The Cincinnati Reds made a set of roster moves this afternoon before the start of their 4-game series against the Miami Marlins at Great American Ball Park. Outfielder Rece Hinds was optioned to Triple-A Louisville where he will rejoin the Bats. Utilityman Connor Joe has been activated from the 10-day injured list after a short rehab assignment with Louisville.
Rece Hinds has had two stints with Cincinnati this season. In his first go-around in the second and third weeks of May he played in seven games and went 3-19 with a double and two home runs. Then he spent a month back in Triple-A with the Bats before being called back up. Things didn’t go as well in his second trip through the league this season as he went 2-23 with no extra-base hits or walks. He has really struggled this season with Cincinnati, hitting just .119/.140/.286 with one walk and 20 strikeouts in 43 triples to the plate. His time in Louisville has gone much better, where he’s had a .921 OPS this season and cut down on his strikeouts, but he just hasn’t been able to make that translate against big league pitchers yet.
Connor Joe missed a little more than two weeks with hand, foot, and mouth disease. He joined Triple-A Louisville on July 4th and played in three games for the Bats in Indianapolis and went 1-12 with an RBI and two strikeouts. For the month prior to going on the injured list, Joe had played in 17 games and had gone 5-31 (.161) with two doubles. He started nine of those games, but only played a full game three times. His value seems to be in the fact that the club is confident in his ability to play defense at multiple spots, though that’s pretty much just been 1st base and the corner outfield spots this season. All the while he’s hit like an 1890’s shortstop, posting a .549 OPS this season with the Reds.
“Hit like a 1890s shortstop” hahaha haha.
At what point does Urbaez get a look over the likes of Joe and Hampson?
They will have to “wait and see.” This ownership group has been waiting and seeing for 20 years now.
doofus: 1kizillon%
+100000 to Doug for the “hits like and 1890’s shortstop” line! Lol
Is he on the 40 man roster? This often seems to be a hurdle.
That was a quick look at Hampson……he’s already gone.
Guys like Urbaez must love to play baseball knowing that no matter how well they do they still probably won’t make it to the big leagues again.
Urbaez will make it but not on your timeline.
Funny line but Woody Woodward and Davey Concepcion hit like SS of that era in 1969-70-71, too.
Of course Concepcion was in his early 20’s and actually a shortstop, unlike Joe who is in his 30’s and is a guy who plays on the corners…..
We all want to see Rece Hinds and, though they’ve been varying degrees better, Matt McLain, Will Benson, Noelvi Marte and Christian Encarnacion-Strand, succeed at the major league level. They all appear to have such high ceilings that if even three of the five can thrive with the Reds it would be a huge boost to the offense and the team’s outlook for the next few years. I don’t know the magic formula but it does seem that pitch recognition is an absolute key. EDLC is figuring it out, and McLain, Benson and Marte have all shown flashes. But man what potential they all have. Make the call and get Eric Davis and Joey Votto working with these guys to upgrade pitch selection. Make them sleep with the Ted Williams heat chart that motivated Votto (and Warren Buffett). And please front office, don’t give up on them – find a way to help them succeed!
We all know every prospect is not going to make it, and when given opportunities, they have to excel.
EDLC, Steer, Friedl, and Stephenson have made it through the system to productive players. I’ll take even 2 of the five you mentioned to add to those. Added to the pitchers they have developed, that’s a very productive farm system.
I’d say Stephenson has “made it” only on the coattails of being a catcher. He doesn’t bring the offense for a 1b or corner OF.
And now they have a catcher a couple of years older, matching him on both sides of the ball and under contract through the 2028 season (team only option on ’28) at an AAV of $5.11m.
I don’t think both guys stick with the Reds beyond next year, if that long; and, Stephenson is the one who will be gone.
They have all been about average except for Elly. Steer cane up in Minnesota’s system from the Mahle trade. The Reds have not consistently developed talent for many years. Watching them try hand fulls of different guys from Louisville (with no success) this year illustrates that. There are not many contributors to this team that were drafted/signed and developed through the Reds system.
Probably the best thing considering Hinds is only playing against some of the best lefties out there recently (that basically no one else hits either). If he’s not going to play every day then AAA is where he needs to be. An argument could be made that he hits righties better anyway. He hasn’t had much of a chance to succeed while up with the Reds. Hopefully his time will come.
He needs to stop trying to kill every pitch. Plain and simple. He makes no adjustments during the at bat and with 2 strikes he still tries to kill it. Like John Kruk said over the weekend, “This guy has no chance to hit the ball with that kind of swing. “
He just started doing that again recently. Not smart. He needs to go back to doing what got him up there in the first place. He obviously has plenty of power without swinging for the fences. He may be a little frustrated considering the situations he’s been throw into recently. He’s got to control that.
He doesn’t have handedness splits in his minor league time, which is a plus, and I agree, he’s faced some tough, tough pitchers during this stint with the Reds. Unless we have multiple outfielders on the IL again, something none of us want, Hinds will have to take advantage of his limited opportunities to earn more playing time.
