With a new collective bargaining agreement now in place the owners have lifted the lockout and while players have to report by Sunday, they can show up early now if they would like. Cincinnati Reds first baseman Joey Votto did just that, arriving on Friday afternoon in Goodyear at the Reds complex.
“I feel good,” Votto said. “(I’m) Looking forward to playing.”
This spring is going to be a little bit different than a normal one. Things are going to be a bit more compact in terms of the time frame between arrival, spring training games, and then the start of the regular season.
“No, I don’t think so,” said Votto when asked about if the short spring would effect him. “I think in 2020 when we had the abbreviated spring training the real challenge to me was a lack of competition. We were competing against ourselves as opposed to being in this complex and being able to compete against other teams. So I think the abbreviated spring training may effect some people, so I can’t speak for everyone, but I think I’ll be ok.”
Last season saw the Reds contend for the wild card spot most of the season, but a late season winning streak by the St. Louis Cardinals overtook Cincinnati and pushed them out of the playoffs. While the team isn’t exactly the same as it was last year, at least as of now, most of the team is returning.
“We competed really well last year. We have to graduate from there.”
Over at The Athletic there’s a long interview with Joey Votto from Zach Buchanan. If you’ve got a subscription there, here’s the link to check that out.
Update:
Joey Votto already got some work in. Here he is taking some swings.
Early arrivals to Cincinnati Reds camp
Obviously you know that Joey Votto has arrived by now, but he’s not the only player to show up early. Starting pitcher Tyler Mahle, relief pitcher Luis Cessa, and relief pitcher Art Warren also showed up in Goodyear this afternoon.
New additions to big league camp
Two new players will be in big league camp when it gets started. Outfielder Ronnie Dawson and shortstop Matt McLain have been given non-roster invites to camp by the team. Both players had been in minor league camp with the team. McLain was the Reds 1st round draft pick last summer and is already a Top 100 prospect in baseball on several of the national lists.
awesome…..
it was said: “The early riser gathers fresh water”
2nd mouse gets the cheese.
Now THIS is what I’ve been looking forward to seeing.
Not a lot of news out there on the Reds. But if the Cubs continue as they have been, the Reds will be competing with the Pirates for last place. I was hoping after the long lockout that they’d make a positive splash.
I don’t have much confidence in the Reds ownership and in turn the Reds management. I feel the same for what is running the country right now. There is a very important criteria lacking in both instances called competence.
In neither case is the issue competency. It’s just self serving agendas unrelated to the success of team.
I’m surprised there weren’t more signings today than there were. With camp officially opening on Sunday, I’m hoping for a crazy number of moves. For the Reds and other teams. Will be fun to follow along.
Rumor mahle might traded to Mets
Here’s hoping a good hitting all around right fielder turns up for the Reds in the next month.
And the Reds are off and running on dumping players. Looks like Mahle to the Mets.
I said it on twitter and I’ll say it here, too:
The rumor started because someone had a source that said “The Reds and Mets have had trade talks about Tyler Mahle”
The words are important. It said have had. It did not say are having.
It’s certainly possible that they are having talks, still. But that is not what the source told the person who tweeted the information.
The Reds have reportedly had trade talks on Luis Castillo and Sonny Gray for the last like 20 months if you listen to certain reporters. And you know, maybe they have. Teams, understandbly, are going to call and ask what it will take to get those dudes because they are good. But those guys are still Reds after two years of “Reds talking trades of” those guys.
What was the last trade that the Reds actually made that we heard about well in advance of it happening?
Doug, are you hearing anything? The Reds do tend to keep their trades close but lots of activity around and not even a whimper from the Reds. Are they going to do anything?
They tend to keep things pretty close to the vest. I almost never hear about free agency stuff, or trade stuff, until well down the road (if it didn’t happen but there was chats about it).
That said, I doubt they do much of anything in terms of free agency. Trades…. well, you never really know I guess.
Thanks, we’ll just cross our fingers and hope they get serious about contending for a playoff spot and a winning record.
Looks like Mets went with Chris Bassit from the A’s – and they didn’t seem to pay much for him – their #7 prospect and 1 journeyman minor league pitcher. Doesn’t seem like much for a pitcher with Bassit’s pedigree – even if only 1 year of control.
When does David Bell make himself accessible to the media? Tomorrow is first mandatory reporting date.
Lots of questions.
DH by committee?
Nick Senzel 100%? Moose 100%
Any players not in US and will be delayed with visa issues? Castillo? Gutierrez? Shogo? Aquino?
Updates on non 40 man ST progress so far? Ashcraft and Lodolo?
Injury updates?
There’s obviously a lot of TBD….but even a token from Bell “ talked to guys, they feel good and are ready” or someone went swimming with his kids in the pool and needs to be checked by Kremcheck.
This is Spring training full court press in 2022…..not the usual meandering. I would hope tomorrow the Reds FO and DB communicates some form of something….even if its just status updates.
So Nick Krall did address some of this today. I covered some of it just now, but I’ll repeat here for what he did say:
Senzel isn’t in camp yet, nor was Akiyama at the time (he’s since arrived) and both were “need to re-evaluate” on their health situations since the team couldn’t be in contact with the players. No mention of Moustakas.
No VISA issues for their players. Did mention that Castillo and Barrero might be late arrivals, but should be there by Monday.
Injury updates: Santillan had ankle surgery, but is throwing bullpens already. Sims is “behind” with “some elbow issues”.
Per Bobby Nightengale- The Reds have not been engaged with Nick castellanos.
Surprised that the Reds haven’t engaged with Castellanos? Wanting comments from Bell? The off season has been so long that you’ve forgotten all the misery ahead. Like listening to Bell each day. Farmer starting at SS, etc. It’s going to be a long year but at least there’s going to be some baseball.
I think the more interesting news in Kralls comments to the Enquirer reporter is what we are looking for; 5th starter, bench depth, and backup catcher.
5th starter could mean a lot of things but there will be plenty to choose from. All the decent catching depth has been signed so we will be scraping the bottom for that. I’m very surprised we aren’t looking for an outfield starter – at least a starter in a platoon. This seems to indicate we are going with Winker, Senzel, and Naquin as our starters. I really hope they see the error in this and sign someone to at least platoon with these guys. That is not a playoff caliber outfield.
A very fragile outfield at that. And one that doesn’t hit left handers. But it’s the Reds, what did you expect? They aren’t going to spend any real money. Personally, I’d be looking to shop Suarez to someone like Philly.
My deadline for this team to do anything significant to make improvements has been extended to April 7th. If not it’s Blue Jays time for me. I have been devoted to this team since 1988 and waited and hoped for so long. I sure enjoyed some of the seasons but i’m not waiting anymore as long as Bob owns the team. I have no faith in this ownership in actually doing something to make this team have a better chance at winning.
If by some miracle they do pick up a decent backup catcher or a decent RF’er or some decent bullpen help then I’ll stick around longer. They don’t have to be super stars or all stars, just someone who can produce positively for this team. Here is hoping that they find someone in trade or free angency.