ULTIMATUM: Cincinnati Reds Face CRUCIAL Roster Decisions | Is Elly De La Cruz’s Position SECURE?

ULTIMATUM: Cincinnati Reds Face CRUCIAL Roster Decisions | Is Elly De La Cruz’s Position SECURE?

If the Reds think that they’re going to contend for the NL Central in 2026, they got to get that clutch bat in the lineup. You are Locked on Reds, your daily Cincinnati Reds podcast, part of the Locked On Network, your team every day. Welcome in to the Locked On Reds podcast. My name is Jeff Carr and I’m a lifelong Cincinnati Reds fan. I’ve been hosting this podcast now for seven seasons and I’m glad that you’re alongside me here today. Lockdown Reds is part of the Lockdown Podcast Network. We are your team, your Reds every single day. And on today’s podcast, Mo Edgar will be joining us today and I am going to ask him later on if he would bet on Nick Crawl. In just a few minutes, we are going to look at which players currently on the roster we have the most confidence in for 2026. But we will begin though with the desperate need that the Reds have this off season. That’s all on today’s episode that is brought to you by FanDuel. Right now, new customers can bet just $5. And if your bet wins, you’ll get $300 in bonus bets to use across the app. Download FanDuel today. And joining us is Mo Edgar. Mo, I appreciate you joining me, man. What you got for me today? What a guest booking coup by you to get me on your podcast. I I I appreciate you so much for joining in. We You know, my typical co-host, he’s he’s gallivanting around Ireland, going to like the oldest pub in the world and things like that. So, I I thought I’ I thought I’d bring you on to talk some Reds with me. Um I’m I’m I’m a bit jealous of him. Went to Ireland a little bit earlier on this year, but uh I would go back in a heartbeat. Go back in. Um, let’s let’s start with this because it’s clear through these playoffs, watching the teams that are advancing, it’s about the clutch at bat and and you know, even the teams that didn’t quite make it to the World Series, we saw clutch at bats from guys on the Brewers all year. We saw clutch at bats from Cal Rally and from Julio Rodriguez on Seattle and obviously Vladimir Guerrero and guys like that. Do the Reds currently have a guy who could develop into that clutch at bat or is it more likely that they’re going to go outside and get a guy via free agency or trade this off season? Well, it I think they absolutely need somebody from outside because look at all the holes they have to fill. They need more production from both corner outfield spots. They need better production from first base. They need more production from the DH spot. They need more production from second base. I think we’re just going to shrug our shoulders and go, you know what, you’re not going to get anything offensively from third base because Kebr Brian Hayes is so good with his glove. You’re not going to move him. So, there are so many places where you need more offense from that it’s hard for me to believe that the solutions to all of them lie internally. the solutions to some of them probably come from within and should. But uh I I I have a hard time believing that if the idea is to go from barely scraping by and needing game 162 to going into the postseason with rest and a division title under their belts that they’re going to be able to maintain the status quo and just hope that they get more production or better production from guys who were on the team last year and better production from certain positions filled by guys who were in the minor leagues this past season. Yeah, I think it’s interesting because I was staggered a bit until Steve kind of writed me a bit. He uh told me he’s like, “Well, obviously Charlie’s right whenever he writes this.” But after the postseason interviews with Nick Crawl and with Terry Francon and all those guys, Charlie had this takeaway where he’s just like much of the roster is going to return next year. And that staggered me initially, but even if they only add a few guys, which we all know who we’re dealing with here, they’re not going to go out and create a brand new team during the off season. They might add a couple of guys in the complimentary areas. This seems like we are going to get a lot of a lot of the same folks. So Noel Marte is going to be in right field. We’re going to have like you mentioned Kean Hayes at third base, Elliot Short, Matt Mlan at second, um TJ Fedel in center field. So, it does feel like if if you’re going to get that big bat, it’s going to be through free agency or trade. Let’s go here because I have a hard time with this one. Kyle Schwarber is an obvious pick, but we know who we’re dealing with in the Reds. I just don’t see it happening. Like, is that is that fair? It’s it’s it’s more evaluating the team that we have, but at the same time, like we Reds fans should expect something like that, right? Yeah. I talked about this last off season in relation to Pete Alonzo. Uh, and I I say this from the perspective of He’s available