MLB Trade Deadline Primer - Cincinnati Reds Edition
One day left for the trade jamboree!
Major League Baseball’s trade deadline is set for 6 PM ET on Thursday, July 31st. That leaves just over 36 hours for each of the 30 clubs to do their final serious business of the transaction season, and there’s seemingly a large backlog of moves that were anticipated to go down that simply haven’t yet.
That means one of two things - either the gridlock leaves a lot of teams disappointed, or there’s going to be a flurry of movement in the next day and a half. If I had to guess, it’ll be the latter, as teams out there have to notice just how wide-open this year’s race to the playoffs truly is.
Eugenio Suarez of the Arizona Diamondbacks sits as the top offensive prize on the trade block, even if he’s fresh off the second hit-by-pitch scare he’s faced in the last two weeks. The MLB’s current RBI-leader has socked 36 homers already this season while playing a passable 3B, and he’s pretty clearly the top bat on the list for the likes of the Cincinnati Reds as well as the New York Yankees, Philadelphia Phillies, Seattle Mariners, and others.
Speaking of the Reds, they’ll get to decide not just how much they’re willing to part with to land Geno, but also whether they actually have their 3B of the future on the roster right now, too. Noelvi Marte homered again for the Reds last night and now owns an .810 OPS (117 OPS+) through 38 games this season. That said, he’s shown an ability and willingness to put in time in RF so far, something that’s allowed the Reds to use Santiago Espinal at 3B and keep Marte’s bat in the lineup in late-game scenarios. If Marte’s comfortable in RF, that makes a Suarez addition perfect because the Reds can keep Marte’s bat in the lineup elsewhere, even if it would cause a LF logjam with Will Benson and Jake Fraley (who also homered yesterday to stay red hot).
If the Reds can’t land Suarez, the question becomes how they’d pivot. Buster Olney of ESPN wonders whether they’d keep looking to acquire another 3B of the caliber of Gio Urshela of the A’s or even one of the multiple options on the New York Mets roster, though none of those seem to be upgrade enough to me to displace Marte. If not Geno, finding a RHH upgrade to complement the Fraley/Benson LF mix and upgrade offensively over Espinal and Connor Joe seems the route I’d take if I were the Cincinnati front office, with perhaps Ramon Laureano of the Baltimore Orioles top on that shopping list.
That seems like an obvious idea for MLB insider Jon Heyman, who listed the Reds among teams who’d be a fit for Laureano (even though said list is long).
After all, we just watched the Reds send both Espinal and Joe to the plate in the 8th inning of a huge game against the Los Angeles Dodgers last night, and, well, that simply ain’t the makings of a playoff roster.
In Olney and Jeff Passan’s conversation about what they expect to see at the deadline (which I’ve linked to above), they expect there to be a bevvy of relief arms moved between now and the deadline, too. I firmly expect the Reds to add at least one relief arm given the relative struggles for consistency from the likes of Graham Ashcraft, Scott Barlow, and Taylor Rogers and how overworked both Tony Santillan and Emilio Pagan seem to be at the moment. How ‘big’ that arm is remains to be seen, however, as I don’t anticipate the Reds dealing one of their top prospects for a reliever regardless of how ‘elite’ said reliever is.
Meanwhile, Mark Sheldon of MLB.com discussed some names he’s heard connected with the Reds, and while Suarez is firmly among them, the surprising likes of Pittsburgh’s Ke’Bryan Hayes (and a pair of Colorado Rockies relievers) make his list, too.
Geno watch is officially on. Let’s hope the Reds get in on the action!