Clock’s ticking!
Major League Baseball’s 2024 trade deadline is set for a hard and fast 6 PM ET on Tuesday, July 30th. I’m writing this at approximately 11:30 PM ET on Monday, July 29th, roughly one full day after a lackluster offensive performance and bullpen implosion cost the Cincinnati Reds a vital would-be victory over the Tampa Bay Rays, a brilliant outing by Hunter Greene (7 IP, 2 H, 0 ER) wasted yet again.
The song remains the same with these Reds with the deadline now just a day away. They’re still in last place in the NL Central. They’re still 5 games under .500 at just 50-55. They are, however, still within spitting distance of the final NL Wild Card spot, just 5.0 games out with some 57 games left to play.
Where that leaves them in the trade mix, we still don’t know. They’ve not yet stepped up into the swing of it, the minor move for Austin Slater at the outset of the month the lone real dip into the land of transactions.
There were concrete rumors surrounding Jonathan India for a time, the leadoff/2B man having a resurgent (and finally healthy) season and reminding folks just how good he was when winning the 2021 NL Rookie of the Year Award. Thing is, it was the New York Yankees who were most connected to India, and they quickly pivoted to acquiring Jazz Chisholm to throw into their infield mix instead. The Seattle Mariners reportedly had interest in India, too, and we do know how well the front offices of the Mariners and Reds know one another after the massive deals they’ve swung over the previous few seasons.
As for the pitching the Reds could sell, there’s still rumblings they could move some of their pending free agents, even if some of them keep coughing up games for the team for which they currently play. On the starter front, perhaps some movement by the pitching-rich Texas Rangers this morning could help catalyze the market, as they began their cull by dealingg Michael Lorenzen to the Kansas City Royals. Given their immense glut of starters, it’s good to know the ice has begun to thaw on teams trading for fringe-caliber starters since the Reds could well move both Frankie Montas and/or Nick Martinez.
The Baltimore Orioles, once considered a club who might have interest in some of the Reds arms, are now rumored to be eyeing higher than that in former Cy Young Award winner Blake Snell of the San Francisco Giants, per reports. We’ll see if their new ownership will finally move them out of the same spendthrift tier of clubs in which the Reds operate and whether that leaves the Reds on the hook without a trade partner they once could have leaned on.
You may notice that I’ve not floated a single ‘acquisition’ rumor here. That’s because there currently are none, be that from the Reds insistence on simply waiting for the return of Matt McLain to serve as an addition or from them operating so close to the vest that nobody anywhere has any idea what they’re looking at. I’ll leave you to assume which corner I’m in on that, as all the writing everywhere suggests they’re simply going to bide their time and let one of the precious few years they have Elly De La Cruz on their roster go to waste as the shopping deadline comes and goes.
Remember when they were 10 games over .500 and in 1st place a year ago at the deadline? Remember how they chose to bolster that roster?
I digress. Regardless, we’ll surely see some fireworks around the game in the coming hours, much like we saw the Chicago Cubs - who’d been toggling with the Reds in last place in the Central for weeks - make a big splash for Tampa’s Isaac Paredes just last night. The Reds will get to face Paredes, the Cubs, and their envious gumption beginning today by the way, the series at the deadline between these two clubs potentially torpedoing one club’s season chances all at the same time.
Go Reds?
