Cincinnati Reds’ Young Core CRUMBLES Under Pressure | Can They Bounce Back?

Cincinnati Reds’ Young Core CRUMBLES Under Pressure | Can They Bounce Back?

The Cincinnati Reds simply need to be better. This is going to be the team of almost and this ain’t horseshoes. We’re going to tell you what their chances are on today’s Locked on Reds. [Music] You are Locked on Red, 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, his name is Steve, and we are lifelong Cincinnati Reds fans. We’ve been podcasting about this team for a combined 14 seasons, and we’re glad that you’re alongside us here today. Locked on Reds is part of the Locked On Network. We are your team, your Reds, every single day. And on today’s podcast, Sal Stewart is here. And Sal Stewart needs to play, but where? and and what is the plan for that? We’ll discuss that later on in today’s show. Coming up here in just a few minutes, we’re seeing a turnaround in Matt Mlan season. The kind of awakening, if you will, that we were hoping for for much of the year. Let’s see if he can finish strong. We’ll discuss that in just a few moments. But we will begin with another one of those losses. Steve, it’s just there’s at this point the the the jar is super full with uh those losses and I think it’s pointing to an overarching theme that we can finally admit. That’s all coming up on this episode that is brought to you by Monarch Money. Take control of your finances with Monarch Money. Use code locked on MLB at monarchmoney.com for 50% off your first year. And 4-3, another extra innings loss. The Reds are now 3-1 in extra innings games this year. It’s funny because if you look at their record breakdown on our favorite website, baseballreerence.com, they’ve actually gotten better in one-run games, but they traded that for stinking in extra innings games. And I think it just points to the fact that, you know, this team is fine, Steve. It’s it’s fine, but it’s not good. Yeah. Good, excellent, exceptional. None of those words apply. Um, you look at this team and, you know, I I kind of touched on it there in the in the open, Jeff. They’re they’re the team of almost, the 2025 Cincinnati Reds, uh, history in review. That that book should just be titled almost in big bold letters because that’s really the way you describe this team. They were almost good enough to compete. They were almost good enough to make us believe all year long. They were almost good enough to stumble their way into a playoff spot. And yet here we are with them not being able to seal the deal once again. Um it feels like uh you know the the the long Cincinnati Red’s nightmare is just going to keep continuing and continuing and they just they’re just not quite breaking out of it. I I was so hopeful, Jeff, and I know I know you live in the the land of optimism and and the the land of the 0.5% and and you look at it. I mean the the Mets lost also. They’re now a game behind the Giants. Um, the Reds are a game behind the Giants after the San Diego game. So, technically, in theory, I suppose that 0.5% still remains. But, for for that to to materialize, you’re absolutely right with this with this topic. They’ve got to be better. And I just don’t see at this point that there’s anything they can do to be better. Like, if they were going to get better, they would have got better. And I think that people are like, “Oh, wow. Great job, guys. Really deep analysis. But there’s one play in particular that really highlights this point to me because I think you and I both really enjoy watching TJ Fredel play baseball. We really like him and and I think he’s a great dude. He’s very easy to root for and he’s a fine ball player. But there was a play that if he were a good ball player, he would have made. And I know that it’s tough to try to put blame. And I know that especially on Locked on Red’s Discord, which by the way, if you haven’t joined that, I invite you to join that. And I’m active on that all week here as the Reds are on the West Coast. Uh but folks were trying to blame Tito. They’re like, “Why did they pull Nicoladoo so early?” or “Why did they bring in this guy or what why did he do this or why this is Tito’s fault?” At some point, the players got to make the plays and TJ Friedel had a chance where it was two outs and was it the sixth inning or the fifth inning? I forget which inning it was, but it it was a deep fly ball from Jackson Merrill into the gap that TJ Fredel ranged over. He was there. He had to make the the perfect route. He had to run the perfect speed. He had to take the perfect slide to put himself in a position to get the ball and he got his glove on the ball. He just couldn’t squeeze it in time and it falls to the turf. And you know what? At that point, I can’t blame anybody but TJ Fredel. And it’s it