The Cincinnati Reds season came to an end on Sunday evening in Toronto. Max Scherzer, is possibly the last start of his Hall of Fame career, allowed one run in seven plus innings and the early lead built up by the Blue Jays held up in a 5-1 win for the home team.
| Final | R | H | E |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cincinnati Reds (75-87) | 1 | 7 | 0 |
| Toronto Blue Jays (79-83) | 5 | 5 | 0 |
| W: Scherzer (4-9) L: Williamson (5-5) | |||
| Statcast | Box Score | Game Thread | |||
Toronto would get a lead early after Brandon Williamson began the bottom of the 2nd inning by walking Davis Schneider and then gave up a 2-run home run three pitches later to Brandon Valenzuela. The Reds got one of those runs back in the top of the 3rd when Oswaldo Cabrera doubled with two outs and then scored on a single by Carlos Jorge.
The Blue Jays came right back with some offense of their own in the bottom half of the frame. Back-to-back singles started the inning and then Williamson walked the third batter on four pitches to load the bases. Charles McAdoo hit a sacrifice fly and that was followed up by a wild pitch and then a run-scoring groundout as the home team tacked on two more runs to make it 4-1.
The Reds would get a little bit of something going in the top of the 5th with back-to-back singles with two outs from Oswaldo Cabrera and Carlos Jorge, putting runners on the corners. But Max Scherzer was able to get out of the jam by striking out Elly De La Cruz to strand both runners.
Scherzer returned for the 6th and struck out two batters to give him seven on the day. In the 7th inning he was back out there and pitched a 1-2-3 inning. Well over 100 pitches, Scherzer was back to the rubber for the start of the 8th inning. After getting ahead of Oswaldo Cabrera 0-1 with a swinging strike he fired off four straight balls to walk him. That’s when manager John Schneider walked out to the mound and made the call to the bullpen. Scherzer hugged all of his infielders, and his manager, before walking off to a standing ovation from the crowd in Toronto.
Zach McCambley and Luis Mey covered the 4th through 6th innings for the Reds and gave up no runs. Carson Spiers then came in and tossed a shutout 7th. But when Spiers returned for the 8th he gave up a 446-foot home run to Charles McAdoo that made it a 5-1 game in favor of the Blue Jays. Cincinnati would get a 1-out double from JJ Bleday but he would be stranded there as the Reds season came to an end with a fly out to center in a loss up north in Canada.
Key Moment of the Game
Toronto scoring two add on runs in the 3rd inning after the Reds were able to cut the lead down to 2-1 in the top of the frame.
Notes Worth Noting
Carlos Jorge, JJ Bleday, and Oswaldo Cabrera all had two hits each. The rest of the team went 1-22 without a walk.
JJ Bleday’s single to start the 2nd inning gave him a nice, even round number of hits on the year with 100 of them (he had another one later, finishing with 101 on the year). He’s only the third Red to reach that mark this year along with Sal Stewart and Elly De La Cruz.
Up Next for the Cincinnati Reds
The offseason. November will be the first big point in the offseason. There are options on the table to decide on, qualifying offers to think about making, and then free agency begins. In the middle of the month teams have to decide which minor league players to add to the 40-man roster to protect them (or not) from the Rule 5 draft. A few days later they have to decide whether to tender contracts to eligible players (anyone who does not have a guaranteed contract for 2027).
Up Next for Redleg Nation
We aren’t going anywhere. The season is over. Cincinnati Reds coverage and MLB coverage is not. There is a whole lot to talk about, look back on, look forward to, break down, dissect, and cover until the Reds get back on the field next.
Reds 1966 76-84. Reds 1967 87-75. Different times & rules.
Reds 2026 75-87. Hoping for 85-77 or better somehow.
The interesting part of this is almost never, do the other teams attempt to get better? I honestly believe the Cardinals are ready to make a move and that will happen next year. So the Reds not only have to get good enough to win 85 games, but they better start finding a way of beating the teams they already can’t beat.
