UNBREAKABLE: Cincinnati Reds’ SHOCKING Dedication to Ke’Bryan Hayes | Elly De La Cruz Part of It

UNBREAKABLE: Cincinnati Reds’ SHOCKING Dedication to Ke’Bryan Hayes | Elly De La Cruz Part of It

As much as we might want to speculate about possibly trading him, the Cincinnati Reds love the fact that Kean Hayes is their third baseman. 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 have been a lifelong Cincinnati Reds fan and I’m glad that you’re alongside me here today. Been doing this podcast now for seven seasons. This is like my eighth offseason, something like that. It feels like forever. And uh we talk about the Reds every single day, even through the winter months. I know it’s freezing cold outside, but let’s talk some baseball here today. And we’re going to do it with Tim Daniel. He’s joining me here today. We are going to talk about a poll that Gordon Whitmer took of MLB executives and why they don’t see the Reds as one of the favorites in the NL Central to be a World Series team, much less the rest of the National League. And why the outcome was very predictable. Talk about that a little bit later on in the show. In just a few minutes, I want to dissect exactly what Gavin Luck’s role is. Okay, sure, he’s at the end of the bench. When do you actually play him? When do you actually use him? And what is his value to this team? That’ll be here in a few minutes. We will begin though with key Brian Hayes and why he’s not going anywhere this off season at least as according to the Cincinnati Reds. Here on the Lockdown Reds podcast that is brought to you by the Lockdown Podcast Network. We are your team every day and we are the number one sports podcast network in the country. And today’s episode is brought to you by Game Time. Download the Game Time app today. Create an account. Use the promo code lockdown MLB to save $20 off your first purchase. And joining me here today is the man in charge of the Red’s postcast, the best postcast in all of baseball. He is Tim Dango. Tim, what you got for me, man? So Jeff, we have some fan controversy coming our way today. I don’t know if you’ve seen that happens. Due to the late time of Redsfest this year, the Reds are canceling the caravan tour. I did see that. And and you know, I I understand it from the players perspective. That’s the thing that I think that needs to be considered here. But from a fan, like I just want more touch points with my team. Give me more touch points with my team throughout the offseason. However, they could have made that happen is fine. But they kind of did that Red’s thing where it was just like, well, the caravan happens in January. But since we’re doing other things in January, you can’t do the caravan. You do the caravan in December. I Yeah. So, I’ll admit I actually really like that Redsfest is in January, like a couple weeks before pitchers and catches report. I I really like that. Yeah. Um, but I didn’t think about the caravan when they got announced Redsfest. So, I kind of feel bad for like the people of like West Virginia and the people who are like, “You can’t make it to Cincinnati in the winter when it’s snowing and stuff.” So, Right. Yeah. I I I liked that the team came to them and and they kind of they basically staked their claim like if this were some sort of you know I don’t know World War II thing like they stayed you know or just a war like these are our boundaries and they went all the way down to Nashville and they’re just like aha Atlanta what do you have to say about that anyway it was it was fun to see things like that but yeah I I really hope they bring it back in in years to come and and and still think about the red thing we’ll we’ll talk about that a little bit later on in the off season because I do have some thoughts about the times with Redsfest. But especially considering our friend uh Steve will be making the trip in January, at least as far as I’ve heard. But speaking of Steve, he’s not going to be with us this week cuz he’s traveling other places. He left he left an island to go to the ocean in another part of the ocean and go to another island. Make sense of that what you will. So Tim is with me here today and Steve and I had this discussion. had a couple of different discussions this past week when it comes to Key Brian Hayes and I think that everybody would agree that you want a better bat at that position, but there is no better glove. You cannot find a better glove at third base. I would argue that the Reds have found their best glove that they’ve ever had in the era of defensive run save. Defensive run save all the way back to 2003. That’s when that metric began. I am including Brandon Phillips in this argument. There is an argument to be made that KBrian Hayes is a better glove than Brandon Phillips. So with that being said, from the Red’s perspective, they have their third baseman. There is no reason to move on from him. They have him locked down for the next couple of years. And because of that, and because of the fact that he really solidifies the left side of the field with Ellie de la Cruz now that he has his other leg back and healthy again, presumably, there’s no reason to believe that they’re going to trade him. Absolutely not. And to be honest, I think it’s the right thing. I think it makes so much sense to keep him in Cincinnati. Um I kind of think we figured he wasn’t getting traded when we found out he was on the bobblehead promotional schedule. The Reds don’t like to, you know, not have a player there for not trade him, but they might send him down CES. I forgot about that. Um, but with that in mind, um, obviously like you said, I think the Reds, I think baseball in general, I mean, there are teams who have guys that like they are there strictly for defense and I don’t necessarily think that’s a bad thing. Now, very