feels unfair to blame a guy like that because he is a fine ball player. But I look at the Padres’s and I say if this if this was flipped, if TJ Fredel had hit that fly ball and Jackson Merrill or Fernando Tatis were chasing after that baseball, one of those guys gets that. And it’s just because they are good and TJ Fredel is fine. He’s just not on their level. He’s not a he’s not a gold glover out there. I I mean that’s really what you’re talking about. Um he’s he’s a serviceable major leager. He’s he he’s a major league outfielder. Yes, he’s not elite. those guys are elite and and and those are the difference makers and the Reds, you know, the Reds have it within their their capabilities, their abilities to to do things to to better the defensive alignment and and we’re going to get through a lot of that today, but you know, it’s it’s you know, we make fun of Tim for being Wish Jeff Carr and and this is like the the Reds are are the Wish baseball team. They they just they keep ordering they keep ordering online hoping they find that deal and then when they when the comes it’s just not and I think I think that’s why people are so frustrated with them and I think that’s where we’re so frustrated with them is that we know they’re not bad and there’s so many people that are like oh this team is horrible. They are not horrible but the biggest problem is they’re not good. They are a 500 ball club. I I said like 84 wins. I think that’s still where they end up, but that’s not going to get you to the playoffs. And in this day and age when so many teams make the playoffs, that just seems ridiculous that you did not build the roster that way. And we’ll get into, you know, roster building quite a bit this off season. But at the same time, the Reds were counting on guys to take a step. And I know that there were some people that brought up the point of, you know, it feels like cuz, you know, later on in the game, you had a lefty at the plate and they brought Brent Sudter in to face him because Brent Sudter is the only lefty in this bullpen right now. And they’re like, boy, another bad roster construction. That’s on Sam Maul. Sam Maul didn’t pitch well this season. Sam Maul showed up to camp out of shape. Sam Maul wasn’t ready for the season. Had to hit the IIL before he even got here. There were so many different things. and and and so that’s a case in point where we talked about yesterday this team is relying too much on Ellie de la Cruz for him to continue this slump. There’s other guys on this team as well that have not stepped up. Christian Strand was supposed to be the answer at cleanup hitter. That was the gamble that the Reds took that they didn’t have to go get somebody because they said our team is on the field and your team that is on the field did not take the step forward that they all collectively gambled they would. Yeah, I I mean you you want to know how much the Reds leaned into that? You know, CES was in Louisville for his bobby bobblehead night. You know, the Reds had planned a bobblehead night for CES for the month of September. Uh that’s how much they thought he was going to be the cleanup hitter on this team and it just nowhere near came to being. And and Sam Maul, another great example of this. Um you know, you had hoped that Jake Freilley would have been a big part of a platoon on this team and the Reds gave up on that. Um, you know, we had the conversation about Will Benson yesterday. Um, who knows what’s going on there, but these were all guys that the Reds were counting on to to play significant roles. Now, not all of them everyday starters, but platoon guys, guys that had had a role to fill and and the Reds had a certain expectation of how they were going to deliver upon that. And and when you get into a list now of two, three, four, five guys that didn’t come to fruition, um your gamble didn’t pay off. You lost. You know, the house wins. And that’s what happened this season for the Reds. Yeah. 100%. This is what we’re talking about when they need to be better. And that’s why this off seasonason’s theme is answer questions. The front office has questions that they need to answer. And quite frankly, Steve, all season long, we’ve had a big question surrounding the Red’s second baseman, and it feels like he himself is beginning to answer those doubts. There’s nothing like catching a baseball game live. The energy, the crowd, the chance to see your team in person, but actually getting tickets, that’s the tough part. Cues, login screens, surprise fees, it takes all the fun out of it. 