My basement (mancave) is a tribute to the Reds of Crosley with a nod to the BRM (and 1990) My sons are 36 and 31 and have never witnessed a Reds’ team make a credible run towards the National League championship. They don’t understand my obsession. Gotta say, I don’t blame them
Reds will have a pretty interesting offseason…
Krall taking the blame of this losing team but also finger pointing to the ownership
What Reds will do about Geno, Burke, Stephenson, Antone ?
Will they tender McLain, Friedl, Benson , Bleday, Myers, Santillán?
Will they give a QO to Singer after his disastrous season?
Who are they going to look for in free agency?
Who should be DFA’d?
Is Pagán picking his team option?
Guessing only.
1st Q – only 1 or 2 of those will be Reds in 2027.
2nd Q – only 1 or 2 of those will be tendered 2027 contract.
3rd Q – no.
4th Q – no idea.
5th Q – no idea.
6th Q – 50/50 at best. He can make more than $10 M somewhere,
@Doug. Thanks for making the season a little bit better with your writings and opinions. Looking forward to the winter visiting your site
I think this is the right response to the last game of this unexpectedly bad season. Thanks to Doug and all the hard work he puts in to make seasons like this much more enjoyable! Keep supporting this site!
I think Doug makes the season A LOT better. Good to know there are many many other long suffering reds fans. If it was not for RLN. I would probably believe I was the only one.
Maximum kudos to Doug Gray, for this and his Minor League website. He has to keep cranking out content every day, and I am sure that some days he just doesn’t know what to write. It’s been that kind of season.
One MVP caliber season, one probable ROY, and one CY young-esque year. Yet, last place, 30 games out of first, -160 run diff.
One very good SP. Four or five very bad SP.
Brewers 103 W. Reds 75 W.
Fifth time in last place in last 12 years. Only twice (besides those five) from 1951 (my birth year) to 2014 before that.
Hey OT. Just noted you’re two years older than me (born 1953). Confirms why it always seemed our Reds memories go back about the same number of years. Enjoy conversing with you on RLN. Have a good offseason.
Yessir. Me, too. Born August 1951 in Jewish Hospital (mom’s MD worked there).
The last 50 years (1977 to 2026) have been disappointing. 5 division titles, 1 pennant, 1 WS title.
The prior 25 years (1952 to 1976) had 4 NL pennants, 6 postseason appearances, and 2 WS titles.
Correction. 5 pennants, not 4.
My family moved to Cincinnati from Pennsylvania in 1956. We lived in a townhouse on Seymour Ave. a block from Cincinnati Gardens.
I was told — but have never confirmed — that a few of the ’56 Reds lived across the street. The only remote connection I have to that was waiting to get a haircut in a barbershop at nearby Swifton Shopping Center and my dad telling me that the man getting a haircut across from us was Roy McMillan.
Only lived in Cincy for a year, then moved up the road to Kettering where I grew up.
Speaking of the ’56 Reds, have you ever seen this?:
Yes, a HS classmate sent me that video link last week. Good memories.
Lots of Royals lived in the area you described. Royals moved here from Rochester in 1957, I think.
Dad was born in Pittsburgh, so I have PA in my DNA. Saw the Pirates at Forbes Field vs original NYM in 1962.
We’re from the other side of PA — Easton-Bethlehem area. My dad was was a diehard — and I do mean DIEHARD — Phillies fan.
Royals moved to Cincinnati in spring of ’57, right around the same time we moved to Kettering. Saw them play a few times in Dayton in the ’60s.
Took a 1965 business trip with my dad (buying potatoes for Husman’s) to Coudersport, PA not far from that area.
Incredible that those 3 players accounted for approximately 2% of the Reds payroll this year, and combined those 3 made approximately 1/3 of Hayes’s salary.
And that Reds had better W-L record when Hayes played (52-42 = 55%) than when Stewart played (75-87 = 46%) or when Elly played (68-74 = 48%).
Reds were 23-45 (34%) when Hayes didn’t play. And 7-13 (35%) when Elly didn’t play.
Hayes for MVP……………of the league, no less.
Nobody said anything like that.