too. Sure. I say this from the perspective of Red’s fan, but also Sports Talk Radio host. I hate the fact that it’s not even a topic. Right. Now, one might say that’s because of baseball’s economics. Okay. But I think it’s a the larger issue is you just don’t expect the Reds to dip their toes in those waters. And I hate that. I I I hate that we are crossing names off before the off season even gets here. That should not be what we’re doing. We should demand, you know what, especially last year. Wait a minute. You can get Pete Lonzo for a year to hit in this ballpark. Why aren’t we talking about that? Like you should hit 50 here, right? Why is that not a thing? But unfortunately, it’s not because of what we’ve come to expect. And so I think all of us would be surprised if Kyle Schwarber is the answer. I think all of us would be surprised if uh Pete Alonzo is the answer. But if the conversation is ever going to change, the Reds are going to have to surprise us and make one of those guys or a player of that profile with that profile. Make one of those guys a big offseason acquisition. Um right, does that make sense? Like no, we’re not going to start talking about the Reds being not even making big splash moves in free agency. We’re not going to talk about the Reds addressing obvious needs with the most qualified guys until they actually do. Until they do, we’re going to assume that they don’t. Um, and so, yeah, like we’re they’re probably not going to get Kyle Schwarber or Pete Alonzo. So, then then the answer is, well, then what, right? Then what? Um, I I don’t believe that the Reds don’t want home run hitters. Like that’s that that’s a that’s a refrain that you’ve heard a lot. I don’t think Nick Crawl is sitting there with Brad Meadow going, “I tell you what we can have is a guy hitting 35 home runs over my dead body.” You can’t rally guy. He’s pretty horrible. Right. Right. Like, oh man, we we don’t want we don’t want a guy who can hit the ball out of the ballpark. Of course they do. The the the question is how do they get one? And is there someone is there someone from within who you can rely on to give them that power boost? And if it’s not Pete Alonzo or Kyle Schwarber, who can you acquire from outside that’s a little under the radar to give you that that power boost? And ideally, can both things happen? Can Sal Stewart hit 30 home runs for you? and a guy who played for another team in 2025 also hit 30 home runs for you. My issue though isn’t so much the lack of home runs, it’s the lack of being able to score in ways that don’t involve the homer. If this was a high on base percentage team, okay, if this was a team that that, you know, just did what the team in 2023 did, which was constantly put pressure on the defense, steal bases, take the extra base, okay, they were still kind of a stationto station team. They got I at one point in August, it was the the worst production from the two-hole of any team in the National League. I don’t know if that’s where they finished. Like it it wasn’t just the lack of home runs. like if you know the the Brewers and Padres’s didn’t hit a ton of home runs, but it felt like they found other ways to score. Uh the Reds couldn’t find other ways to score and then so when you don’t, you kind of come back to the lack of of power. That’s the interesting thing that I saw in baseball savant that the Reds attempted 200 less steals year-over-year. They had over 300 attempts in 2024 and just over a hundred in 2025. And I know that part of that is that Ellie was dealing with injury, but Ellie’s not the only guy that can steal bases on this team. There’s so many fast guys. I I mean, I’ve heard I mean, it looks like TJ Fredel’s fast. Looks like Matt Mlan’s fast. Looks like that, you know, Noel Vie Marte can steal a base when he needs to. So, it it just kind of felt like you mentioned the stationto station nature of the base running. If you’re not going to get power, you’ve got to score runs in other ways. But, they didn’t seem to do that either. And so that’s where I come up with that clutch at bat thing. Like yes, we want the power, but who is going to be that reliable guy in the middle of the order? And it feels like it’s got to be Mr. Outside hire at this point. Yeah. Who’s the guy you want at the up at the plate? Uh, you know, two outs, eighth inning, guy on base or down by a run. I I don’t have the Ellie did that in Ellie did that in LA in the wild card and he struck out. And it was like, man, I I kind of worried that that was going to be the case whenever he stepped up to the plate. Yeah. And when he struck out, you shrugged your shoulders. Yeah, I like that. I mean, you shrugged your shoulders and you’re like, you know what, that’s that’s the result I expected. It’s They didn’t win the series, but Cal Raleigh came to the plate in the eighth inning of game five the other night down by a run. And I’m like, all right, if you’re a Seattle fan, this is all you could ask for, right here. This is the guy. And yeah, you know, they didn’t win