Rece Hinds couldn’t take advantage of this big oportunity given to him. Now he’s behind Connor Joe on the list…I wait for any update about Tyler Callihan’s progress who would be an interesting guy to send Connor Joe to the minors leagues…
Just a not that Matt McLain, after struggling mightily for the first 2.5 months, has really been rounding into shape since mid-late May. Especially with a shoulder injury to his right arm, we have no idea how much that was still messing with his timing, his contact, his bat speed, etc. Yes, his power still hasn’t really returned, but considering how those numbers are drastically down across most of MLB, I’m no longer concerned with him. CES on the other hand…he is rapidly approaching “change of scenery,” candidacy, unfortunately. Since his first 2 weeks back, he’s just looked more and more lost at the plate, which is an absolute travesty.
He mostly faced lefties and, as Melvin noted, he mostly played against, the likes of Crochet, Wheeler, and others – only a few of the top LHPs in the game. NO ONE did well.
It’s sad he gets sent down for Joe when that’s the one man hitting arguably as bad.
Just a note that Matt McLain, after struggling mightily for the first 2.5 months, has really been rounding into shape since mid-late May. Especially with a shoulder injury to his right arm, we have no idea how much that was still messing with his timing, his contact, his bat speed, etc. Yes, his power still hasn’t really returned, but considering how those numbers are drastically down across most of MLB, I’m no longer concerned with him. CES on the other hand…he is rapidly approaching “change of scenery,” candidacy, unfortunately. Since his first 2 weeks back, he’s just looked more and more lost at the plate, which is an absolute travesty.
Sorry about the double post – browser was acting up.
I’m hopeful that Espinal – who currently has the 6th most plate appearances – takes his marginally better .587 OPS and joins Connor Joe and fellow 1890’s brethren (lol) on the bench and is only used as a late inning defensive replacement and occasional spot starter against LHP going forward.
Actually, Connor Joe’s Reds OPS this year is .631 (according to mlb.com), which is higher than Matty McClain. That really needs to change soon!
I would say that the first pitch you see should not be an almost automatic take. McLain,Stephenson EDLC,CES and Steer often take the first strike. Steer hits well behind in the count. The rest? Not so much. The first pitch is usually not below the knees or above the hands (pitchers pitches )because the pitcher is looking to get ahead in the count. Hayes comes out hacking. Marte is aggressive too. If you see strikes, don’t take them. What are you waiting for? A better strike???
Absolutely agree. People hated when Fraley did it but that first pitch is probably the best pitch of the at bat.
The difference between Hinds and CES based on what I could see lately is that CES could hit a fastball mistake whereas Hinds couldn’t. When you can’t handle slow breaking pitches, you need to be able to handle fastball, particularly the ones over the plate, and Hinds just has not hit those. A funny thing about Hinds is that he probably thinks that his problem is he does swing hard enough. So he tried to swing harder, particularly when he was behind 0-2, which he was for most of his PAs. Players are taught to shorten their swing in pitchers counts, Hinds must have slept or out sick when they taught that.
Also, even when struggling, CES finds a way to actually hit a game winning hit. Hinds not so much. When a player swings so hard that his helmet falls off every time, even with two strikes on him, it’s time to reevaluate.
It took the organization a long time to give up on Aquino ‘the punisher’. The bill came due for Hinds imo
I just checked my eyes’ memory to be sure; and, if I set the query correctly, Hinds MLB K rate vs RH pitching in 2025 is 32% versus 67% vs LH pitching. In his latest stint, the figure was 10% vs RHP and 69% versus LHP. The reason it seemed like he was striking out all the time was that, incredibly, he had 57% of his PAs vs LHP.
So, go figure. I don’t have an answer; but, I don’t think it is as simple as he is overswinging or chasing to a large degree like CES.
My recall from the times I checked Gameday was that the pitches he was actually striking out on were in the zone or fringe pitches he’d be lambasted for taking if let them go by and was called out.
What I did notice was that he often got himself into an unfavorable situation early in the count by swinging at and fouling off pitches inside. Then, once the pitchers had him at their mercy, they could turn him every which way but loose by working the fringes.
He came back a number of times to run a good count but could never get the meaningful contact or ball 4 at the end of the PA.
I’m guessing the difference between AAA and the top drawer MLB lefties he faced in this latest go around was that he could spoil enough pitches at AAA in long counts to eventually get a walk or a fat pitch, while these MLB guys could get a miss from him instead.
And no, I have not given up on Hinds. He is still just 24. When he was sent down in late May, he in many ways reinvented himself by posting a K rate around 20% and a BB rate of 10%. Also, he was transforming from strictly a home run slugger into a doubles machine.
Time will tell.
Espinal is the best defensive infielder they have. Even though is a .245 to .250 hitter, I would like to see him play everyday at third base. CES is not cutting it. I haven’t seen enough of Marte to make an informed comment.
I would love to see either Hinds or Benson be a permanent part of the outfield.
Connor Joe is back! It’s hard to contain my excitement
Not mentioned above, Joe’s batting .245, fast, and playing very good defense so that’s exciting enough to make you a solid Utility player. All he needs is a few more extra base hits and he’s back on track to what is expected.
About Francisco Urbaez, who someone mentioned above. The Reds org always seems to have a 40 man roster slot for some long shot retread pitching arm, but rarely takes a flyer on a position guy like Urbaez.
Bingo! Please give yourself as many points as you seem fit.