The Cincinnati Reds have played two series so far this season. They’ve lost both of them. And it’s not the pitching staff’s fault as they’ve posted an ERA of 2.83 through the first six games this year. The offense has basically been non-existent in five of the six games.
The series opener against Texas was fun to watch. Cincinnati scored 14 runs, Brady Singer dominated, and the Reds won 14-3. But in the other five games this season the Reds have scored four, three, three, zero, and zero runs.
Elly De La Cruz and Matt McLain have hit well. De La Cruz has an OPS over 1.000 and he’s hitting .333. McLain has a team best three home runs, and his OPS is sitting at .974. Christian Encarnacion-Strand has an OPS of .786.
The rest of the Cincinnati Reds hitters have combined for 137 plate appearances and has hit .188/.241/.219. That group has two extra-base hits among them. Matt McLain has more home runs by himself than they’ve had extra-base hits. That group has hit into more double plays than they’ve had extra-base hits.
It’s early. And the Reds have hardly been the worst offensive team in Major League Baseball. The Colorado Rockies, Houston Astros, and Atlanta Braves have all failed to score more runs on the season than Cincinnati scored in their win over Texas earlier this week.
Still, things haven’t exactly gone well for the Reds outside of one game that is skewing the overall numbers thus far. Cincinnati needs a large majority of their hitters to step into the batters box and, well, hit.
The Reds are missing two players that they projected as starters. Tyler Stephenson is still dealing with an oblique injury and as of the last report he hadn’t begun swinging a bat yet. Free agent signing and outfielder Austin Hays came down with a calf injury in the final days of spring training. That hasn’t helped the offensive woes. Nor has what so far has seemed like the poor decision to not place Spencer Steer on the injured list despite getting zero at-bats in official spring training games in the month of March after getting a cortisone shot in his shoulder. He’s gone 1-15 so far.
Maybe the Milwaukee Brewers pitching will be what gets the offense going in the right direction. They’ve had games where they’ve allowed four, zero, and two runs this season. But they’ve also had games where they allowed 20, 12, and 11 runs this season. Of course they might be saying the same thing as the Reds come into town and how Cincinnati’s offense may be the cure for what ails their pitching.
Most Reds hitters will revert to match the back of their baseball card – Lux has hit the ball hard, and Friedl and Steer (when healthy) should be fine. But Hays replacing Fraley’s bat and Stephenson instead of Trevino will also help. But in the meantime, let’s be smarter please! Too many outs on the base paths, and too many wasted at bats. Friedl is the best bunter on the team, but instead of moving Hurtubise over in the 9th on Tuesday – bunting for a sacrifice that he just might beat out – he got cute trying to bunt for a hit and ended up wasting an out. That one play might have flipped the outcome of the game. Fundamentals! But I’m still optimistic – ask me again in 10-12 more games.
The Reds have zero professional hitters going back a few years. I can’t even remember how many times they have been 3 hit
Trevino has like the 4th highest avg on the team right now.
The Reds were a poor-hitting team last year, too. The club’s failure to go out and get a big bat in the off-season looks particularly glaring now.
And they didn’t hit the ball particularly well in the spring either. Not sure what more management needed to see to know that offense was an area that needed help.
I gotta think that, early in the season, the pitching tends to be ahead of the hitting in mots cases. A couple of key hits by our superstar and we’d be 4-2 instead of 2-4. I’m not too worried. Yet.
The Reds went into the off-season needing offensive bats. Instead of being aggressive and spending a bit of money or trading prospects, the Reds went cheap as usual. Maybe Hays works out and makes a difference. Maybe Stephenson comes back and stays healthy. Maybe Candelario finally earns his salary. Maybe 2nd half Lux shows up instead of 1st half Lux. These could happen. But Krall & company could have done better in the off-season. Instead, they bet injury bounce backs from both players on the Reds roster like Fraley, Candelario, CES, McLain, and a host of others, as well as Hays and Lux. Obviously, even FAs can crash and burn, like Profar did, but the Braves tried while Krall went cheap. Same story different year.
Krall does not set the budget, the Castellanis do, and the budget they set reinvests only about 40% of their income into player salary. So Krall didn’t go cheap. Ownership did.
To focus on Krall, look at what he decided to do with the resources he does have. He elected to fill gaps and purchase depth by spreading his resources around over bullpen arms and smaller offensive and defensive upgrades rather than a single (or fewer) higher impact players. Given his resources, it was an either/or. So, the debate is whether he should have gone big/go home, or, played the small game. Which do we prefer, and why?