the series, but this is the guy you wanted to play. Eighth inning, down a run, game five at home. What else could you ask for? If if he hits a home run, it’s awesome. If he doesn’t, all right, we at least had our best guy up and him making an out is at least somewhat alarming, right? Ellie Deler Cruz in that situation against the Dodgers, him making an out, him striking out in a big situation, not alarming, not surprising. So, who’s that guy in that situation that you go, “This is the dude I want up.” Like, game’s on the line, season, season is on the line. this is the guy that I want at the plate. I don’t think the Reds have I don’t think the Reds have that guy. Um I just I think offensively they’re so weird and this isn’t really I think where you wanted to go, but they’re so weird because we’re just going to nod along with having a third baseman that we all acknowledge is a below average offensive player. Maybe the worst hitter in baseball from a position he’s 20% below league average. We’re like, “Oh man, that was a good year.” O okay. So you’re constructing a team and a lineup every day around a guy that you’re admitting at a position that is typically associated with power is an automatic out. Mhm. So you’re you’re you’re start there like at third base this guy’s not going to hit. Well then you’re going to have to I think make up that production elsewhere. And the thing that I keep coming back to is how Christian Strand screwed him. Now that’s Yes. Yes. You know, didn’t intentionally have a bad year, but at the end of the 2023 season, I think we all thought that guy is going to man a corner infield position or be the regular DH and you can count on him to hit 25 to 30 home runs. He didn’t most likely hit cleanup. Yeah. Right. He didn’t even get caught up in September this year. So the like so now you’re you’re playing further from behind, right? Plus Ellie Dela Cruz by now was supposed to be a superstar. That progress has stalled. It may continue. I’ll always bet on the talent. Uh he’s not yet 24. So okay, I I’ve got a guy in LA Cruz who by now is supposed to be scratching superstardom, that upper crust of guy that he’s just not yet been. I’ve got an offensive liability at third base. CES has left a void. We’re having to teach Sal Stewart a position on the fly. Oh, and by the way, the guy who was earmarked to bat second last year by the end of the season was batting where the pitcher used to hit. So, like all of these things have snowballed and created a series of issues that as nice as it was that they made the postseason. I’m not sure Nick Crawl via one move is capable of fixing. There’s a couple of different things in there and I want to start first with all right, there are some guys that are coming back here, but they didn’t necessarily have the best years that we thought they could. Do we have confidence in that changing? We’ll discuss that next. Let’s be honest, most of us can’t even name all of our financial accounts, let alone what they’re worth. Between 401ks, savings, and investments, it’s easy to lose track. And that can mean leaving money on the table. 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Make sure you are subscribed. That way you don’t miss anything that we’ve got coming for you. all the great Reds content all off season here on Locked on Reds and uh that’s everywhere you get your podcast cuz they’re free and available everywhere. All right, so with this it it does feel like there’s talent here, but we keep doing this thing where the production not necessarily on the box score represents things that we believe could happen in the future because there’s other peripherals, right? Like the the hard hit rates and the barrels and all this other stuff. And so for me, like I feel like I can trust Tyler Stevenson coming into this year for a couple of different reasons. Like I think he’s he’s aiming for a new contract. He still hasn’t gotten one yet with the Reds. If that has to be somewhere else, dude’s going to want to like really show out this season. And there were some underlying numbers that said, okay, he was still hitting the ball pretty hard and he was hitting the ball at a hard, you know, at a consistently hard rate. So with that, he was getting a little bit unlucky, at least on the power side of things. That’s kind of where we have to go though, it feels like with a lot of these guys because as most people remember, they got to be that whole distinctive playoff team where they make it to the playoffs and they don’t have all these things like guys who hit 25 home runs, guys who hit 280, guys who, you know, did all these things. So when you’re looking at the guys who are coming back next year, who who do you have the most confidence in? you sent me this question and I struggled with it. Um, I want to say Noel Ve Mart. I want to say Noel Marte. He provided the best moment of the year without question. Um, but is he is he going to come is he going to get to where he needs to be as a right fielder to make us feel good about his