ESPN's Kirk Herbstreit gets very angry arguing about the Reds with The Athletic reporters on Twitter
Anyone who follows Kirk Herbstreit on Twitter is probably aware that the ESPN/Amazon football broadcaster is an enthusiastic fan of the Cincinnati Reds. Usually, that results in Herbstreit happily reporting the team's wins to his 1.6 million followers, but this week, it saw him get into a very public feud with two reporters at The Athletic.
The fun began Tuesday with an article by Ken Rosenthal and C. Trent Rosecrans analyzing an upcoming issue for the Reds: where to put Elly De La Cruz, a top-10 infield prospect who is knocking on the door of the majors.
The article is very detailed and worth reading if you care about the Reds, but the basics are that De La Cruz is ideally a shortstop, but the Reds already have a promising, young shortstop in Matt McLain, a top-100 prospect who is hitting .361/.427/.541 through 14 games in his MLB career. Placing De La Cruz at shortstop would likely move McLain to second base, where the team has one of its best players, Jonathan India. That means if the Reds want De La Cruz playing his most valuable position, they might need to trade one of their best players or put him at a new position.
There's a lot of nuance involved in each of the Reds' options, as well as praise for what India brings to the team outside the field, but Herbstreit was still incensed when Rosenthal tweeted it out:
This team hasn’t had a leader that pushed his teammates every day since Scott Rolen left in 2012 and we finally have that guy and you write this article??? India’s value goes far beyond the numbers. As excited as we all are about the young talent coming up India needs to be the… https://t.co/yAsBJ9qoXr
— Kirk Herbstreit (@KirkHerbstreit) May 30, 2023
Herbstreit's main counterpoint to the article was the value India brings "beyond the numbers." Rosecrans responded by noting that the article discusses that, so Herbstreit quote-tweeted him to say he did read the article and called the idea of moving India "complete bulls***."
Of course I read it and while that was covered why even address this as an “issue”?? What appears to be a logjam in the IF is an easy fix..guys learn to play other positions. As bad as they’ve been they’re FINALLY playing with an edge and India is the heartbeat to that. Now he’s answering questions from the media about potentially getting moved? Complete bulls***. He’s the Alpha leave him alone-why create unnecessary drama??? Team is finally trending in a good direction!
Herbstreit proceeded to expand on those thoughts with an appearance on the "Foul Territory" podcast in which he said he "didn't know anything about" De La Cruz, the team's best prospect in years, and identified McLain as "McCain."
Again, Rosecrans took a shot at Herbstreit on Twitter by noting those issues and complaining that Herbstreit appeared to want him to be a cheerleader for the team he covers:
Funny, @KirkHerbstreit says he “doesn’t know anything about Elly De La Cruz” and says he likes Matt “McCain” — but he knows how to do my job, which he seems to think is to promote the Reds and help them win https://t.co/rA9oCCLDNj
— C. Trent Rosecrans (@ctrent) June 1, 2023
Herbstreit responded by saying he doesn't even know who Rosecrans is and accusing him of making clickbait.
Never told you how to do your job-i don’t even know who you are.
I’m a fan who loves his team you’re a troll looking for attention.
Hustle back to creating clicks and causing trouble! https://t.co/5GYeZKY3Lh— Kirk Herbstreit (@KirkHerbstreit) June 1, 2023
Not knowing who Rosecrans is might say more about Herbstreit than he thinks, considering that Rosecrans has covered his team for a decade with The Athletic and Cincinnati Enquirer and is respected enough to be the current president of the Baseball Writers Association of America.
Rosenthal, who initially responded diplomatically to Herbstreit, then jumped in to say the broadcaster was acting "ridiculous." Zach Buchanan, a colleague at The Athletic and Rosecrans' former partner on the Reds beat, went a step further and told Herbstreit that he was "showing your ass so much you might trigger an FCC violation."
Above all, both Rosenthal and Rosecrans suggested that Herbstreit actually read what they wrote.
No one comes out of this looking particularly good, but Herbstreit seems a little out of his depth considering that he's arguing with two people who would know the Reds' inner workings much better than him. If they were arguing about football, it might be a different story.