Hayes played a meaningless role for 3 outs when the Reds had already won the game 17 games over .500 without his participation
Keep digging
Hayes plays AFTER the Reds already won the game and enters the Win after its been won
Just like jose trevino pitched in 7 games the Reds were 0-7 in AFTER they lost.
Keep digging 4th grade math student
It was a tongue in cheek joke. Don’t be so OT, OT!
Oldtimer your cherry picking of stats is ….
Old Timer, I respect much of what you write here, but, you fail to take into account that Hayes was the starting 3b in April when the Reds were awesome. that awesome month was due to incredible pitching and not much offense. Hayes’ defense, while incredible, really didn’t have much to do with that fast start. I love great defense, but seriously man, you gotta hit above the interstate in the major leagues. I would love to see Hayes succeed, but he’s got to get better at the plate
You got to pay attention. Reds were 26-24 when Hayes was starting 3B, then he went on IL in May. Reds were 42-50 in July when he returned from IL. Reds were 16-26 without him. Next.
For those pending SS 4th grade math exam, they were 52% with him, then 38% with him on IL.
Hayes is not the reason they Reds were bad this year. A half dozen SP (all except Burns) are the reasons.
Stop it with the Hayes nonsense. He sucks. Worst hitter in mlb and to keep harping on their record with him makes us think you’re not taking your Alzheimers meds. They put him in when winning as a def replacement if you noticed. Please stop. Tired of reading it 3x a week
O-S: we’ve all seen the Reds and their opponents blow leads due to sloppy defense. Hayes–Suarez the manner of defensive replacements the world over–was put in the game when the Reds were ahead, not when they were winning.
Lack of hitting again.
Reds P gave up 5.1 R per game. That’s a lot.
Reds scored 4.1 R per game.
Based on those numbers it may be a very long time before we see a quality Reds team that can compete against elite level talent and make a deep playoff run.
I found some things enjoyable this year like the play of Elly, Sal, and Chase Burns. That being said, I’m glad the season is over. Disappointing to be sitting in last place.
I would add Pagan, Burke, and especially Antone to joys of 2026 season.
Pagan and Anyone for sure.
*Antone…stupid autocorrect
Brock Burke was pretty solid too.
It’s nice to have a few stars but we’re just wasting them like we wasted Joey Votto.
And Elly is as good as gone when he gets a chance which means the smart one is probably trading him in a blockbuster deal for prospects. The Brewers and Rays would probably handle it that way if they had a near MVP caliber guy who was adamant about testing free agency.
@ Myles
That is absolutely correct. But it is tough to swallow trading Elly.
I can’t think of a successful Reds trade of a superstar for prospects that worked out in favor of the Reds.
I can think of one the other way. Seaver for Zachry, Flynn, Henderson, and Norman. Great for Reds. Not for NYM.
I understand the logic in trading Elly now vs later. But i don’t know if the trade Now crowd is giving enough weight to the ugliness in the first 1-2 years after Elly is gone. He is by far the most productive player on our team. What is he like 5-6 WAR? What is that Sal, Tyler, Geno, Myers and a couple other players combined? We certainly are not going to get anywhere near that level of performance from prospects in post-Elly Year 1 and probably not in post-Elly Year 2. Now if Wil Smith, Tommy Edman, Sasaki, and DePaulo are part of the deal, you might be approaching level ground in Year 1 or 2. But those are bigger salaries and typically have not been Krall’s targets. So, imo, expect the first couple of post Elly years to be on the ugly side unless we get some plus mlb talent as a big part of the return. I tend to think Krall and the owners recognize this but I don’t know that are willing to stomach it after the 2026 debacle.
So do we just sit and stare out the window until March?
you’ll see, Doug always comes up with stuff.
That’s what Rogers Hornsby said he did in the off season. He stared out the window and waited for spring.
There was one time this year, one time, where I thought we actually had a good lineup, and that was back when Dunn was at leadoff. It was actually a good year considering what we were putting in the field, and more importantly at the plate. The crash in May and June did not endure past the All Star break.