Further, on the trade front — we have evidence of culling redundancies (India) or low ceiling guys (Cruz) in exchange for improvements (Singer’s innings, Trevino’s defense). But that’s really all we know. We do know Krall did not meet the exorbitant asking price for Robert, but virtually no one thinks that was a poor decision. I certainly don’t. Does anyone here disagree?
My question, what would we have Krall do? Who should he target? Further, what type of player should he target, ie cost controlled, veteran? Who should he trade? As for a more pointed debate, any Krall critique of his trades/inactions should look at his risk taking. To date, he is risk averse. Why is that? What cards does he hold too long, then fold anyway? When and where should he go all in?
To be clear, i am not much of a Krall fan. His strength seems to be in player evaluation. I think he lacks leadership. I think his public relations are (still) weak. Poor actually. To me, Krall is cold Farina in a world where all i want is a bacon, egg and cheese on a croissant, toasted (two eggs over easy with a double order of home fries would be heaven). Farina gets you to lunch but a breakfast sandwich is undeniably better. I digress.
I think it doesn’t help to just drag Nick Krall. His decisions are fair game. His situation is, too, however that is the responsibility of the Castellanis. Krall doesn’t set the budget. He does set policy of how to utilize that budget. And that is where the debate begins.
The unmade deal was for Roberts AND Benintendi. Now, the Sox may not be looking to shed salary as much as they want to reload with top prospects; and we all know the Reds budget allergies, but that fixes the OF issues instantly. Understand many disparage Benintendi, and while he’s overpaid, it’s just at the edge of wildly so. Both of them are under K thru 2027, so there’s a limit to the price tags.
I’m not overly concerned that he didn’t meet the Robert price. The White Sox were off their head. No one is going to hit that price for a player with health/injury issues. As I’ve said before, if one is working in a situation where those controlling the budget prevents you from being successful, QUIT. It’s called integrity.
LDS – none of us know the Sox “price”, but I agree the problem is the budget, not Krall.
As for the front office, it’s not at all about integrity. It may be about pride, but aside from illegality, there’s almost never a reason to call for someone to quit, let alone to quit yourself. I’m very neutral to slightly positive about Krall. He’s done OK to very good with what he’s been given, and I haven’t seen any problems solely of his doing. Sure the PR issue is a mess, and he’s just not good in front of the camera, but his core job is managing staff, so if he’s got a flaw there it’s handling the staff not his role as spokesman.
To be blunt I think he’s a better exec. relative to other MLB executives, than the owners are as owners, or prior field management was as field management.
None of us know what is best for Krall’s personal integrity (just quit). If you were to say, apply for a better job and get out of Dodge, I could see that. Maybe that is what you’ve been saying and i didn’t hear it. If he has the resources to just leave, he may end up doing that. But for a little guy like Krall, ie not a rock star, whiz kid GM, (and hahaha being risk averse), no way that ever happens unless he gets another job offer. He’s The Bull, after all. Or Don Quixote, take your pick.
People know who they accept a job from and to say Quit because they don’t match what another company does. Apply for a job with another company but don’t quit because the employer cant compete like you want them to. Don’t think that is an approach most would consider the correct one.
I can not imagine Reds ownership wouldn’t like to operate like a bigger market time. The reality is they are doing what they can do without putting the entire franchise in jeopardy. The Reds are never going to have big sponsorship money nor large media contracts.
Bottom line Krall has done a good job for the resources he has to work with.
I like a deal for Crochet and Benintendi better than one for Robert Jr and Benintendi, but I’d take the latter over nothing, which is what Krall chose to do. The Reds have a team of position player prospects on the MLB roster who are not performing. So why is brass valuing their position player prospects not on the MLB roster so much? Won’t they be more of the same? Offering a QO to Martinez? That’s a lot of money for this team that choses not to spend. People were excited to have him back, but I’d rather have one of the above 2 trades done.
Benintendi has been one of the worst OFs in MLB for two years in a row, and his Exit Velo is bottom 7%, so it ain’t turning around for him. He makes $15M for 3 more seasons!
And Robert Jr increasingly looks like an oft-injured bust who is off to a bad start after a bad year. And he makes $15M also.