small sample size. When he came back, when he came over in the trade, hit fairly well for a little while. Had about three or four weeks ago where he was really hot. His August was actually for key Brian Hayes standards really good. And I feel like if you get that August bat, then you probably feel like you’re you’re comfortable there. I think the other thing here that you have to go on the other side of this as far as the risk end is um if you’re going to go that route, which again I’m all for, hit him ninth, fine by me, then you do need a lot more from the rest of your lineup. You need Matt McLean get back to who we think Matt Mlan can be. Um you can’t play de la Cruz on one leg. You can’t have an outfield who is very stagnant where TJ Fredo is your best hitting outfielder. You can’t rely on an Austin Hayes to hope to God that he can get hot and thus and stay on the field. You can’t have a Gavin Lux, which we’re going to get to later. So, if you’re going to go this route, which again, I think it’s the right route because I do think it matters to have someone at the hot corner who can make sure a ball doesn’t get doesn’t dribble into the corn dribbling to the outfield corner. But in that with that in mind, that can’t be your only plan. If you’re going to have him out there, then you need to be able to have someone who can pick pick up his bat. That’s the biggest part of this plan. And it’s still it still points to the need for the Reds to go get at least one more bat, preferably two, but definitely somebody to shore up other positions cuz you’re right, like you cannot have a glove first, third baseman. If you also look over on the other side of the diamond and you have a glove first, first baseman, and you have a glove first, second baseman, and then in the outfield you have a glove for, you know, you can’t just go glove first because eventually you got to score one. you you can hold the other team to zero, but if you don’t score one, then the game never ends. Then we need to end the game at some point. So, I I think that there’s a couple of different angles to this. That’s the first one. The other one is hope. As much as we hate the fact that the Reds do this, the Reds do this. They do this every year. And we are imploring for them to stop and to actually have real plans and and not just hope. But until I see that happen, that’s what I know the Reds to be. And the Reds will hope that KBrian Hayes can give them like a 90 OPS plus. Not even be a league average hitter. It feels like if he were be if if KBrian Hayes is a league average hitter with a 100 OPS plus. We could be talking about a four or five win guy. His glove is that good. Because as a 86 OPS plus, what he was last year, which is 14% below league average, that’s not very good. he still was almost a two- win player because of how good his glove is. So, he is so valuable in that part of the game that as long as you have him on the field and he is he is booying Ellie because I think that Ellie will get better defensively, I believe that because he knows in his heart of hearts if he ain’t better defensively at shortstop this year, he better start working out that larger glove in and in in the outfield. But I think that he will get better. And part of that reason will be because he has K Brian Hayes, a platinum glove potential player playing alongside him. Yeah. I mean, if we go and quit his terms, Kebr Brian Hayes is a seeker, right? You got one job and you can you can you can manage the game on your one thing you can do best. And so I feel like there um is where we’re kind of have kind of have the best luck. Yeah, I’m pretty good at the nicknames, right? We got we got uh we got Winter Soldier Brandon for Tony Santon this year. So our listeners are using that. So, I appreciate it. Um, and then yeah, Seeker, let’s go with it. Um, but at the end of the day, yeah, I feel like with this what you being said, like, um, one, I’m with you. Ellie the Cruz should be the shortstop. He at least deserves another chance. When you had Lance on a couple weeks ago, I loved everything Lance said about it as far as like, look, he’s young. If he ends up going to Coopertown, he won’t be the first Hall of Famer to lead the league in errors. that’s a way down the road obviously, but um and I don’t want to turn into an Ellie de Cruz conversation by any means, but yeah, having K Brian Hayes there, having the ability he has to just cover third base and Ellie de la Cruz who you can say all these things about the errors and this and that. Um but still no one that shorts up has better range than him. So I feel like it could definitely be a strength. And I know our listeners are probably going to be really mad at us and are going to say stuff in the chat about center field, but let’s give it a shot. Let’s see what happens this year. And that’s what the Reds are going to do because that’s what the Reds always do. And that’s part of what we want to cover in the offseason. As much as we have ideas of how we think the Reds should operate, there’s also the other side that is reality and what the Reds will do in their operation. And I don’t think that we will totally agree with everything. And this is one of those things that Red’s country is going to be at odds with the Reds about. But the Reds are going to at least give this another year. They’re going to give KBrian Hayes as their everyday third baseman a whole year and they’re going to give Ellie another year at shortstop. That’s why Krien Hayes isn’t going anywhere. Somebody else who isn’t going anywhere because we thought he might get non-tender but he didn’t and he’s going to be here next year. That’s Gavin Lux. Steve and I pondered whether he should be at the end of the bench. But you still got to have a role on the team and the role for Gavin Lux is very, very foggy right now. NFL Sundays move fast. One big play and suddenly everything feels different. That’s what makes live betting with FanDuel so exciting. You’re not just watching the game, you’re reacting to it in real time. With FanDuel, you can place bets as the action unfolds. 