I have no idea what the Reds can put together for next year. We need both hitting and pitching. New blood and fresh arms for sure. We do have a few fresh prospects who have shown something in September.
No, not a winning year overall, but one that was entertaining: some surprise victories and some awful defeats. Thank you to everyone in Redleg Nation that makes this possible.
43-52 at ASG. Then 32-35 after it. A skosh (not sure of spelling) better but not enough.
That would probably equalize if we spread it out over 135 seasons. Reds are historically above .500, so we have some math to use as a sample size.
Dunn is not the solution. His OPS was like 650. (alot of singles.) That is below average and not useful to a weak offensive team. Solid defensive player with good speed who could certainly be a fifth OF imo. But we got to have much better than 650 from our starting CF.
Old Timer… I know you blame the pitching for this years poor performance.
I don’t know it seems like today though represents the majority of games this year ( and the last 20 years to be honest) …. Just not enough offense….
Even if we really upgrade the starting pitching for next year I think we will still win 75 games . Maybe a smaller run differential but still the same record.
I think pitching is about the 6th ranked problem of the reds… behind 2nd base, 3rd base of, lf,rf.maybe tied for c and dh.
It just depends. The Reds jumped from 67 W to 93 W in 1960-61. And 76 W to 87 W in 1966-67. 70 W to 89 W in 1984-85. A few examples.
The difference between the 84 team and the 85 team was Dave Parker having an MVP season for the Reds (no, he did not get the league MVP for the 1985). But it was a really good season.
Pitching wins games and will put you in the playoffs. The Reds need to address the shortfalls in their pitching.
Elly is a potential MVP in 2027. He can be Parker II.
Reds SP are capable of more/better.
SIMPLE SOLUTION
Sign Bugs Bunny.
If the pitching were better–much better than it was or probably would be–for Reds wouldn’t need to score as many runs to win. The reverse is also true.
thank you Doug.
also, thank goodness this season is over. Hope to see many new faces and the absence of some old faces on next years roster
Let the DFAs begin. Keep Geno, dump Hayes. Move on from Bleday. Try to cut a deal with Stephenson, Burke, and Singer. If they can get a decent package for McLain, go for it – probably can’t
@ LDS
If they don’t keep Geno, then they should keep Bleday as the DH for 2027. I would try to keep Burke and Stephenson, but I don’t think the Reds will pay what they want. If I were them, I would want to play for a team that has a real shot at the playoffs.
Earlier in the year, I would have wanted to keep Singer, but now, I don’t think so. Unless it comes out that he was pitching hurt….Brady is a good guy, and has taken the ball every turn the last two years. I want him to be better, but I don’t think he is going to be.
Bleday is under 30, controlled, and cheap. So maybe take a chance on another season. His first 30 games were great. The next 100, he hit less than .200. Geno, despite all the bad mouthing he receives here, played the fewest games he’s played since 2015 when he was 23, excepting 2020 COVID season, still finished 3rd on the team in HR and RBIs. While his HR% and his BB% were both above his career averages. That HR% is higher than Stewart or EDLC. EDLC walked more than Geno though Stewart didn’t. So the question is whether he missed games due to age, WBC time out of ST, etc. Personally, I think he picks up his side of the option. Krall should take a chance and pick up the team’s.
@ LDS, again
Don’t get me wrong…if it was my team, I would definitely want to keep Suarez. I just don’t think the Reds will, that’s all.
If it was MY team, I would have traded Bleday in mid-season for a pitcher, when his alleged market value might have been higher. On the season, he is about what the back of his baseball card says he is.
And I still don’t know what the deal was with losing Aguiar to the Cubs.
Likely the bullpen will again be almost a total rebuild. Ashcraft and likely Pagan back. I would try to sign Burke, but I don’t think that will happen…he will want more than the Reds will be willing to pay…Luis Mey might be getting a little better. Tejay Antone…will they keep him? I would. Frankly, for a really far out idea, I would make him a player – coach…make him the pitching coach. He is a very smart guy, and seems to know how to get the most out of his remaining physical ability, after 3 TJ surgeries. He’s a great guy to have on the team
McLain would not bring much in return. Why do you think he would?