For the life of me, I cannot understand fans’ fascination of acquiring $30M consisting of one of worst OFs in baseball, along with one that has not been playing well when healthy.
A person can certainly read some interesting things here for sure.
It’s April 3rd. Not worried about lack of hitting. It will come around. Starting pitching has been solid.
The Reds offense wouldn’t be nearly as concerning had it not been so lousy last season and the GM did little to improve it.
Tito has made some questionable decisions so
far, but he is a soon to be HOF manager and I assume those decisions will more than even out over the course of the year. I can’t say the same for Nick Krall’s decisions.
There’s nothing we can do about who’s not healthy, and who we didn’t get over the offseason.
I would IL Steer, and bench Fraley.
Lets see what a combination of Espinal, Dunn, and Hurtubise can do in a few series. We have the IL guys who will hopefully be back soon, so the more AB’s we can give the kids now the more we’ll know about them.
Benson, and Marte are trying to push their way back onto the MLB roster. Hopefully they will next month.
Also the pitching has been fantastic.
The starts of Benson and Marte at AAA are encouraging but Rece Hinds *could* be the biggest developing story at AAA.
His OPS (1.169) is currently the highest of these three guys. In large measure, he has done it by avoiding Ks, taking BBs when they’ve not thrown him strikes, and hitting the ball hard when they have thrown him strikes. His K rate is 27.3% (6Ks) versus a 23,7% BB rate (5BBs).
On Tuesday, Hines had 3 Ks, no hits or BBs (but was HBP); and, I thought Oh, well here we go. However, he came back Wednesday with 3 BBs (and 1 K).
Hinds has a lot to prove in regard to his K rate but if he can normalize it at 1 in 3 PAs or lower with a .900 or better OPS at AAA, he could translate into a useful guy for the Reds on the field or as a trade piece.
Response ill placed below
I mostly agree. I differ in that I see the right time to make changes around May 1. We already know what Espinal can do, and we’re probably better off allowing Fraley to hit than Dunn or Hurtubise.
Steer should have been on the IL to start the season, and the Reds could have mixed and matched Dunn, Hurtubise, Fairchild, and Espinal for a week. He would be eligible to come off the IL now if that had happened. Now, it will be another full ten days, so the decision is more iffy today.
I’m not sure Stu would have helped the Reds any out of the chute given his disastrous spring but I think the Reds painted themselves into a corner on Steer by announcing Stu was up for DFA before they realized Hays was headed for the IL. The other possibility is they thought someone was coming into the org via a trade, waiver, or FA signing that fell though.
I wouldn’t relegate Fraley to the bench full time but significantly reduce his role. In the same way you said we already know what Espinal can do, we also know what Fraley can do.
C Trevino 6/9, Wynns 3/9
DH Candy 7/9 Lux 2/9
1B CES 7/9 Lux 2/9
======================
2B McLain 8/9 Espinal 1/9
3B Espinal 6/9 Lux 3/9
SS EDLC 8/9 Espinal 1/9
======================
RF Dunn 8/9 Fraley 1/9
CF Friedl 8/9 Fraley 1/9
LF Hurtubise 7/9 Fraley 2/9
I’d run this setup until we get some of our other hitters back.
@MBS, Fraley lost 20 pounds during ST in 2024. Certainly that affected his hitting in the first half of 2024. He was solid in 2023 and the second half of 2024. Six games is too few to evaluate him.
@Jim, Fairchild would have allowed Steer to follow an optimized rehab program. Steer has already had two days off and all he can do is DH? The Reds are playing a man down by choice. This organizational decision will likely prolong Steer becoming productive.
BK, Observation Of The Day:
The Reds are playing a man down.
One. We’ve done this (several times) before and it is a set up to failure.
Two. It’s not like we can afford it.
Three. Francona has likely figured this out, a move will follow.
Four. The AAA choices are very limited.
Five. Oh, to be a Reds fan.
Fraley still hit .277 last season. At this point I’d take 9 guys hitting .277.
As a team 4 hits, 3 hits and 2 hits the last 3 game is downright embarrassing.
Stop with the Espinal stuff. Espinal is a fringe player; period. I guess he’s now the guy that people will suggest should be starting now that Fairchild is gone. Fraley will be fine. His baseball card says so. Espinal; not so much. You don’t replace what has been solid players with unknowns just because you want a change after a week. Talk about knee-jerk decisions.
