John Fay’s column in today’s Enquirer deals with the trade:
When I first heard the news last week, I was sufficiently thunderstruck that I didn’t immediately grasp whom the Reds had obtained.
All I was sure of until the ESPN ticker came around was Gary Majewski was now a Red.
I learned about the trade in Paradise, Mich. That’s on the Upper Peninsula, not exactly a hotbed of baseball news.
However, over the next few days, the trade kept spinning around in the back of my mind.
Here are the conclusions I arrived at in a baseball vacuum.
The Reds are playing for now. So much so that they were willing to buck the baseball adage that says you never trade an everyday player for a relief pitcher.
Krivsky is one brave general manager. I thought he might trade Lopez or Kearns – but not both.
The trade ultimately will be judged by what Lopez and Kearns do over the long haul. And it could look very bad in that light.
But, again, the Reds were willing to take that risk to have a better chance to win this year.
Going into tonight’s game against the New York Mets, who at 55-37 have the best record in the National League, the Reds trail the NL Central-leading Cardinals by 3½ games.
The Reds led the Los Angeles Dodgers and San Francisco Giants by 21/2 games in the NL wild-card race entering Monday.
The trade clearly will help this team stay alive in the playoff chase. Anyone on the road trip leading up to the All-Star break could see the club was on the verge of falling back into the pack.
The Reds lost eight of the last nine games heading into the break.
Waiting until the July 31 trading deadline to make a move would have meant waiting too long. If Krivsky does nothing and the Reds collapse, how does the team sell tickets for next year? With this slogan? “The Reds: We’re not hot when the weather gets warm.”
So Krivsky made his boldest move. He did so after talking with his scouts – the same scouts who endorsed the Bronson Arroyo, Brandon Phillips and David Ross trades.
I read this column in the print version at home and don’t think the entire version is in the on-line version, but I’m not certain.