defense and offensively? what is his ceiling? Like there were there was a stretch this year where I felt like he gave them easily the best at bats on the team and then there was a stretch where I felt like he totally disappeared. But look man, this dude I give that guy a lot of credit because he could not have been more in the organization’s doghouse and then toward the end of the season he was indispensable. He’s still really young. He’s played in 190 big league games. So little bit more than a full season. Like can can I see a comparable He went from doghouse to indispensable. Can he make can he take the next step? I don’t know. I don’t know. I want to say yes. He’s also playing out of position, man. So, I’m going to say Sal Stewart because I think I like that. Even if the season isn’t otherworldly, still feels like if he plays on 145 games, regardless of where that is, he’s going to hit 25 to 30 bombs. Um, his defense may be wretched. Um, he he may go through the long lulls that come with a guy playing in his first big league season. I think we are all cautious about putting your your all your eggs in the basket of a guy who’s been in the big leagues for a month. But I I think like I’d feel good if you said, “Who’s going to lead the team in home runs next year?” I’ I’d feel okay betting on Sal Stewart. Or who’s the guy most likely to hit 30? I think I’d bet on Sal Stewart. I want that answer to be Ellie. I’m so confused as to what Ellie Dela Cruz is going to be. Like I don’t know if he should be a shortstop, a center fielder. I don’t know if if if we need to lower our expectations for what best case could be for Ellie. Like I I I don’t know how much I should attribute the issue that he had last year to his groin. I don’t know why if he had a groin issue, he played every single day. Like man, I’m I’m confused. Sal Stewart, I feel like I had a decent idea of what it looks like if he earns a job on the big league roster next year, which I assume he will. I feel like I I can easily kind of imagine what his numbers look like. There aren’t that many guys I could say that about. Um maybe Spencer Steer, but like I feel like in whatever role Spencer is in, you’re always going to feel like you could upgrade. I feel like Sal Stewart, you know, is going to hit 25 to 30 home runs next season. He might not hit for a ton of, you know, might not hit for a high average. Uh maybe he does, but if you’re looking for home runs right now, as currently constructed, he is he strikes me as the guy most likely to provide them. He’s so fun, too. Like so easy to root for. His personality seems to come through in the way that he plays. And I’m I’m not saying that he is it it just it kind of made me think a little bit of Joey Vado like seeing the personality come through whenever he was playing. There’s definitely no way that I’m putting that sort of like other, you know, expectations on him. But I was just like, you know, the way Joey played, the way that S played, it just kind of seemed like you saw their personality and and I like that when I see guys like that. But Ellie’s the same way. Like the personality comes through. But you’re right, like they were they asked Nick Crawl if there’s any thought of moving him off of shortstop and the first thing he said was no and the second thing he said was we know we’re going to play him less games next year though and so it was like okay so it sounds like you have confidence sort of in him playing shortstop but not every day. But then the question is okay but then the question is I’m sorry Jeff to interrupt you on your podcast. No, no, no. Number one, why why did he play every day this past season? Right? Are they afraid to tell him no? Was Terry Franona afraid to tell Ellie de la Cruz, dude, at least you’re going to have to DH occasionally. Like that. You can’t do the, “Hey, he has not been as good as we need because he’s hurt.” Okay, well, put him on the bench occasionally. Well, we can’t. Okay, well then he’s not going to be as good as you need. Well, he’s hurt. Okay, well then put him on the bench occasionally. Well, we can’t. Okay, well then he’s not. I mean, like it all summer long there was this like hamster wheel of holy hell, if he’s hurt, if he’s if he’s physically compromised, don’t play him every single day. So, I’m curious as to why they did. And I that doesn’t make any So, after the fact, well, we know we’re not going to play him every single day. Well, did it ever occur to you in August when he was really struggling that maybe he could benefit from a day off occasionally? So, there’s that. Number two, how is he going to get better as a shortstop? Yeah. Like what what two years in a row leading the league in errors? That’s what everybody’s worried about. So, I I have shifted because my take has always been your best athlete should play the most important position on the field, which I believe is shortstop. But as the summer went on and every time a ball was hit in his direction, I held my breath every single time. Yeah. It’s like, okay, this isn’t really working. So, I guess what I want to know is number one, is it unanimous in that front office and among the baseball people that he should play shortstop? It can’t be. Right. Jeeoff, if if we go to the ballpark, if we go to a game in spring training and we walk up to a hundred people and say, “Where should Ellie Dela Cruz play?” We’re not going to get a 100 people to say shortstop. We’re not going to get 100 people to say center field or 10 people, whatever it is. So, how unanimous? 