@Chris, Fraley has spent parts of 7 MLB seasons on the M’s and now Reds with a career WAR of 2.1.
Espinal has a 4.9 WAR in parts of 6 seasons
I think 6 games is too soon to be discussing things like this. The sample size is simply too small.
Give it at least a month, then it’s worth delving into.
Did I delve into it or point out that guys need to start hitting?
The hitting has been a problem for 168 games. Not just 6.
Haha, well said, Votto4life!
It’s early. We’ll see what kind of offense we have when Hays and Stephenson are back in the mix.
We all wanted one power OF to add to the mix. We didn’t get it.
Jake Fraley is a 4th OF. I’d love for him to prove me wrong.
Agreed
Same team as last year same problems. This team needed Benson and Heitz to develop and they haven’t. If those two where to just be mlb Ave. Team would be a world series contender.
Who is Heitz?
Lol does he think Rece Hinds is German and it’s actually Rece Heitz? I can come up with no other possible idea for Heitz.
Oh yeah – Hinds – just a typo.
One point not raised is that the Reds faced some pretty good pitchers in the first two series. I’m most concerned with the continued poor baserunning and defense. Our opponents didn’t hit well either, the “little things” were the difference in both series.
Right, hopefully this will be the type of things that Tito corrects. I don’t expect a miracle with a new manager, but a new manager can impart different perspectives that can shape the way young players play.
Candy is the biggest disappointment for me. He is getting paid good money and is occupying that five hole in the order. He had a great first game this year and one great month last season, but other than that, he has been very unproductive. Add in his subpar defense and he is an expensive waste of a roster spot. Hopefully he turns things around.
The eye test says no, he will not turn it around. Watching him play everyday does not inspire confidence. That contract was a mistake.
Agree
Does the phrase “You can’t make chicken salad out of chicken @#%&” mean anything to you?
The Reds position players (other than ELDC and Matt) are just not very good.
Whether it’s due to injury (Steer) or underperforming (talking to YOU Candy) or not being a very good offensive player ever (Jose T – that one is you) or potential unrealized (CES -not a believer) they just don’t have good players.
Freidl – dinged last year, did not come back strong and Fraley is looking like a guy whose end is near. Trouble making contact and when he does it’s weak.
Not the formula that you want.
Bingo! We have a winner.
Matt ain’t shown anything yet. This is 3-4 years the Reds haven’t had a real professional hitters. Votto was that for many years and there has been no replacement. Heck I can’t even remember the last time a Red hit .300 for a full season
Who thought you could score 14 runs in a three game series and be shut out twice.
Maybe they need to find a better field goal kicker??? 😉 🙂
Reds making it a habit for a few years now
With Abbott on rehab assignment and Diaz going this weekend, who gets cut when they are ready? Originally I would have thought Spiers but he doesn’t deserve to go.
I’m impressed with the pitching so far but I know the season is young. I wouldn’t touch the rotation until necessary. Someone will get injured after all, it is the Reds. As for Diaz, he ain’t been the same since he was in the AS game in ‘23. Actually I’d remove him from being a closer
To win games like the last two you have to play small ball. The Reds executed it poorly. Lou would have lost his shat.
I would give Marte, Hinds and Benson a shot at least they have some power. Steer to DL and send Hurtubise and Fraley down.
What has Hurtubise’s done other than be a .500 hitting pinch hitter.
I thought it was a particularly bad choice to let Steer talk his way onto the team after barely playing in spring training…..and then Tito goes and starts him on Opening Day. He gave 4 really poor at-bats and continued that into the next games, with just one hard hit ball so far that I can recall (in a blowout no less). His hard hit rate is just 9% (37% career norm), 63% ground balls, and he hasn’t drawn a walk yet. The more responsible choice should have been to IL him and play Espinal. That and the Gibault choice on Opening Day are the only hangups I have so far. Everything else should regress to the mean. I believe the team will hit and has solid starting pitching, but they can’t afford another April of ‘sorting’ and put themselves in a hole.
If you look at the comments on Redsminorleagues you will see a comment on last nights BATS game. Not a glowing report on the play of the outfielders that people want to promote. The Reds were put in a bad position by all the injuries last year and not knowing who they could trade to get better outfield help. Not sure who the Reds should have signed or traded for. Santander is a poor defensive player. Maybe the Reds should have been more proactive in drafting outfielders over the last few drafts.