Singer was not worth $2M in 2026, much less $22M QO.
Burke and Suarez can make more $ as FA. The option to keep Geno is not solely up to the Reds. It is mutual; he can decline it.
He could but I doubt he does Nor will Pagan in my opinion. They actually appear to like being there. Singer? Certainly, don’t give him a QO, which I’m not sure was ever a real thing. But find a reasonable price point and give him a take it or leave it proposition. And someone would go for McLain. The return is the question.
How do you know what the market will dictate their value to be? Because in 1967 someone could tell what market-value would be 2 mos. in advance? It’s all just our opinions and they all are just that, opinions.
First of all thanks, Doug, for another year of keeping this site alive and peaceful and a safe place to pontificate.
Now…where do the Reds go from here.
First,…things gotta change right. Like what? Well, we gotta get tougher (Francona). Whats that mean…apparently it means be harder to strike out…but is the basic strategy going to change. I doubt it. The owners aren’t gonna wanna spend big on FAs (maybe a little more overall), nor are they goiing to want to bring in new members with $$ (and dilute their equity). So they will stick with the post-covid strategy of building from within.
That means sticking with who we got pretty much. Maybe you offer Friedl and Benson minor league contracts. Give Marte another shot in the spring. But place your bets on Hector, Jorge, Brito, and Bleday and Steer making it back.
Change the coaching? They might, if they’re looking to scapegoat. We seemed to have solved the power problem of 2025 and got 1544 strike outs try to show for it. (2nd only to the Angels, 400 more than Tampa Bay). Can you teach guys to be tougher and smarter hitters? Or are those that are just gifted. How do you pick the gifted ones.
I don’t see them making any big trades (meaning one of our ‘stars’ either for prospects or to get a decent catcher), not only because Bob doesn’t like it, but it probably doesn’t make much sense at this point (still can ride EDLC, Stewart, Burns, Lowder, Abbott, Lodolo, any others before FA starts knocking. Green’s out). Can’t think of anyone else anyone would be that interested in.
Gotta get a catcher unless you can somehow sign Stephenson (is it crazy to think offering him a qualifying offer??) Let Singer go and use his $13M to sign someone else. If Pagan leaves, who’s your closer…Ashcraft? Try to sign Burke. Suarez?? At $15M still relatively cheap if he picks up where he left off. I think we are stuck with Hayes. Maybe that’s why you keep Suarez, unless you move Steer (if his wrist can recover) to 1st and Stewart to 3rd. Keep McLain.
Draft pitchers with high control scores and hitters with good contact score.
And hope we just under performed below our potential in 2026.
@ stillared
Hayes is going to be a tough one to swallow, but I don’t think the Reds can keep him. I would not count on Steer or Santillan next year.
I would like to keep Geno, but I don’t think the Reds’ brain trust will.
The Reds need another really solid starting pitcher. I am not sure Abbott will bounce back. So that leaves the Reds with Burns and…..who else? I think that Lowder might be solid if he can be healthy all year. Lodolo and Williamson? Who knows who shows up for Spring Training? Williamson was really good last Spring, then his shoulder gave out 3 weeks into the season.
No one is stuck with anyone. Reds ate a big chunk of Candelario’s contract (and other examples previously).
Thanks for all the great coverage Doug ! Most appreciated !
Thanks Doug, et al., for the stream of articles and the community platform for everyone to express themselves throughout the season. I’m sure Doug and/or others have had to deal with headaches with commentors behind the scenes, but it appears that most folks self-correct or fade into the mist. Regardless, the Redleg Nation community is a great way to talk about the Reds. It’s more than a fanbase. It’s full of insight, wit, and information.
Thank you Doug and the other writers for your coverage it can be therapeutic in a way to share in frustrations as well as celebrate victories together.
I recall on opening day in the RLN’s comments one poster suggested revisiting the day’s RLN’s commenters’ pre-game season predictions. Might be interesting.
