Terry Francona TO BLAME For Reds Elimination? Should Nick Lodolo Have Started? | OTB Buy Or Sell

Terry Francona TO BLAME For Reds Elimination? Should Nick Lodolo Have Started? | OTB Buy Or Sell

Buy or sell, Stone, let’s get into it. All right, here we go. Buy or sell. Nick Lollo should have started yesterday. Yeah, I’m buying. I There’s clearly some sense of he’s hurt. There’s something there that we don’t know and they’re they’re being tentative. But if the plan was for him to throw an inning, if the which is what he did yesterday and I and I get that, you know, the game evolves and you can kind of but if the plan was that Nicolola, who threw really well against the Dodgers last month, If the plan was or I guess it was two months ago, uh plan for him was to throw 14 pitches, only throw four outs or something like that, why not start the game with him where he’s going to face lefty show, lefty Freddy Freeman. Don’t understand that at all. Um I am absolutely buying that Nicolola should have started game two. Yeah, I mean I I get it because, you know, he was used in game 162, so they didn’t probably that was I assume that’s the reasoning. They didn’t feel comfortable rolling him out there as the starter. But then again, if he was only going to throw like, you know, 14 pitches anyway and he wasn’t going to throw a ton of pitches, why not use him against, you know, Otani to start. Um it’s just disappointing that he only threw 14 pitches. Be one thing, if he got rocked in those 14 pitches, but he looked pretty dang good as well. So, um, tough to go down with LDLo only throwing 14, Abbott not going, as we talked about earlier. Um, yeah, this is a buy for me. I mean, if he was good enough to go in some capacity, which he was, why not let him be that guy that goes out there and, you know, only uh, you know, is like an opener, right? Um, but yeah, just interesting. You don’t want to bang onell too much because, you know, I think if Tito would have pulled the string on him a little bit earlier, we’re all sitting here like, “Wow, Zack Lattell really owned the moment. He did everything we asked for him, but Tito let him go a little bit too long. Now we’re sitting here having this conversation. Yeah, it’s it’s pretty clear that uh whatever their plan was, it didn’t didn’t I I just just don’t vibe with it at all. I just don’t jive with that with their plan in that game yesterday. So uh I was buying buying. Niclola should have started yesterday. Buy or sell. All right, here we go. Buy or sell. Terry Franona is the reason the Reds lost the series. Selling. Cellin is as long as my 15-minute monologue was to begin the show where I I said that he clearly didn’t put the Reds in the best position to win. He gave up 18 runs. Uh like I said, and I’ll say till I get red in the face. And that is the Reds. They play that series 10 times. They win it maybe three times. Now, now I once again I think that Terry didn’t put them in the best position to win, but he’s not the reason they lost this series. He certainly did not help. He certainly did not help. Uh so I’m going to I’m going to sell this just because I think that they were so against the eightball, so up against the grain. They just things had to go incredibly well for them to win this series and seemingly nothing went well. Um but Terry Francona wasn’t the sole reason for it. Yeah, I totally agree. Um you don’t feel great about what Tito Franka did in these two games. You know, I was the guy sitting here saying, “Oh, if you can get in, Tito is going to help you win a playoff game and he certainly didn’t do that.” But to sit here and put all the blame on the manager, that’s ridiculous. We know what the Reds are up against. We know what kind of roster um you know, and all the payroll in which that the Dodgers have, it was an uphill battle. It always was going to be. You needed to be pretty buttoned up. You needed to catch a few breaks. You needed to execute when your opportunities were there. Two bases loaded opportunities in the game yesterday. you came away with a total of one run. Can’t have it. Can’t have it. But definitely some things Tito did that got in the way of you trying to, you know, win the game, right? But to sit here and solely blame the manager, you can’t do that. I mean, one thing we haven’t even touched on is that um at bat in the eighth inning where Will Benson is in the one-two count and then he gets pulled or yeah, the the pitcher at the time gets pulled. Dave Roberts pulls the pitcher, goes to a new arm in the middle of the count, and then Tito says, “Well, I’ll counter that and put Miguel Anduhar in there.” Being in a playoff game off the bench in a two strike count, I mean, I get that he’s rad against lefties all year, but to