Not that there was much of the season remaining, but Derek Dietrich’s season came to an early end on Friday when he had shoulder surgery. From Bobby Nightengale of The Cincinnati Enquirer:
There was no damage to his rotator cuff or other major areas, and the arthroscopic surgery isn’t expected to affect him in the offseason.
Dietrich’s left shoulder bothered him throughout the second half of the season. He went on the 10-day injured list (IL) with left shoulder inflammation last month and missed 16 games.
This brings up a lot of questions, both for Derek Dietrich and for the Cincinnati Reds. In the first half of the season Dietrich was hitting home runs like he could see the future and was doing his best Aristides Aquino in August impression. But after hitting three home runs in a game in late May, everything changed. The home runs stopped coming. The hits stopped coming, too. Well, except the hits that were him being hit by a pitch, that is.
From the end of May through the end of the season, Derek Dietrich had 15 hits. He was hit by 17 pitches in that same time frame. The ability to hit the ball completely went away. And that puts the Reds in a tough situation. They will need to offer him a contract for next season and head off to arbitration, where he likely gets a raise. Or they could non-tender him a contract and he will become a free agent.
If they believe that the shoulder injury is what led to his complete collapse post-May, then there’s a chance they decide to bring him back for 2020. But it probably won’t be a very easy decision to make if that’s the case. There’s never been a stretch of his career like what he experienced this year after May ended. The decision must be made at the end of November. That means there’s time for the organization to weigh their options here.
Lucas Sims to start tonight
Trevor Bauer was sick earlier this week and had his start pushed back to the final game of the year. That moved up the Reds planned “bullpen day” to tonight. It was announced after the game on Friday night that Lucas Sims would be getting the start for the team against Pittsburgh.
A new franchise record
In the final home game of the year the Reds set a new franchise record for most home runs in a season when Aristides Aquino hit his 18th of the year. It was the Reds 223rd homer of the season, breaking the all-time franchise record that was previously set in 2005. For a little bit of context, though, the 2019 Minnesota Twins entered yesterday as the all-time record holder for most homers in a season by a team. They were sitting on 301. As I type this they no longer hold the record despite hitting two more home runs last night. The New York Yankees hit FIVE last night and jumped ahead of the Twins, 305-303. That baseball sure is something else this year.
Any other FO would have to answer questions like: why was DD continually put in the lineup with a bum shoulder, when it was painfully obvious he was useless out there?
Why was Senzel pinch running with a torn labrum?
But nope, no questioning this regime here. Empty the farm for rentals in an obvious non compete year….. not one question of direction or plan. Must be a cush job for Dickie W
Jim Day said as much during last night’s broadcast. Chris Welch: he’s a good guy and should be ready by ST. Day: if he’s here! Jim’s pretty well connected.
Re-signing DD should be a no brainer! As they say , just look at the back of his playing card. He is a solid major league utility player.
Mookie Betts rumored to be available this winter. Wonder if the Reds would offer enough to trade for him? MVP in center would sure make this lineup a lot prettier.
Count me in on the move Senzel to second base move. I believe Nick would offer elite defense at second and would get him away from the outfield wall. I’m not comfortable with any of the catching prospects that will be available this winter. we need to roll with what we’ve got and hope that Tyler Stevenson gets to the show sooner than later. The front office has totally blown the rebuild with the trading away of our prospects. I expect the Dodgers front office considers the Reds as their farm club, and last but not least is the manager. The lack of fundamentals and situational hitting shows up every night and the micro managing of Bell is just hard to watch.
I read the Bauer trade as the Reds committing to being in contention for the division title next year – and that makes me nervous.
The Reds will need to add about 15 wins next year to do so and while I think the pitching is basically good enough to allow that, the starting 8 is kind of a mess.
If the plan is to go sign Castellanos, Gregorius, and Grandal to 2 year, $40 million contracts – great. I’ll stop worrying. But how many of us think that’s the plan?
Adding just one impact bat for 2020 isn’t going to get it done. Outside of Castillo, Gray, and Suarez, they have about 11 trade chips who have value and 5 of those are coming off disappointing seasons – Senzel, Winker, Greene, Santillan, India (the other 6 being Stephenson, Garcia, Siani, Lorenzen, Garrett, Lodolo). Trading any of those 5 now is probably/hopefully selling them short. Trading the 4 others still in the minors, for what I think you could actually get for them, in order to try to win in 2020 would be really short-sighted.
As this season ends, I’m in the same place that I was when last season ended – don’t sacrifice 2021 and 2022 for 2019 and 2020. The Reds aren’t going to be consistently competitive until the minor league system produces real major league talent. They will never spend enough to overcome a poor system. Trying to force it because we’re sick of losing is just going to cause more losing over anything more than a one or two year period. Build first, then buy the final piece or two.
Realize that rant relates more to this being the last day of the season than as a comment about the article, so I’m in the non-tender Dietrich and let the kids play camp.