Second, didn’t the Castellini’s say “Nick and Brad will continue leading our baseball operations and they are in the process of auditing every aspect of our player development system…”.
I propose RLN also conduct an audit to every baseball aspect of the organization, a real dissection, piece by piece. Not just “player development system” but also tries to answer Why should prospective new owners want to invest in a Cincinnati baseball team? What changes can be made to attract free agents? I may be wrong, but I believe I read the Royals are altering the dimensions of their field, is that a consideration at GABP? While fans may like Home Runs, is it a healthy team philosophy to generate wins? Home run swing vs a level swing. I could go on with a different analytical topic equal to the number of days in the offseason. Did the Reds set a record of number of runs walked in? How many times did Sal lift his heel off first base resulting in a safe call/or challenge? Shouldn’t be more than once even if he is a converted 3b/2b. The volume of contested fly balls by two position players this year was absurd. Volume of should-have-been double plays. The Reds used to excel in base stealing, the approach or intel seems to be lacking in recent years. In recent years the opposition seems to get better jumps on our pitchers/catchers. Frankly I’m surprised the opposition didn’t run more often. How will Sal adjust in sophomore year? This year’s decline in overused pitchers from last year should have been predictable. Who will likely suffer a similar fate next year? Even if Reds fans get a MLB Salary cap/floor, won’t small market teams still suffer because large market teams will just shift their extra funds to non player salary infrastructure?
There is a scene in the film Apollo 13 “Work the problem”, once the trouble starts the Ed Harris character in Mission Control says ‘What do we got on the spacecraft that’s good?’ I always remember this film when doing an audit of sorts.
I’m not a big fan of GABP personally. Compare it to Pittsburgh or Milwaukee, and I think it comes up short. Nothing we can do now.
Riverfront was iconic in its day. So was Crosley Field in a lesser way. GABP not so much.
If it is true that the size of the field limits prospective free agents from coming to Cincinnati then I think it should be among the things considered altering. If the size of field has batters swinging for home runs instead of more controlled level swings, then I think it should be at least talked about altering.
The aesthetics of the stadium is a different discussion. A laughable topic could be should opposing fans continue to be allowed to move from their ticketed seats to a collective group behind their team’s visiting dugout outcheering the home folks. If I leave the television to go to the kitchen to get a snack and hear cheering I want to be confident something good happened. I don’t want to hear 45% (?) cubs fans in the stadium. How that must feel to the Reds players.
I was looking back at the preseason predictions on Redleg Nation and I think “Dan” was the only one close! He predicted 76 wins for the Reds. Everyone was mostly overly optimistic for this year’s team, including myself as I predicted 85 wins.
Really a disappointing year with just a lot of unexpected bad individual seasons, injuries, lack of development, etc. I think what’s so disappointing about this year, is that they seemed to take a step back in general as a franchise, and it doesn’t feel like this was just a down year, but possibly a foreshadowing of a few down years coming.
Surprisingly, what many feel are their top talents, EDC, Burns, and Stewart had great overall years statistically. You wouldn’t think they’d have so tough a year as a team with such great performances from those 3. Greene being injured of course hurt quite a bit.
In hindsight, the season I think was kind of over as far as playoff potential after that 7 game losing streak on the road to the Pirates and Cubs. I think it brought the Reds to 20-18, but it just seemed like the momentum shifted at that time, and their deficiencies all began to come out over a consistent months long struggle, and the never really recovered much.
Just one of those years…As for optimism, you know Offensively, One good free agent signing, one good trade, and one of the young players developing into a solid hitter, could change the Offense overnight into a Top 15 Offense, assuming De La Cruz and Stewart once again have great years next year. Easier said than done of course.
I was 82-80 presuming all were healthy, but all were not.
The Reds P (different names) were worse (9 WAR and 87 ERA+) in 2026 than (26 WAR and 113+) in 2025. WAR numbers rounded.
The Reds hitters (different names) were similar in 2026. About 9 WAR and 93 OPS+ in 2026. 9 WAR and 94+ in 2025.
Lucky to be 75-87 after all.