me, it’s like, I mean, how is this guy going to have success in this situation? A one strike count, okay, like he can see one and feel it out a little bit, but like it’s not like Andrew Hart can get up there and take one if it’s a strike. Obviously, ended up swinging at a ball, but that to me is like, I mean, it’s a one-two count. What are we doing? But um yeah, I can’t fully blame to you. Yeah, someone put in there and they’re accurate. The reason that the Reds lost this series is the difference in payroll, the difference in the roster. Yeah, I was I was trying to find this uh stat. The the Reds the Red’s payroll this year was 119 million according to what I saw. I mean, obviously those numbers aren’t always exactly correct. Um, the Dodgers this off season to relief pitchers alone to relieve pitchers alone committed $85 million uh to Tanner Scott and Kirby. I thought the Kirby Eight signing was bigger. I was hoping that it’ like the number that they committed was over, but in in relief pitchers alone, they committed $85 over multiple years to uh Kirby Hates and Tanner Scott. The Red’s payroll this year was 120 million. Just to show you just where these two teams are at. um differently. And I’ve I’ve long said that um payroll doesn’t equal championships. Like spending money doesn’t equal championships. We had not seen that through the history of baseball. Maybe it’ll start if the Dodgers win this year. Maybe they do. Maybe the game has changed to where the the big money and they’re just going to spin outspend everyone by um you know, huge numbers. Um if that’s the case, then yeah, then something needs to change. But until uh paying money equals championships, then I’m okay against it. But here in this series, it was clearly that the rosters were just much different. Buy or sell. Buy or sell. This season, oh, this season was a success for the Cincinnati Reds. Yes. By by by preseason, they were uh betting odds to get 78 wins. They got 83. uh preseason according to fan graphs uh I think they were supposed to have 73 wins. They got 83 in a season that I’ I’ve mentioned this before and I truly mean this. This is the the strongest the National League’s been that I can remember. The National League has long time been kind of like the little brother of the American League. This year the National League is way stronger significantly stronger than the American League from top to bottom. It was there were some dang good teams. Sands the Rockies. Rockies weren’t very good. Nationals weren’t very good. Pirates weren’t very good. Pretty much everyone else is pretty gosh darn competitive. Cardinals, um the Giants, uh the Marlins, even the Marlins almost won 80 games. Maybe they did win exactly 80 games. Like those are those were talented teams. And I just think that winning 83 games in a season when the where the National League was so competitive and getting into the postseason, it is clearly clearly a success. Now, you hope that you can build on that. you hope that you can build on that, but anybody saying that this season was a success is is a fault. Yeah, it’s 100% a success. Um, where this team was coming in, I mean, I said it all season long, the season’s a success if you get in, it’s a failure if you don’t. I thought they had the guys in place, you know, that have been here for a few years, ready to take that ne next step. You bring in a manager in Tito Franka, who obviously has had tremendous success, future Hall of Famer. You get in, it’s a success. And let’s be real here, this Dodgers team, the fact they’re the three seed, right? Obviously, they have a really bad bullpen that cost them a lot of games, but I mean, without that, if they just have a semidecent bullpen, they’re the best team in baseball in my opinion. I mean, that lineup is absolutely ridiculous. The starters in which they have, so they were up against it, they ran into a buzzsaw 100%. Do I acknowledge the fact that, you know, they got fortunate that the Mets absolutely collapsed that 83 wins was able to get them in this year? Are they going to be able to bank on 83 wins getting them in in future years? Absolutely not. But the fact that they fought till the end, they went, they got hot late. I mean, shoot, they took two out of three against the Brewers. The boogeyman for the Cincinnati Reds has been the Milwaukee Brewers. They go on the road to finish the season and take two out of three. They sweep the Chicago Cubs in four games at home. Those are big-time wins late in the year when you had to have them. Um, Tito was pushing the right buttons at the time. Guys were stepping up, making great plays, pitching well. So, this totally a success. All right. I mean, can you be frustrated that you didn’t win a game in the postseason? and