60 people, right? How unanimous is that? Number two, with Edwin Aoyo in the system, at what point would you have to say to Ellie, we’re moving you because the errors aren’t going away? Is that next off season? Is it in the middle of the season this year? Also, is there harm in putting him in center field in Goodyear just to see what it looks like? Just to see if he’s comfortable, just to see if he likes it, right? Like, and I think that there’s a strategy to what the Reds do with their pitching staff. We’ve seen this a lot here recently where we’ve been begging for more ground balls. the Reds have not given up or the Reds have have honestly skewed the opposite direction and giving up more fly balls because there’s this feeling in Major League Baseball that if you give up a thousand fly balls, 900 of them will be outs. So, if that is the case, I think that moving Ellie to center field makes a lot of sense. I want to discuss more on that next. And I also want to ask a question about Nick Crawl uh in just a moment. There’s still time to get in on this great introductory offer over on FanDuel. I know that we’re in the middle of football season and all that stuff, but of course the World Series is starting on Friday night and we’ve got the odds for the series winner. The Dodgers are favored minus 220. No surprise there. You’ve got the odds on the Blue Jays winning at plus 184. It’s interesting because it kind of feels like I’ve been picking against against the Dodgers all postseason and uh I’m I’m just not going to do it. Like kind of feel like minus 220 is hard to put any kind of money on. But I think I’m picking the Dodgers to win this World Series. And if you’ve got a choice, you can go make yours over on FanDuel. A new users can place a $5 wager and if it wins, you get $300 in bonus bets. That’s a crazy good offer. Go download that FanDuel app today. Let’s be real, making excuses doesn’t solve anything. 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If you can’t watch us on YouTube, you can always listen to us on your favorite podcast app. We’re everywhere that you get your podcast and free and always available there, too. All right. So, finishing up the thought there because I I kind of cut us off in there in between, but Ellie de la Cruz to the outfield makes sense to me from that angle as well of the whole pitching thing because I was talking with our Guardians guys. I was talking with our Rays guys and that’s something that their organizations are doing and the Reds want to be more like those teams. So, that’s probably where they get this pitching notion that okay, fly balls even at Great American Ballpark are okay. So then does the most important position become center field rather than shortstop? Maybe it may. Um I I guess number one, how how much longer does this go before somebody says he can’t play shortstop anymore, right? When they decide we’re moving him, when does that occur? Is it going to be a Noel Mart situation where it’s in the middle of the season and you go, “All right, Ellie, you’ve never played the outfield here. Here’s here’s your outfield glove. Go out there and play in games that count.” Like, I think we know the answer to that, unfortunately. Right. So, I I I hope Ellie becomes the sort of shortstop that everybody thinks he can be. I’m skeptical. I watched him play nearly every He played in every game this year, right? Um, I I watched a full season of him just not be reliable. He could at times make the unbelievable play. He could at times make the routine play look like it’s impossible. So, um, I’m not totally opposed to him coming back and playing shortstop, but don’t you have to have a strategy in case this continues to not work? Right. And what is that strategy? I feel like I feel like everybody’s favorite comparison in this manner is Fernando Tatis. Fernando Tatis played shortstop for three years. That’s it. And then he moved to the outfield. Like he started moving to the outfield in that third season a little bit. There was like 24 games where he played in the outfield in uh 2021 and then after that he never played shortstop again. And so I kind of feel like that is something that they end up doing with Ellie if that is indeed the case. But it also sort of feels like they’re just going to continue to run him out there expecting him to one day just stop all of the inconsistency and and be that guy. Like it was easy for us to make the Barry Larkin argument last year. He can’t do that now. He’s he’s that’s not the argument