Oh, the Cincinnati Reds. The Cincinnati Reds!
Here we are again in late August with the most recent news regarding the Reds being which high-priced veterans they’ve both a) placed on waivers and b) had passed over on waivers. Such is life when the team is once again mired in last place and going absolutely nowhere.
I do suppose that news takes the sting off the news of them losing Hunter Greene to a second Tommy John surgery, one that will likely knock him out for the entirety of the 2027 season after he effectively missed all the important parts of the 2026 after elbow surgery, too.
The simple fact is that this is a roster that saw the front office tinker at the margins over the winter when it really needed a thorough turbocharge, and then we all realized nobody had even bothered to change the oil for the last three years. Then came the injuries — at one point to their ace, their top three relievers, their superutility piece, and their big offseason signee at the same time — and there’s just not nearly enough depth in this threadbare farm system to absorb that.
The Reds, right now, are Chase Burns — who’ll be shut down in another start or two — paired with Elly De La Cruz, Sal Stewart, and not much else. Think anybody aside from the team’s unmovable front office believes that’s good enough to win anything? They rank dead last in team batting average, on-base percentage, and wRC+. Only the lowly Savannah Bananas Colorado Rockies have fewer fWAR from their position players than the Reds, and even that’s by just 0.3. Pete Crow-Armstrong (8.6 fWAR) has been worth more than the entire non-pitching portion of the Reds (8.3). Heck, he’s been worth more than their entire pitching staff (8.5 fWAR), too!
The only question remaining for the Reds, now, is just how much house cleaning gets done between now and 2027. Will Terry Francona want to stick around for that? Will Nick Krall, whom the owners adore and let run the draft, get two more promotions within the front office? Given that the Reds have the toughest remaining schedule of any MLB club and are already languishing as one of the worst records in the sport, it’s just about time someone put the final nail in their coffin, and a weekend series against a good Cubs team just might do it.
I just might even hope for it, frankly.