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You get Jeff and I five days a week on the Locked on Reds podcast. That’s also going to get you the Locked on Red’s postcast. The Reds postcast hosted by Tim Daniel live after each and every game, including those West Coast starts. You call them late night reds, I call them decently timed Reds out here in Hawaii. I love it. Uh you get all of that. Just click the subscribe button today. All right, Jeff Matt Mlan, that’s my guy. I have been a huge Matt Mlan fan. Um, I I’ve rooted for him. I feel like what we’re seeing now is him finally being fully recovered from his injury. The swing looks better. It looks like he’s driving through the ball. It looks like he’s got full extension in his swings. They’ve talked about this on the broadcast. Uh Barry Larkin talked about this the other day that Matt Mlan just looks better and he looks healthy and he looks comfortable. And you know, this isn’t something that Matt Mlan could have done differently. he could have done better. This is just the nature of shoulders and it was going it was always going to be this way and it just took this much time for him to get to where he needed to be. And I think now he can finish the season with kind of an exclamation point. We kind of see who he’s going to be, who he’s turning back into, and you really can rely on that for next year. Uh as long as there’s not another injury. Yeah. And even Cowboy was talking about the fact that you can tell that he’s just looking more comfortable at the plate because he’s taking more walks. There’s a lot of times early on in the season he just did not have that plate discipline that we saw in his first year with us back in 2023. And the reason that I brought this up is that the last 20 games for Matt Mlan, he’s looked a lot more like himself. He’s still not all the way back, but we’re talking about a 348 on base and we’re talking about a 491 sluggy. That’s pretty darn close to what we saw in 2023. And he has eight walks during that time with 15 hits. So, he’s getting on base at least once a game and in some cases multiple times a game. And I don’t necessarily know if he can earn back the point where he can hit number two in the lineup next year. I think Noelie Marte has taken that from him for next season. But I certainly do believe that what we have seen for the last couple of weeks and what we will continue to see for the end of the season will prove to us that the Reds can put their trust in him as their everyday second base next year. Yeah. Or or another position. Um you know there there is a defensive lineup on this team. You know we keep asking the question we’re we’re going to get into I’m going to leave it. I’m going to save it for the next segment. But I have an idea and it involves moving Matt Mlan’s position as well. But you’re absolutely right as far as what he brings offensively, what he brings defensively. It’s all kind of coming together. You look at his glove looked good last night. His glove looks good. His his bat looks good. You know, it it’s just disappointing the the way that it’s played out. You know, the thing with Matt Mlan is that um he is that ball he’s that ball player this city loves to embrace, right? He he goes out there, he’s he’s a blueco collar, nose to the grindstoneone. He’s not super flashy. He just goes out there and gets it done. And you know, the city was ready to just shower him with love this year coming back from the injury. And and the fact that it was a slow start on top of everybody else’s slow starts, um I think really it just we felt it a little bit more because everybody wanted to love Matt Mlan. Well, and and we all sort of did the thing that we do. I did it. We we put too much on his shoulders. We said, “Well, he’s back. All right, we’re good. We’re going to make the playoffs now.” It was a broken shoulder at that. Right. And we we didn’t give him that time. And it kind of makes me wonder a little bit like this isn’t something that I feel strongly about, but what do you think about the whole like, all right, the Reds were just going to trust him come hell or high water, no matter what his health was. Do you think that that’s a point against that crawl or is that just no, you got to do it because he’s your guy? You know, it’s hard. take it on the chin a little bit. Yeah. You know, I wouldn’t have wanted to have seen Matt Mlan spend the whole first half of the season in Triple A. You know, he said he was healthy. I mean, as far as being able to go on the field and play, he was able to go out there and play. I mean, you know, it was just more about getting it back and that was going to just have to happen over time. So, no, I I don’t fault because you don’t know how long that was going to take. Was it going to take a week? Was it going to take six months? How do you plan for it? Um, you know, you had to allocate resources other directions. I’m okay with it. This is why I was so anti send him down when you sir wanted to send him down to the minor