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If you’re not an everydayer, hit that subscribe button, become one, and make sure you’re with us all throughout the off season. We’re talking Reds every single day here. Hey, and thank you for making Locked On the number one sports podcast network in the country. All right, Tim, as we get into this off seasonason, there was a move that I I kind of found it intriguing. Steve thought it was elementary, but I thought it was intriguing that the Reds kept Gavin Lux because there are certain inefficiencies within his game that seem to match up with the rest of the roster. And I don’t necessarily know the role that he fills, but I begrudge that Steve is probably right. He’s probably the end of the bench guy, but the end of the bench guy still got to get in the ball game every so often. I mean, you cannot have a guy just sitting down there eating Sunflower seeds, stealing signs from the other team. And the reason that I say that is because that’s what I did in high school. I really didn’t play that much. I just watched. But when it comes to Gavin Lux, he’s going to be getting paid about four million, probably $5 million, at least through, you know, what people are estimating his arbitration might look like. So with that, you got to bring some value. And he’s got a lot of weird things where it’s like, yes, he’s a good on base guy. Yes, he can hit righties, but it’s not going to be for power. And defensively, we’re not sure where it fits. So, not to make another pop culture reference here, but this is the office base scene where they go, “What exactly is it you do here?” Yes. Yes. We are We are Oh, what are their names? We’re the Bobs. We’re the Bobs sitting across the table from Gavin Lux. What is it that you say you do? Yes. Um, and that’s sort of where I’m at here because if your game plan once again is he’s going to be your left fielder against right-handed pitching, then we should all probably go to church every Sunday and pray that this is going to go for the best. Are you going to the only thing that helps it? Yeah. Are you going to platoon him with Matt Mlan? Are we sure that’s a good idea? Because the ceiling of Matt Mlan still looks like a guy that we can all count on. I’m not. Statistically, Gavin Lux would play more than Matt Mlan because you face more righties than you face lefties. Correct. Um, is he gonna be in the in the mix at first base with Sal Stewart? Does that make any sense whatsoever for your team? No. By your face, you have the same reaction I do. No. So, I don’t know what he provides to the team because it’s not like he’s like, and like you you’ve joked about it, and I think it’s one of the funnier baseball jokes out there. It’s like if there is a slapstick hitting derby, he would be a great player in that. Team all great piece of hitting. Oh yeah. Yes. But what does he bring you in a situation that like Miguel Andrew doesn’t? Now I don’t know if the Reds are going to bring back Miguel Andrew. I hope they do. Um but I’d rather have Andrew Hart. Yeah, absolutely. For sure. And so that’s where I’m kind of like if that’s the decision you’re making um then where are you going with this route? And for him, I just don’t know what he brings to the team at this point. I don’t dislike him. I think he’s a fine baseball player. I appreciate that he can work a count. I appreciate that he’s a good contact guy, but in a team that really lacks power, like what necessarily is he going to bring to you? I wonder if the Reds have backed themselves into a corner with Chris Vala in that Gavin Lux is who Chris Valica wants every hitter to be. A guy who works Yeah. a guy who forces other pitchers to throw a lot. But when it comes down to swinging the bat, it’s a single or it’s a gap double or you hope it’s a windy day with the wind just blowing crazy out because whenever he hit fly balls last year, they weren’t good. Like according to Fan Graphs, he hit under 200 when he hit the ball in the air. He hit like 770 when he hit line drives, but again, he didn’t do that a lot. When he did, they were good, but it’s not as if that was the majority of the time. And so you’re talking about a guy that hits a lot of ground balls that you’re just hoping the babip remains high because last year his batting average on balls in play. His babip we talk about a lot every day or no um was 351. Now that’s fine if you’re Ellie because Ellie is speed. Gavin Lux isn’t necessarily speed. So 351 would led me to believe he was getting lucky with the numbers that he was posting. So, you’ve got to factor that into everything else because I know that there are people that are saying, “Man, this guy brings an at bat to the plate that not a lot of guys on this team do.” And I understand that. But when it comes down to what the damage is, the damage really isn’t that substantial whenever he swings the bat. And so, I I want more of that on this roster. And it felt like he was an easy like, “All right, thank you for your service in 2025. We’re going to see you out the door.” Because here’s the other part of it. Let’s say whatever role he is cast in, he does an okay job this year. He’s a free agent next year. So, it’s not as if you’ve got this guy for a long time and you can develop him. Like, this is it. This is his last year of arbitration and he’s going to hit to open market next year. And I shudder to think that if anybody’s trying to make an argument that he’s a a contract extension candidate, I don’t see how he can be. Um, not right now. Yeah. And