you haven’t won a postseason game in who knows how long, right? Yeah, you can be frustrated with that. But to sit here and say it’s a failure, all right, just because you lost to, my opinion, the best team in baseball, that’s ridiculous. Do you need to improve this off seasonason? Yes. Do you need to add this offseason? Yes. Not just running back with the same crew, yes. But for now, totally a success. It’s so weird how quickly your thought of a team can happen. Um, two years ago, 2023, this team had one of the best offenses in baseball. And we were looking going into that off seasonason where they just missed by a game. Talking about, man, if this offense with all these guys, they can just get a little bit of pitching help. Remember, we had Luke Weaver putting giving up eight runs every every time he started and they were still winning the games. We’re just talking about like if this team could just get a little bit of offense, this team’s going to win for a long time to go. And uh now we’re going into a postseason like or we were talking about if we can get this team get a little bit of pitching, this team will be great for years to come. Now we’re doing the opposite. We’re like, “All right, now we just we got great pitching. Can we get a little bit of hitting? Can we get some help on with the bats?” It’s just funny how things they seem to overcompensate um from one year to another and how quickly your opinion of a team can change, how quickly your opinion can change on a player really. Um it’s just just interesting. And at the end of the 2026 season, I’m sure there will be some new thing that the the Reds need and they’ll be in in competition again. But that’s just how it goes. That’s just how it goes. You’re trying it feels like you’re in a boat and you know when you plug plug one hole, another one pops up and there’s water getting in. Last buy or sell? Buy or sell? Should be in the market. The Cincinnati Reds should be in the market for two big bats this off seasonason. Well, that’s just what we were talking about. Yeah. I don’t I don’t know. I I I’d have to look at who is going to be available this off seasonason. Obviously, there’s there’s there’s huge names like Kyle Tucker is going to be available this off season. Um Brad’s clearly aren’t going to be in the market for that. Um but the one guy the one name that people keep floating around and we’ll see what his market is is Kyle Schwarber. He’s presumably what 33. Um he’d be a DH a DH exclusively. So you’re limiting a role with you already got your better hitters aren’t very good at fielding like Sal Stewart if he’s going to have to find a position on the field like I guess he can play first base but uh the answer is clearly yes big bats maybe maybe the wrong moniker to use there but clearly they’re going to need to be in the market to to to supplement this lineup in some capacity. Yeah, there’s some guys down um down below like South Stewart playing here for a full season. Who knows what that can turn into. Yeah, you hope that a guy like Mattie Mlan can can come back to form. Yeah, you hope that, you know, several other pieces can be good or improve from where they were. Who knows what Ellie de la Cruz looks like next year if he’s back to, you know, and he was a pretty good hitter this year. I mean, he was below what you guys expected, but still was an above average hitter and, you know, a still really good ball player. Like if you get him back to getting to superstar status like we thought he was continuing to project to last year. If you get him back to that, this lineup still still can be pretty formidable. But yeah, you’re you’re pretty clearly going to need to at least sign one bat, maybe two. And and this is without me looking this is without me looking at the potential free agents. I know Kyle Schwarber is the name that everyone keeps throwing out there. I don’t know what his market’s going to be. Point blank. I don’t know what it’s going to be. I don’t know what the market for a 33year-old left-handed uh doesn’t hit for for contact. It’s pretty much all power. gets on base a lot. Um, but pretty much just hit bombs and he’d hit a lot of bombs at Great American Ballpark. I don’t know what the market is for that guy, but he’s clearly from this area, clearly a Reds fan, so maybe he’d take a hometown discount. I don’t know. Yeah, you you got to add offensively kind of what I was talking about earlier, right? Um, you can’t just afford if you’re the Cincinnati Reds, Nick Crawl, Brad Meadow, sit back there and say, “Oh, we made the playoffs. We’re good. We’ll just roll it back with these guys.” No. Right. Because as we talked about, yeah, you got in the playoffs, but were you a threat to win it all? No, you were