Reds activate TJ Friedl, Frankie Montas ahead of series opener against Diamondbacks

That’s a boost!

TJ Friedl was the best all-around player for the Cincinnati Reds in 2023, leading the team in both fWAR and bWAR in a 4-win campaign. He played great defense, hit lefties even better than righties, swiped a ton of bags, and proved to be a one of the best leadoff men in the game all season long.

Frankie Montas, meanwhile, looked excellent early as the Opening Day starter for the Reds in 2024, backing up the team’s stretch to sign him despite him missing almost all of 2023 with a shoulder injury.

Playing without those two would be a dent in any team’s hopes, and the Reds have certainly stumbled without them. They’ve lost however many in a row, 8 out of 10, and now sit mired in the same ‘under .500’ category in which we’ve seen them so, so many times over the last two decades. As of today, though, the Reds will officially have both back.

Cincinnati activated Friedl for the first time all year as he’s now sufficiently recovered from the broken wrist suffered on a dive in the outfield in spring training. Montas, meanwhile, is back in action after being hit by a comebacker on his pitching arm some two weeks ago.

The Reds announced those moves, as well as the selection of OF Conner Capel, earlier on Tuesday.

Sam Moll was optioned yesterday, the presumptive move to get Montas back on the roster since active rosters these days must have an even 13 pitchers and 13 position players. To get Friedl back and Capel on the roster, however, meant a pair of position players had to make way - that came via the optioning of Nick Martini to AAA and Bubba Thompson back to AA.

The hope is that these moves begin to right the Reds ship, of course. While the starting rotation has been rock solid through this skid, the offense - as we mentioned yesterday - has been positively abysmal. It’s impossible to ask TJ to singlehandedly reverse that trend, but even if he’s just a similar copy to the TJ we’ve seen before there’s hope he can help spark a revival down the rest of the batting order.

Trickle-down baseballnomics, or something.

Go Reds!