now. No. And you know, if if we’re sitting here next October putting a bow on the season and Ellie Dela Cruz is among league leaders and errors at shortstop, then what? And I I hope we’re not like I I hope to God we’re not, but even prior to 2024, you had many who believed he was better suited to play elsewhere. There have been two seasons of evidence to suggest that those folks are at least not wrong. How many more seasons do we do this again? Especially when you have Edwin Aoyo. Like I I don’t know. And and then the next year, okay, if why did he play every game this season when he was compromised? Like I keep coming back to that. And so is are they afraid to tell him no? Are they afraid to tell him, “Ellie, you’re not playing today because you need a day off. Ellie, you’re gonna move positions.” “No, I’m not.” Okay. Like, right. Are they afraid? I don’t know the answer, but in two instances here, I seen them one, not do what they should do, which is give him a breather occasionally, and two, what appears to be exercise a complete inflexibility when it comes to moving positions. Is that because Ellie just doesn’t want to? Like, are they afraid to tell him? No. Are they afraid with master communicator Terry Francona? Like, I put it on him, man. Like, Terry Francona, Coopertown bound Terry Francona, who’s managed a lot of big egos. Was he really afraid to sit Ellie down and go, “You’re not playing tomorrow to give your your groin a rest?” Really? So that leads me into another question and and that leads me into nit crawl because I wonder a little bit and there’s some there’s some of this that’s connecting some dots. So I don’t I’m I’m not saying that I’ve I’ve I’ve heard anything to this effect but it just sort of starts to seem this way. It feels as though the way that the roster has been operated has not changed year overyear from David Bellary Francona. Is that a directive that Nick Crawl is in charge of that? And that when Nick Crawl is managing the guys on the roster currently here as opposed to even just adding guys here, do we trust that moving forward? Because it does feel like there are some cases where you’re just like, man, is Terry Franon really doing this? And sometimes I allow myself to think, well, what if he isn’t? Then Nick crawls that guy. Yeah. I I just again I’m making it about this one thing, right? It was comical all year long to hear them rationalize Ellie’s struggles with, well, he’s not 100%. Okay, then don’t play him every single day. And whether it’s Tito, whether it’s Nick, whether it’s the entire baseball operations, nobody raised their hand and said, “Hey guys, this guy’s really struggling at the plate. He’s not hitting for any power. Uh he’s unreliable in the field. He’s also not 100%. Crazy thought here. maybe give him a day off. Just one. We weren’t asking for a week. We weren’t asking for an IIL stent. We’re just like, hey, give him one day. So, I think I I’ve talked to a ton of people who are a lot closer to it to me that’ll say like Tito did a great job this year. And and I think his, you know, tunnel vision focus on just the next game paid off this year for this team. I believe those things. Yeah. But in this particular instance with the guy that most believe is their most important player, how did you allow him to fail this year while publicly acknowledging he’s not 100%. And not have any other solution besides run him out there. It It didn’t make any sense. And by the way, you could put some of that on Ellie. Skip, look, uh I’m a little tight. I I want to be there for the team, but I’m not doing us any favors if I’m out there and not hitting, not contributing. So, law of diminished returns. Let’s let’s give me a breather here. Like, how did that happen? And so, then you add to it not switching positions, which which may prove to be the right thing. I I’ll certainly allow for that. But it just you wonder like with Ellie in particular, every other player if they’re dealing with soreness, tightness, um something that doesn’t require an injured list stay, but something that might be impacting their ability to play at their best. They get days off, right? They manage their playing time. Maybe they do put them on the injured list so we’re not playing short-handed. With Ellie, it was just like, nah, never getting a day off. And it feels like with the shortstop situation, it’s nah, gonna play at shortstop no matter what. What they’re doing with him to me may have a terrific payoff down the road, but it feels weird. It felt detrimental for this season for sure. I mean, sure, the whole month of July and and and then the whole month of August, you put those two months together, he had one home run. And and leading into that point, he had mashed home runs to the point that we were thinking he could hit 30 on the year. And then it just all stopped. It all it all hit a crazy wall. And so for me, like it it’s just it it raises questions about because I think that Nick Crawl has done a fine job in most cases. It’s just there’s questions