I think we all secretly thought 75 to 80 wins. We knew there would be major injuries… poor hitting with runners in scoring position…. Just if you predict 75 wins you are considered a Debbie Downer on this site. Lol
I am 99.9999% sure oldtimer has turned into a robot, used AI to get nonsense stats and handed out like candy. A bit tired and irritating. Adding to a bad season and thats a double whammy.
Other that its been a fun baseball season. I usually dont participate in off season discussion, so this is it. Thank you all. See you next April.
Once upon a time, I was a Friday night dance DJ. Sometimes I still tend to think about things in song titles or lyrics. I got two for the end of this season.
For the Reds organization, From Boyz to Men, “End of the Road”. Regardless of what has been said, it just seems like the organization from top to bottom is at a dead end. A new direction is needed.
For all of us here and elsewhere who have to varying degrees hung around to follow this team, I say from Seals and Croft,”We May Never Pass This Way Again”. In terms of experiencing the frustrations of following this year’s Reds, let’s hope we don’t pass this way again.
But at a personal level, as a group here at RLN, we seem to be long in the tooth but let’s hope we all have at least one more rodeo together here at RLN to pass this way together again.
Thanks, and take care all.
PS> I am two years and change older than Oldtimer but much of the time I hopefully am 20 years younger in spirit and thought than my age.
I too have a song’s lyrics in mind (seems about a month or so ago a bunch on here did too), for me Sting’s …free, free, set them free… If you love someone, set them free… – Elly I love seeing you in Red, but I know you would be so much happier on a winning team.
After every last game of the season I hear the lyrics of this song by Police: There’s a little black hole on the sun today (that’s my soul up there). No matter how the team is playing, it’s better than no baseball. And it seems like spring training will never come again.
Well said Jim. I think we are about the same age. I hope we have a few more years here on RLN . Heck maybe even a season where we are actually good!
I steal my theme song for the reds from Tom Petty and the heartbreakers. unfortunately it has been a song I have sung too much recently
” I feel summer creepin in and I’m … tired of this team again” !
My song for the Reds…
https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=nssSIKOrSNk
Ruth Lyons’ Rally Round the Reds song (1961)
Cincinnati, O-hi-o (not sure when it was written)
A stat to wrap up the season: Jose Trevino has a pitching WAR equal to Hunter Greene and better than Mey, Singer and Santillan.
What stat you got?
Corbin Carroll hit more triples than the entire Redlegs roster.
One of the worst things the FO did was sell CES to Baltimore! He didn’t ascend to the big club until July 18th and played mostly at 3B. His stats were a tad better than his Reds 2023 stats when we all thought he was the 2nd coming! This was a huge mistake especially considering his trade-mate Spencer Steer has undergone career threatening wrist tendon surgery. Very unlikely that Steer will be a force again, but I hope so with all my being.
Just as Opening Day arrives with a season’s worth of optimism, the last game of the regular season with no playoffs to come brings a sadness knowing that we wait with Rogers Hornsby for spring to arrive. Despite the good (Elly, Sal, Chase Burns, Tejay, Emilio and Brock Burke) there was far more not good, and a bit of truly awful. There’s no place in a major league lineup for Hayes, Friedl (already gone), and though I hate to say it, Matt McClain. Perhaps he can find some CES magic at AAA. And the list of pitchers the Reds need to upgrade is not short. Injuries and disappointing performances equals disappointing season. But I’ll still miss Reds baseball. Pitchers and catchers report in a bit less than five months.
More importantly, thank you again Doug! When there is no joy on the field there is always solace at Redleg Nation. Thank you for all you do, every day all year long. And to my long suffering fellow fans here at RLN, thank you for showing up and caring. It’s a little easier to wrap up a year like this knowing I’m not alone in my mostly futile love for the Cincinnati Reds.
I expect considerable offseason change with the open dissension between the Red’s managing ownership and the Krall front office.
Thanks to you Doug for keeping a first rate website despite a last rate team. Here is hoping the new CBA actually does some serious good for the Reds and for baseball in general.
p.s.
#extendke’bryanhays !!!