Could these two shutouts in a row and the obvious lack of offense move something at the FO level? Would they be active looking to improve the hitting struggle?
Jim, i think the cases of Benson, Marte and Hinds are where scouting should start and box scores end.
They each had great starts but haven’t looked so great in the second series. By ‘not great’ I mean their swings (though this series gets them some degree of a pass as the weather, mid 30’s windchill, has been tough). But still.
All three require quite more time to integrate the changes they’re making to become solid major league hitters. This means establishing a pattern of success. And that pattern means doing it series after series after series. Realistically, we might be looking at July, IMO. None are ready to contribute. Not even close.
For the record, I’d love it if Hinds becomes a regular in RF. Actually, given Marte’s brutal defense yesterday, I’d love it if one of Benson, Marte or Hinds becomes a regular RF, preferably ours. But this isn’t going to be a quick fix.
July, at the earliest, to see if any of the 3 has turned the corner into an MLB talent-level.
I agree Hinds is a mid to long range project, meaning 2nd half of 2025 or 2026.
I don’t see Benson in the same light. In 2023, he started poorly went down for a month, and returned to post a 128 OPS+ for the entire season (329 PAs) including his poor start. If he finds something at AAA and maintains for several weeks, why not get him back up???
Marte is a tweener. He put up a 118 OPS+ on 123 PAs at the end of 2023. If he maintains for 5-6 weeks at AAA, get him up too if the team is still struggling at that time. Also note about his defense, that he was playing SS yesterday (Weds) and not 3B. He has not played much SS in the last 18-24 months.
I like Benson, but he’s more akin to Fraley and Steer – we’ve likely seen his best level, and it’s fine as a #8-9 lineup spot and OF defense. He can be useful, and asap if needed, but Fraley/Steer/Hays still on the day-to-day list to see if they round into form.
Hinds and Marte still young enough to move to another level of performance, but they need OF help more, so Hinds with a nod there.
Benson has dramatically changed his swing. This will require more than a few weeks, just for the mechanics themselves, let alone it becoming second nature and gaining confidence. Remember, they have to sustain the improvements, not just get back to GABP.
As for Marte, i’ve seen all 6 AAA games (yesterday was the second consecutive game playing short, for reasons no one knows). His issues yesterday were not isolated, one. And, yesterday, he made three throws that were not even close to accurate. It’s a much, much bigger project than one might think.
Moral of the story, it is likely wishful thinking to expect much help with hitters from AAA anytime soon. The help available is already on the roster. And the next available help after that is in AA via Stewart and Arroyo. Their games haven’t started.
Agreed DaveCT, but father time rules here – Hinds and Marte still get a few years to make it. Benson is really this season – he’s with Dunn and Hurtubise in needing to make it right now. He might, and good for him. It’s also good Marte is the youngest, because, yes, he really seems to be starting over.
And yes, we may get lucky with one of the AA players – probably not an impact this season, but a blazing start from one of them (Sal!) could jump them to the head of the MiLB line.
I was a Marte RF guy, but I’ve wondered if CF would be a better fit. His sprint speed is just a bit less than Hinds, but Hinds has the bigger arm for RF.
Both of their sprint speeds are better than Friedl, but Friedl isn’t a converted INF.
I’d be happy if he ends up in the OF no matter which OF spot he wound up in.
Just for Fun 2025 midseason OF if these guys develop anywhere near their potential.
RF Hinds / Benson (DH)
CF Marte / Friedl
LF Hays / Friedl
If you are a Minneapolis music fan, The Replacements had a song, Anywhere Is Better Than Here.
For war movie buffs, Capt Miller’s answer to the question on Omaha Beach, Where’s the rally point?
“Anywhere but here.”
this “slump” actually extends back to the second half of 2023 when the offense basically died. that ,imo, was more of an issue why we did not make the playoffs than the bullpen collapse.
I Still am not sure why our offense has struggled for so long. really we have underperformed offensively since moving to gabp if you think about it. Are we drafting the wrong guys? or is a developmental issue?
somehow we have done a wonderful job developing young pitchers so I think the only way out of this rut is to try to trade our pitching for some high end position player prospects. maybe we could package Greene and Lowder for a few cant miss young hitting prospects.
