francisco to snap their eight-game losing streak?

If they right their ship over these next 4 1/2 months, history, at least, suggests it could be a big deal.

No team in franchise history has ever made the postseason after losing nine straight during the season regular season.

Two of the 16 Reds teams to make it to October had eight-gamers: the 1990 World Series champs and the 1961 NL pennant winners.

Just sayin'.

Did You Know

The Reds have had the starts of four games delayed by weather conditions, not counting the postponed home game April 11 against the Brewers (or the proactive game-time change in Philadelphia April 3).

So what?

So two of those four delays lasted longer than it took to play the actual games — the 3:55 delay in Philadelphia on April 3 (on top of the already pushed-back start) more than an hour longer than the 2:34 game that night, and the 2:41 delay May 3 against the Orioles taking seven minutes longer than it took to play that game.

A 1:50 delay April 10 against Brewers was only 22 minutes shorter than the 2-hour, 12-minute game.

Shout out to the pitch clock and other pace-of-play rules that went into effect last season.

Now if they could just do something about the pace of these rain delays.

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This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: How Cincinnati Reds were built to win – or sell | Press Box Wag