leagues. There was nobody better. No, you know, they they did. There was nobody better. They weren’t going to go sign a second baseman. That’s not what it was wasn’t going to happen. So, I mean, they could have played Gavin Lux, but Gavin Lux is is a downgrade defensively and a downgrade with the bat whenever Matt Mlan’s right. Right. Um, it doesn’t it wouldn’t have solved it. I don’t know. That was one of those things I was thinking about last night cuz you watch him. He did have a little bit of a rough night, but Ud Darvish’s curveball was on because of course it was. Ud Darish has been bad this season, but he was good against the Reds. That’s just what happens. Um, and and and Matt Mlan was one of those guys that really struggled with it, but I was thinking a lot about him watching him play, especially with the plays he was making. man, those diving plays that he had. And there were a couple of like hard charging plays where he had to scoop and throw almost in the same motion and he did it. I’m not saying it was uh Brandon Phillipsesque, but made me think a little bit about Brandon Phillips and how good he fielded that position. But I I I think that overall I’m I’m feeling very comfortable with him moving forward. And I I think that he will just continue to roll into the guy that we expected him to be at the beginning of the season. And I think that 2026 is going to be much much better than what we saw this year. The other part about Matt Mlan that I kind of wanted to touch on here is something that I’ve seen a lot of people talk about what the Reds need to add this season and there and they all say the same thing. The Reds need to add a leader. I think Matt Mlan is that leader, but because of his struggles and because of his his year that he had, he was muted. And it was kind of like one of them things like, how can I be that leader? How can I be the clubhouse leader when I’m out there striking out four times in, you know, every other game or when I’m out there hitting a buck 50 and and all this other stuff and I’m making errors left and right and I’m just trying to get myself right, how do I get the rest of the team right when I’m not right myself? And so I think that as he gets more comfortable with his game, he is going to fill back into that leader role that we saw him begin to take in 2023. Yeah, I I I think you’re right. He probably Well, this is twofold. He probably dialed it back and I think he didn’t lose any of the respect of his teammates because of his struggles. Everybody recognized what was going on, but I think you’re right. He dialed it back based on what was going on. He had he had to focus on himself and get himself right. And and I completely agree with you. And by the way, the Padres’s game last night, why is it what is it about the San Diego Padres’s? What is it about these two teams playing each other that nothing can be straightforward that it always goes like it went last? It it just it does. They’ve lost 13 of 15 in San Diego. It’s crazy. It’s it’s crazy. And I think the two they won are the two that I was there for if I remember correctly. You got to go back to San Diego. You got to go back to San Diego. That’s the answer. Twist. I’m twisting your arm right now. You need to go back to San Diego. You know, I I’m with you like and and the play because I’m sure there’s people talking about, well, you guys talk about his defense and he made that he made that bad play there at the end that that cost the Reds the game. It’s like honestly, if you look at that, even if he made the play, the runner’s still on third base. Tati still hits the ball to the outfield and they still score that run. So, that’s not on him. I don’t put I don’t put the game on him in that spot. I just think that that was one of those weird things where a pitcher’s making a bad throw and he’s not a first baseman trying to play first base on a bunt. I think overall he had a great game with the glove and I think we’ll continue to see the bat come around. I’ve I’ve been very happy with what Matt Mlan has done here these last few weeks and it’s made me a lot more hopeful for what he can provide the Reds next year. And and just to be clear, we talked about this a little bit uh during the live show yesterday uh when we were in the the comment section uh taking questions and comments. You know, Matt Mlan is a shoe in for this team next year. There there there’s no scenario where they’re not relying on him. So, you know, we’re talking about him finishing strong and and doing things here in this last month of the regular season, but that doesn’t impact what they do with him next year. The Reds are going to pencil Matt Mlan in somewhere in this lineup somewhere on the field defensively. 100%. 