Agree 100%. The last time the Reds had anything close to a professional hitter was when Votto was in his prime. Before that Casey and Larkin and before that Pete who should be in the HOF
Lots of SSS issues, but the single big issue remains a lineup with holes. Much of this will sort itself out, and with the weak division and playoff structure they’re still in it at the break. BUT, they still need to make a big deal – either for an excellent rental (i.e. cheap) or a multi-year solution (i.e. Robert for 1-3 years). They really need to add two bats, but certainly one very good one.
Pitching looks good.
It’s too early to send folks down. You are just 3% into a 162 game schedule. If some of these guys struggled like this for four or five games in the middle of July, it wouldn’t be as big of a deal, but struggling to kick off the season does understandably elicit some anxiety. If Fraley and others are still stinking it up in three or four weeks then the issue will need to be addressed via trades or internal movements. Krall needs to see a larger sample size to get a better feel for who can’t get it done in the bigs and who is hitting well in AAA.
I believe that Krall has already seen a large sample size of the hitting (in)abilities of the players in question the last few seasons.
I dunno see a pattern the last 3-4 years
I agree whole heartedly that we need a reliable power bat in the OF but we all know that ownership can’t or won’t pay or trade for one so here we are, again.
However I am not quite as panicked or crying woe as some on here.
In the 2024 season, the Cincinnati Reds’ hitting performance ranked 18th in the league with a .242 batting average. That’s 18th out of 30, not too bad considering our long term injuries to McLean, CES and Marte, (drinking the bad cool-aid and half season went down the tubes, might as well been whole season). Now we have them back and demoted Marte and added two guys who buy all accounts if they have an average year should be better than what we had last year. Add a healthy Candelario, get Stephenson and Hays back and have the weather warm up we should be much better. It is of course possible Reds have run into some very good pitching lately. It does happen.
We don’t need a power hitter, we need a professional hitters. Ain’t had one since Votto was in his prime. HR’s would come in GABP if you just make contact
I go along with that way of thinking. That’s why I’m beginning to follow Stewart more closely.
Where’s Hurtibise? He WAS hitting during spring training.
His hitting tailed off as ST waned. Dunn was consistently good in ST if you value ST stats.
There’s a big difference between spring training pitching and regular season pitching. The games don’t count, and nobody gets paid based on what they do in spring training.
Hurtubise has only made 4 plate appearances (chances) as PH: 1. Hit by pitch 2. Took to 3-2 count and walked 3. single 4. Ground out. All pretty decent at bats comparitively. Reds would be better off with him playing compared to what they have had. It’s worth a shot.
As good as our starters have pitched we’ve gotten outpitched so far. I’m willing to give the hitters, Tito and Valaika more than 6 games before I hit the panic button. It takes more than 6 games people. Some fans are a tad delusional. Patience.
the quality of the pitchers the Red face are more signifcant than has been discussed. How well a player hits against the best is whether they have a long major league career. Hitting a home run against a positional player may improve WAR and the next year’s salary but…
six games in and starting pitchers A-
It’s too early to really tell if the bats are preforming poorly or not. It was a cold and wet week at GABP. Also, pitchers have the advantage as it’s very early in the season.
One thing I’ve noticed is that the batters have not been very patient so far. I’d like to see more defensive batting, but again, too early to draw any conclusion.
Ah, the Reds just ran into a couple of hot pitchers. Eovaldi has had a very solid career, and since 2020 is 19 games over .500, with a FIP of 3.59. Jack Leiter was the second pick in the 2021 draft and is just now healthy again. Plus, they had a fresh bullpen for the Leiter game, and it wasn’t exactly hitting weather, either. The Rangers only got 2 runs the last 2 games.
The Reds did score 12 runs the other day.
Under the Castellini led ownership it is the same stuff every season. They are horrible, no incapable of building a winning ball club.
Where have I read this thread before? Oh, after most every game in 2023, 2022….
Lux, Friedl, Hays OF will be fine once Hays gets back. Til then, hopefully someone like Dunn catches fire.
Or Hurtubise gets a chance.
In a bit over at SI today, Jeff Carr states Fraley has a career exit velocity is 4 mph below league average and 8 mph below so far in 2025. I think a lot of the desire to flush players is unwarranted but I strongly believe the Jake Fraley saga has played out to it’s on stage conclusion. RF is an RBI spot on most winning teams and he just will never be that guy. Shame. Good dude. Weak hitter.
Jake Fraley’s slightly-above-league-average production over the last 3 full seasons has been wiped out in 7 games?