not. Um, need at least one bat, needs somebody that can threaten putting the ball over the fence. You mentioned obviously Schwarber, everyone’s talking about that. I would be shocked, right? He just hit 50 plus nukes. He’s going to get a massive payday. Um, would be shocked if the Reds were able to pull that off. I love Cody Bellinger. He’s going to be available probably. Um, again, probably too big of a name for the Cincinnati Reds. You mentioned Kyle Tucker. Um, certainly other guys available there as well, but you need somebody that can threaten hitting the ball over the fence. You need somebody because nobody really could do that for you this year for Cincinnati. And if you want your team to take that next step, you have to be able to lean on the long ball a little bit because you never even had that hope like, oh, we’ll just put one over the fence. Like so many teams have that. The Reds didn’t where it’s like, we got to string together hits and then, you know, we’re in bases loaded situations with nobody out or one out and then we can’t execute in those situations. So, if you have guys that can put the ball over the fence, that gives you a whole different dynamic offensively and um you know, it gives you more outs. It gives you more answers and um you know, it doesn’t it has you opportunity to get back in a game quicker if you’re trailing. Like all kinds of things go into hitting home runs and Cincinnati just didn’t have that at all this year. So, there’s going to be some guys big- time guys that are available. We’ll see how aggressive they are. Obviously Cincinnati and the payroll that they’re working with doesn’t add up for, you know, what some of these top contenders obviously are dealing with, but got to at least get one big bat in here. At least one. Yeah. I’m just looking at some 2026 and I’m not saying these are names that the Reds should go after. I’m just going to be listing names of some guys that are going to be available. So, please don’t take it as a the Reds should go after this guy. Like Peter Lonzo just opted out. Like that’s a name that the Reds clearly aren’t going to be in contention for. But those are there are some big names. I mean there’s JT Raludo. Uh, Salvador Perez has a club option. Pete Alonzo, uh, Luis Arise, Glabber Torres, uh, Gino Suarez, uh, Bo Bashette, Kyle Tucker, Kyle Schwarber, Cody Bellinger if he opts out, Luis Rober, Tyler O’Neal, Cedric Mullins, Michael Conforto, Micah Shrimsky, like there’s there’s some names there. There’s some names. There’s some there’s some opportunity. It’s a much bigger class than I think we maybe had last year. Um, to get some Alex Verdugo is another name. Like these are just I’m just looking at purely a list. So, we’ll have an entire off seasonason about uh if there’s a price point that the Reds are are willing to go for, if there’s some guys that fit kind of the ideology that is the Cincinnati Reds going forward, uh those sorts of things um and see who can who can mend well, but it’s pretty clear that they’ve got to go out and uh sign someone. But, um man, it hasn’t been good the the bats that they’ve have gone out and spent a little bit of money. Obviously, Jamie Canelario got DFA, Mike Mustakis was a disaster here. Shogo Akiyama coming from Japan. Like these are these are it’s not been a good run. It’s not been a good run for free agent sightings here in Cincinnati. Um, but you still can’t be scared uh to

Off The Bench Buy or Sell? With Reid Maus & Stone Shields
– Nick Lodolo should’ve started Game 2 vs. Dodgers
– Terry Francona is the reason the Reds lost this series
– 2025 was a success for the Reds
– Reds should be in market for two big bats this offseason

The Cincinnati Reds’ postseason dreams evaporated in a 2-0 Wild Card sweep by the Dodgers, leaving fans dissecting every misstep—and there were plenty. Chief among them: the baffling handling of Nick Lodolo, who didn’t start last night’s Game 2, a decision that amplified Terry Francona’s growing list of head-scratchers.

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As the sting fades, offseason whispers turn to firepower. The Reds’ 21st-ranked home run total (142) and middling .710 OPS exposed their contact-heavy chaos against playoff arms like Blake Snell. Enter Pete Alonso rumors: The Mets’ slugger (31 HRs, .862 OPS) could anchor the middle, per insiders, though Scott Boras’ opt-out and big-market rivals loom. Payroll constraints nix a splashy Schwarber chase; expect targeted adds—perhaps a corner infielder or DH—to mesh with Elly De La Cruz’s spark and guys like Noelvi Marte. Francona preaches patience: “We’re not the finished product.” But without pop, Great American’s roar stays a whisper.

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