100%. And they’ve got another guy on the roster that they just called up that I think is shoeing to at least make the roster. I don’t know like every day or whatnot, but man, he looks like he’s got a lot of talent. South Stewart is here. But what is the plan? Like where does this guy actually fit into the field? We’ll discuss that next. Did you know that most people can’t name all their financial accounts or even what they’re worth? Whether it’s 401ks, properties, or investments. And when you don’t have that full picture, you can end up leaving money on the table. That’s why there’s Monarch Money. It’s an all-in-one personal finance tool that brings your entire financial life together in one clean, easy to use interface on your laptop or on your phone. Monarch is built for people with busy lives. If you’ve put off organizing your finances, Monarch is for you. Monarch does the heavy lifting for you. You can link all your accounts in minutes, see clear data visuals, get smart categorization for your spending, and finally feel in control of your money without ever touching a spreadsheet. Don’t let financial opportunity slip through the cracks. Use code lockdown mlb at monarchmoney.com in your browser for half off your first year. That’s 50% off your first year at monarchmoney.com with code locked on MLB. If you can’t watch us on YouTube, you can always listen to us on your favorite podcast app. We’re on every single one of them. Check us out there today. And when you’re done with today’s episode, make sure you check out Locked on MLB. Sully’s got you covered every single day with views around the league and you have locked on MLB game night. They watch every game every night so that you don’t have to. All right, Steve. South Stewart is here and he didn’t start in game one against San Diego. He did start in the final game against the Mets in lie of KBrian Hayes, which I think we both were a little bit curious about. um he’s played third, he’s played first, he can play second, but it kind of feels like all those positions are taken right now. And then you see Gavin Lux get the start at DH. Gavin Lux, by the way, for anybody that’s like, “Wait a minute, Jeff. Wait a minute. You want the rookie over over Gavin Lux?” Gavin Lux entering last night was 4 for 48 in his career in San Diego. Absolutely gets destroyed by the Padres’s. There’s something about that stadium that just it’s it’s in his head and then he went 0 for four last night as well. So, I kind of wonder why Sal didn’t DH there. I don’t know. But there’s so many different questions about this because it feels like he’s here and everybody’s just like, “All right, where where are you going to set? We don’t we don’t really have any seats for you, dude.” I think as long as they’re still clinging to as you your your 0.5% chance of the playoffs, it’s going to limit Sal Stewart a little bit. Um, I do want the Reds to get a good look at him over the next few weeks because it really is going to impact what they do with him next year. Now, now look, this is a South Stewart segment. This is not about the player that I’m going to mention right now, per se, but here’s what I think. If South Stewart can play his way onto this roster between the end of this season and the offseason and spring training, if he’s going to be a piece of this puzzle, I think that he ends up at first base. I think he’s going to be the first baseman for this team next year if he makes the team, if he’s going to be on the roster. Now, everybody’s like, “What about Spencer Steer? What do you do?” All right, some things are going to have to happen. Um, Spencer Steer is my new second baseman. I teased this a little while ago, Jeff. I’m moving Matt Mlan. Um, so now everybody’s going, “You’re putting Matt Mlan back in center field.” No, I am not. Uh, I have finally come around on the way that I’m thinking. Uh, the Cincinnati Reds need to move Ellie De La Cruz to the outfield. Um, I’m done with his league leading errors at shortstop. I want to see him in the outfield. I want to see him in center field. I want to see Noel Marte in a corner. I want to see TJ Fredo in a corner. And I want it infield of Key Brian Hayes, Matt Mlan, Spencer Steer, Sal Stewart. That is the best defensive lineup the Reds can put on the field. That would be that’d be interesting because I’m imagining Ellie Dela Cruz chase down that fly ball that TJ Oh, he catches that ball. He catches that ball. He catches that ball. Catches that ball. So, that’s intriguing. The other part of this and and I kind of mentioned this when we were talking about the idea and and just kind of broaching it. Look guys, we’re going to talk about Ellie to the outfield quite a bit this off seasonason and really discuss what it would look like and how it’s going to affect the roster. But the question for me isn’t necessarily can