This afternoon the Cincinnati Reds called up infielder Jose Barrero from the taxi squad and placed Kyle Farmer on the 3-day paternity list (congratulations to the Farmer family!).
For Jose Barrero it means that he’ll be playing in his first game in nearly a week. He’s been traveling with the team on the road trip as a part of the taxi squad as the team has been anticipating Farmer’s brief absence. David Bell put him directly into the lineup – though that is no surprise given that there really isn’t another option at shortstop on the team. He will be hitting 7th in the lineup tonight as the team takes on the St. Louis Cardinals at Busch Stadium.
Barrero has been in Triple-A for his last 45 games in the minors and has hit .306/.392/.594 with 10 doubles, 13 home runs, and 8 steal. He also spent 40 games in Double-A to begin the season and hit .300/.367/.481 there with 9 doubles, a triple, 6 home runs, and also had 8 steals there. Between the two spots he’s got an OPS of .919 with 19 home runs in 85 games played.
As we wrote about on Thursday, it’s time to put Barrero into the every day lineup. An offense that has largely struggled to score of late needs something something to get it going. Kyle Farmer has struggled to hit all year with the exception of July. He had a .592 OPS entering July and since August 1st he’s got a .614 OPS. He just happened to also hit like Barry Bonds in July.
It’s not going to be a cure all for the offense. And it might not even be a cure-anything if it only lasts for as long as Farmer is on the paternity list and he’s back at shortstop every day beginning Tuesday when he returns. But hey, at least the organization’s top prospect who has been killing the ball all season long will finally get back-to-back starts in the big leagues for the first time this season and actually be given a chance to show something – even if it may just be short lived.
Now if only they called up someone to play third.
Alejo Lopez’s OBP is .420 the last month but he has not hit for any power at all, SLG is .364. Just 2 xBase hits, both doubles. But .333 BA and 1.8 K/BB rate which would be refreshing on Reds if he could come close.
If a person could dream a little bit while Winker is still out….
Image Lopez at 3B between India and Castellanos with Stephenson catching five days a week and flipping the 4/5 spots between him and Votto depending on the handedness of the opposition pitcher. Barrero bats 6th. Farmer and Naquin share the 7 slot w/ Farmer in LF vs LH pitching and Naquin in CF vs RF pitching. Schrock and DeShields share the 8 spot, Shrock in LF vs RH pitchers with DeShields in CF vs LH pitching.
It isn’t rocket science if a person accepts what they have been doing hasn’t been working and forgets about the size of the paychecks.
Works for me
@Jim, If the Reds actually wanted to win, something like that would make perfect sense. But instead, we get Suarez and Aquino 5th and 6th, again, sigh.
As bad as 3B has performed for the Reds, it’s been even worse than it should have been with this manager putting whoever plays there in the middle of the lineup as if it is 2019.
There’s not enough words to describe how bad Bell is at his job.
I will not call Lopez Tony Gwynn, but he made a career out of hitting for average and on base percentage in a traditional power position (Right Field). It has been done before.
Pete Rose played 4 traditionally power positions too for that matter.
I feel like that’d be a real kick in the tail for Farmer…
To miss a couple days for Paternity, only to come back a new father, and a new bench player.
The Reds mishandle players a good amount, but that would be a Karma angering move.
Hopefully, Jose shows that he has some kind of plate discipline this time around. This team and it’s losing streaks almost always show up when every player becomes laser focused on home runs.
Our offense is powerful when they simply hit, and look like the past 2 weeks when the home run becomes priority.
I think that Karma has already been angered by having Farmer in the lineup.
Do you recall where he was in the offseason?
Just sitting there in limbo, right where he will be in 60 days
Wow I guess you know more than Cowboy, Larkin, Votto, Winker and the rest of the Reds. They love what he has brought this year. Your hatred of Farmer is sickening. Where would they be without him? You can’t acknowledge what some guys have actually done for this team? And if Barrero falls on his face? I’ll guess you’ll be trashing him too.
I love Farmer. I love the relationship with Alex Wood and the tat he has on his biceps for his friend. Great stories and great friendships.
I love Aquino also. I love Nick Esasky and Paul Householder. But I probably love Pete Rose more who knew he had to leave left field for the Big Red Machine to click on all cylinders.
Kyle Farmer is a great story, a backup infielder who had a great July. I am not sure he can make this team next year.
I also want to win a playoff spot this year
I think nearly everyone is happy that Barrero is getting a chance, but yeah, that’s a tough pill to potentially get “Wally Pipped” when you are on paternity leave.
If Barrero could hit well in this three games, maybe will get Bell’s confidence and push to FO to make another move in order to keep him up in play for the next games… But he should hit well for that can occurr
I’m actually surprised Bell put Barrero in the lineup. I half expected them to slide Suarez back over to SS and play Cabrera at 3rd every single day Farmer is out.