about can they get over the hump? Can they be legitimate contenders and not constantly be boy, you know, the Reds might sneak on in eventually? You’ve got to move from the sneak on in to the guys that are being chased. And I just don’t know that they have that ability this year. sneak on in cost him a chance to beat the Dodgers because sneak on in meant game 162 mattered which meant you had to use Nicolola which meant you couldn’t use him in game two like sneak on in had a ripple effect. You know, nobody wanted to admit that amid the euphoria of making the postseason but but and you know look the Dodgers have been otherworldly here at least in the National League playoffs. So they probably lose the series anyway. But I watched game 162 and you know Brady Singer Tito managed the game with urgency. He did the right thing. I got to win today’s game. I can’t rely on the Miami Marlins. But Brady Singer doesn’t pitch very deep into the game. And now Tito’s got to use that bullet in a game that matters instead of being able to first of all win the division comfortably and get a buy or at least go into that last couple of games using it to set up what you’re going to do in the postseason. So yeah, man. Like if ever there was an advertisement for not sneaking in, it’s that because you want to be able to set your your rotation. You want to be able to if if there are guys who are not 100% give them a few days off so they’re at their best going into the postseason. Yeah, man. Like they they went in with 83 wins. If the idea for any team every year is, well, we could just get to 83 84 wins. That will fail more than it succeeds. And I think I I think Nick Crawl deserves a measure of credit from man. He took this thing from where it was, you know, really I’ve said all along the rebuild really started after the 2020 season. Yes. When they didn’t make that team any better and let Rice Glacius walk and Argie Bradley and didn’t make the team any better. At that point, you knew the direction they were going in and you knew it was going to bottom out and it did in 2022 with the 100 losses. From then to now, the concrete evidence of the plan working was they made the postseason and they did because of things that Nick Crawl is responsible for. But I think the leap from where they have been two of the last three years in that 82 83 win range to where we want them to be where we are talking about them as legit title contenders. Yes, I I think that is a massive leap and not just in one year because remember the idea is for sustained success. And I think the idea is while you have Ellie Dela Cruz for the rest of the decade to to uh continue to get to the postseason every single year, but do so in a way that when the playoffs start, you’re like, you know what, the Reds can get to the World Series and win it. I think to go from where they are to that, I think that leap is bigger than the one they’ve made from where they were when they lost 100 games to what they were this year. Mo, I appreciate your time, man. I know I’ve taken a little bit more of it than I usually. Oh, good. It’s fun. Talking some Reds baseball here in October and, you know, offseason stuff. We’ll definitely have you back on during the offseason hopefully to celebrate some sort of move that makes sense. We know these Reds love to do certain or if they trade Hunter Green, I can come on and yell and scream about it for 90 minutes. Yeah, there’s going to be a couple of different scenarios that if the Reds do a thing, I think we will begin the show by going Yeah. Anyway, make sure you keep uh subscribe that way you don’t miss any of that that’s coming for you this offseason right here on Locked on Reds. We’ll see y all tomorrow. Trip over the last word. That’s always good.

The Cincinnati Reds’ quest for a clutch hitter takes center stage as Jeff Carr and Mo Egger dissect the team’s offensive struggles. They analyze potential free agent targets like Kyle Schwarber and Pete Alonso, while acknowledging the franchise’s historical reluctance to make big signings. The conversation shifts to player development, with Sal Stewart’s power potential and Elly De La Cruz’s defensive challenges at shortstop under scrutiny. Terry Francona’s and Nick Krall’s management decisions, particularly regarding De La Cruz’s playing time and position, face critical examination. Can the Reds make the leap from fringe playoff contenders to legitimate World Series threats? Tune in for expert insights on the Cincinnati Reds’ roster strategy and future prospects in the NL Central.

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0:00 Intro: Cincinnati Reds’ need for clutch hitting
5:30 Discussing potential big bats for Cincinnati Reds
11:31 Analyzing Cincinnati Reds’ offensive struggles and needs
16:20 Confidence in returning Cincinnati Reds players
23:04 Elly De La Cruz’s future position debate
28:22 Terry Francona’s management of Elly De La Cruz
33:44 Nick Krall’s role in roster management

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