Ellie play the outfield. It’s how do they go about that transition? because I am criticizing the Reds and I I think I’m going to put put this one to the fire a little bit this off season of having so much talent and just not having a plan for it. No matter who that is, it seems like they call them up to the major leagues and they’re like, “Great, let’s let’s see what we can have you do here.” uh and and they don’t necessarily have a given position for guys and feels like Ellie has been the shortstop for a few years now and they haven’t I mean they played him at third base for a moment his rookie season but that’s the only other place he’s played. Matt Mlan on the other hand they messed around with putting him in the outfield in spring training and they messed around with it in the Arizona Fall League. I wonder if they try that first. And I know that that was something that you try talked about last offseason, like could they put him in center field? He played there at UCLA. He he has the chops for it and we know that. Um and the real wild card here though is Sal Stewart. Sal Stewart has to be good enough for you to reasonably rely on him to need to be in the starting lineup. You take that piece out of the equation. They’re not moving Ellie de la Cruz. They’re not moving Matt Mlan. They’re not moving anybody. uh they they’ll go out and sign a a prove it guy to play an outfield position which you know you talked about yesterday. South Stewart’s got to be the one and to be the one he’s got to get some opportunity. So you’re right. I would have rather seen him in the game as the DH yesterday rather than than see Lux out there. I I want to see him get his opportunities to to prove that he can be counted on to be a piece of the puzzle and then he’s going to have to go play some some type of fall league winter ball stuff. I want to see more out of South Stewart. And then he’s going to have to come into Goodyear and and we talk about spring doesn’t really matter much for most guys. It’s going to matter for South Stewart. He’s going to have to come into spring training next year and and grab a hold of a position and grab a hold of a spot and not let it go. There’s a way to that he can really separate himself at first base from Spencer Steer because I like the defense that Spencer Steer has played at first base except for one thing, the ability to stretch when it comes to getting a getting a throw. If South Stewart can improve on that, if Sal Stewart can do that with reasonable consistency, then we’ve got our first baseman next year because I think that Spencer Steer has done an admirable job fielding that position, but that’s the one area that he’s really deficient in. And I think there are a lot of errors and and we were talking about this last night during the game. There are a lot of errors on Ellie de la Cruz that you could probably argue if you had Joey Vado at first base, they aren’t errors. They’re outs. And Joy Vado is is unfair comparing anybody at first base, but defensively he was not necessarily a Hall of Famer. He was he was fine. I want to be clear before the before the comment section goes bonkers, too. You’re not trying to let Ellie off the hook because I had this we’ve had this conversation. I mean, just put it all out there. Jeff’s not trying to let Ellie off the hook there. Ellie’s throws have been bad. Ellie has done he’s been laxidasical. There’s been things. But to your point, yeah, a better defensive first baseman probably takes away 10 of Ellie’s errors that he’s that he’s amassed this season. Yeah, he they gobble up those throws because they are meant like the first baseman prepare differently than other fielders where it is about the stretch. It is about okay, the ball’s coming over here. I can stretch and and and get that ball and trying to close the distance where if Key Brian Hayes is making an amazing throw from the foul line, the first baseman has to stretch to make that throw take less time to get to his glove so that he can get the out quicker. There’s parts of each play that aren’t necessarily all on one guy. And as much as errors keep getting thrust upon Ellie de la Cruz, if there were guys that stretched better at first base, then there would have been less errors. I’m not saying they would have been completely gone because certainly he airmemes some stuff and things like that, but that is the area where I think that South Stewart can really separate himself. And obviously at the plate, I think that Spencer Steer’s year hasn’t necessarily normalized to the point that we expected it to at the plate. Like South Stewart has shown that he can hit the ball really hard. It’s just he’s got to kind of rein everything else in. He’s hitting really high hard popups that aren’t quite making it out of the yard