I mean, honestly, would anyone be surprised at this point?
I have to wonder what they did to keep Barrero “fresh” during his taxi squad time. Big stage and big game for the young man to step into tonight.
Let’s beat the Dirty Birds in their own nest!!
We did pretty well against them last time in St. Louis… Unless I’m missing a series in between I think we swept them.
Wouldn’t that be something if we did it again.
If Jose Barrero along with Tyler Stephenson and Jonathon India are in the lineup to the season end along with eventually Jesse Winker, I think they will lead the Reds to the NL WC game.
Berrero hasn’t shown that he can hit mlb pitching. I don’t understand the hype for him from a offensive perspective. Just like Aqunio earlier in the year. I don’t understand the dislike for Farmer. It’s like some fans expect every positional player to be batting 300 and slugging 1000. Just unrealistic.
This line up tonight is sad. When Schrock has proven he can hit and Naquin too. Unlike Quino or Barrero
I’m with you this kid really hasn’t proven anything other than being a good glove at the major league level. I would love to see him turn that around. But I am reserving judgement. Even if he has a good time the next few days and has a good rest of the season, it will take more than that to show me he is a major leaguer at this point.
Jose Barrero now has a higher OPS than Kyle Farmer does this year in the Major Leagues.
Did you want to include the necessary disclaimer about sample size? I hope that Barrero proves to be good or great, and it certainly makes sense to find out, but he hasn’t demonstrated this at the MLB level yet, and I don’t think it’s irrational for the Reds to be a bit cautious, both with his welfare and with the team’s status as a WC contender in a close race. They’ve been in a collective slump for a while, but they are certainly, overall, exceeding expectations despite a wretched bullpen and injuries to key players–especially Winker. That fact alone belies the constant narrative here that they are terribly and incompetently mismanaged.
Did the “Jose Barrero hasn’t hit in 2021” club include the sample size of 14 at bats when they were screaming from the rooftops about how Kyle Farmer was better?
I rest my case your honor.
I’m not in that club. I think judgments of ball players–positive and negative–based on small sample sizes are too often mistaken to be taken seriously. Barrero may well prove to be an excellent MLB hitter, but the euphoric certainty of this expressed by some of us is, in my view–and that of history–is at least premature.
I don’t want to hear the righty/ lefty crap Why isn’t Naquin playing over Deshields.?
Since you don’t want to be told the truth about how Naquin sucks against left handed pitching I guess we then need to focus on that DeShields is a much better center fielder – defensively.
Do you mean the “truth” that he’s hitting 57 points better against LH pitching than DeSheilds, who basically only faces LH pitching, is hitting? That truth?
Well we just don’t know, do we? Maybe Naquin is dinged up. Maybe “lefty-righty” crap isn’t crap at all, but is verifiable over huge sample sizes.
Listen I LOVE Reds fans,but let’s be real Farmer is 2nd best SS Defensively,but carries AVG bat,Barrero has not hit in big leagies,leagues, let’s put Farmer At SS and Barrero at 3rd we have nothing to loose,but Votto had not hit his weight since all star break.
Lmao
After Friday night Jose Barrero now has a better OPS in 2021 at the big league level than Kyle Farmer does.
How was he doing before that and where will he be if he comes up empty tonight? A LOT of players have has fantastic stats after their first few games!
I really hope he does well, but few things sound sillier than ballyhoo for players with minimal plate appearances.
Droslovinia – he was killing the ball in the minors is how he was doing before that. Thank you for asking. Hopefully now you will be more informed moving forward.
And trust me nothing sounds sillier than stanning for Kyle Farmer’s bat as the reason to keep almost anyone out of the lineup because Kyle Farmer is a very bad hitter.
Relatively limited time in the high minors. Extremely limited time at MLB level. He could turn out to be great. He could win the MVP, go to the HOF, ;lead the Reds to multiple WS championships. I hope he does. But he’s very early in the process, and the ground is littered with great athletes who couldn’t cut it in MLB. I’d just temper my enthusiasm a bit, that’s all.
That sure was a nice triple.
Farmer might be well advised to get back quickly before he becomes the next Wally Pipp, LOL.
If anybody out there needs a refresher and please correct me if I’m wrong, but I believe Wally Pipp was the NY Yankees’ first baseman until one day in early 1925 when he came up sick and needed to take the day off. And guess who replaced him in the lineup?
That player was none other than Hall Of Famer Lou Gehrig.
You own a wholesale produce stand. If you have bad or rotten produce on your stand you replace it with fresh produce. You do not keep putting out bad fruit and vegetables just because you overpaid for the products.