because he’s hitting it with such a high launch angle. And I think that those things are going to write the ship as he just gets more comfortable with Major League Baseball. But the area of opportunity is that stretch at first base. Yeah, you’re you’re absolutely right. And I for S to do that also, it’s got to be on the field. So yeah, I think what we keep coming back around to is I don’t steer if you have to. I I I agree. And I don’t think the 0.5% chance is enough of a chance to not find out about South Stewart. Let’s not let’s play South Stewart. Don’t keep him on the bench trying to say you’re chasing this playoff spot is what I’m saying. Get him in the game and and see what’s going to happen. See how he’s gonna, you know, take that opportunity. No. And I think that plays into other things as well, like give Connor Phillips more high leverage opportunities. Give Zack Maxwell more high leverage opportunities. Let’s get Graham Ashcraft back here and see, you know, as long as he’s healthy and ready to go, let’s give him some more high leverage opportunities. We need to find out about some of these guys who the Reds can and can’t trust next year because you’re right, like if if South Stewart works and if they think that they’ve got something here, their offseason game plan is going to be much easier because then they can shuffle some things. And as much as that won’t be the answers that we’re looking for, it will be better than them running this same team back out there next year. Think about this. if you could go into the beginning of October the season ends and I mean I know I know I feel like I’m throwing a big bucket of water on everybody’s fire for the playoffs but you know it is what it is.5% but if they could go into the end of the season season ends if they could go in knowing already you know we think South Stewart’s going to play first base next year that’s what we think you can have the tough conversations with a few of these guys right at the end of the season you can go to Matt Mlan and be like we’re moving you to center field or You can go to Ellie and say, you know, the shorts stop situation. You’re just not getting better. These errors, we’re not going to accept it any longer. We think our best utilization of your talent is to put you in the outfield. And you tell Ellie that. And you tell him because you know he’s going to go play winter ball somewhere. This is just what he does. Tell him go play center field. Go play the outfield. Get comfortable. Come into Goodyear ready to go. You can have those conversations. Um, if you don’t play Sal Stewart, you don’t have any answers before you get to Goodyear. I have a thought about that, but I’ll save that for another episode. But I do I do appreciate where this is going because this could at least alleviate pressure on Nick Crawl to be too uh wheeler dealer gambly this off season because we know he doesn’t like to do that. Um, South Stewart could make things a lot easier on him, give him, you know, you know, pocket pairs or something like that as he sits down at the table. That is the hot stove. And that is where we will end today’s podcast. Thanks so much everybody for checking out today’s Locked on Reds. If you’re not uh subscribed, please become an everydayer and hit that subscribe button. We appreciate our everydayers out there who make locked on Reds part of their everyday routine. Now, make sure you go check out Locked on MLB. Locked on MLB game night watches every game, every night so that you don’t have to. and Sully’s got you covered with the best takes around the league and his uh trademark style humor in which he will deliver everything in and historical perspective. Um I’m pretty sure he was there for the first night game at Crosley Field. He can tell you all about it. And until next time, you know that Steve and I will be locked on Reds every single day.

The Cincinnati Reds face a critical juncture in their season as they struggle to maintain playoff contention. Jeff and Steve analyze the team’s recent performance, highlighting their inability to close out crucial games. Matt McLain’s improved plate discipline and defensive play spark discussions about his future role, potentially in center field or at second base.
Sal Stewart’s call-up ignites debates about lineup changes and defensive realignment. The hosts propose moving Elly De La Cruz to center field and Matt McLain to shortstop to bolster the team’s defense. They emphasize the importance of evaluating young talent like Stewart, Connor Phillips, and Zach Maxwell in high-stakes situations to inform future roster decisions.
Get the full scoop on the Cincinnati Reds’ potential defensive shakeup and its impact on their playoff hopes – listen now!

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