I don’t know that he can devel can he develop it. I don’t know that he can. Not in one year, right? Yeah. And I just, you know, at this point where the Reds are at, I don’t know how much he fits the timeline of where they’re trying to get. If they’re trying to build off of this playoff appearance, get better, maybe win a playoff game next year or, you know, call me crazy, a series. Um, yeah, I know. Um, haven’t had enough coffee yet. Yeah, it just I don’t know if he’s a guy who’s gonna help you kind of get that next level. And I get it. Someone can, you know, give me the benefit of the doubt with the 2024 run he made with the Dodgers where he was really good in the second half of the year bled through the through their World Series win. But I don’t think he’s doing that here because um we don’t have a Mookie Bets or a Freddy Freeman around him. And I feel like there are other people that are probably saying, “But the personality factor of it all, fine. Now we’re talking about Jonathan India 2.0.” Correct. Yeah. We are with that leader. Yeah. Yeah. Like I I I I get like personalities and things like that. Like honestly, I still think that Matt Mlan should be that guy and we’ll see him get better this year. I believe I think he’s going to break out. But on top of that, he’s got a great personality to be the leader type of dude. So he’s your guy. So you don’t really need leadership on this team. I think leadership grows within the team that you build. You don’t have to go find it. and and and so I I I don’t I just I I wonder a little bit like if you need a guy that’s going to come off the bench and move the conveyor belt of the lineup along, okay, Gavin Lux is your guy. I I don’t know what other role he fills other than that. That kind of feels like the thing that he can do because defensively, I just don’t love him. He’s He’s not as good as Matt Mlan at second base. He’s far worse than anybody else in left field. He’s he’s definitely worse than K Brian because everybody’s worse than K Brian Hayes at third base. And those are the positions he plays. And in first base, I know he was taking grounders there last year. Again, Sal Stewart rather have there. Spencer Stewart rather have there. And I don’t care about platoon with either one of those guys right now because Spencer Steer doesn’t really have a split. And then when it comes to Sal Stewart, I don’t know what I don’t know about him. I I know that he’s got power and I know Gavin Lux doesn’t. So, I I just don’t want to see him taking playing time away from anybody else on this team. I actually, while you were talking, went ahead and pulled up his uh his Savant page and um it’s a lot of blue. There’s a lot of blue. Uh to put in context, his expected batting average was 243. Um his expected slugging was 327. Uh his barrel rate is in the 10th percentile at 3.6 six and league average was 10% and he’s at three and his hard hit rate was in the 23rd percentile at 36.9. And don’t even get started on the bat speed, right? And I think that we’re kind of to the point where it’s like, you know, this this kind of feels like the old uh the old southern trick of, you know, God love their heart, you know, it kind of feels like six of those guys in your lineup. You Yeah, it it feels like anything else we say after this, it just feels like we’re just absolutely dumping on Gavin Lux. And I and I hate to do that on one of our own guys, but like trying to figure out his role on this team for 2026 is is is very very difficult. And it’s kind of like, you know, no, I was going to make a food reference. Anyway, I’ll try to rehab myself while Steve’s away and not make too many food references, but I know this. I just don’t see it’s like, all right, let’s make a Star Wars reference. It’s like, you know, Yoda saying, you know, you know, always always uh emotion the future is. And right now the emotions around Gavin Lux are very confused. So whatever he ends up being in 2026, I think will be a surprise to you and me. But there was no surprise whenever Gordon Whitener wrote an article about MLB executives and their feelings on the next World Series team coming out of the NL Central and why the Reds weren’t near the top. The next time you’re going down to a live event, maybe it’s a lastm minute idea or maybe you’re looking well ahead into the future like say to World Cup game or something next year, Game Time makes the ticket buying process simple. You can even set up price trackers like on those long timeout events like the World Cup and Game Time will notify you whenever the prices drop. Game time does so many great things when it comes to trying to get your next ticket to your next event. Whether it’s showing your view from your seat, giving you your all-in pricing upfront before you ever add the ticket to the cart. So many different things that Game Time tries to make the ticket buying process simple for you. And of course, they’ve got this amazing offer for new users. You just download the app, use the promo code lockdown MLB, and you’ll get $20 off your first order. So, make that ticket buying process simple and add $20 worth of savings right on top of that with a promo code lockdown MLB because all you got to do is swipe, tap, ticket, go download Game Time today. I encourage you to keep the conversation going with Tim and myself after the show is over. You can follow us on X. You can follow Tim, Timaniel518, and you can follow me at JeffCar with three Fs. You can also follow Steve at soffenbaker with two s and we’re on all the other socials as well. And check out locked on reds on X as well. Uh talking about Reds baseball all the time. And I saw an article Tim from Gordon Whitmire and and I kind of want to preface this by saying so okay Gordon Whitmer the the article was this. He talked with a bunch of executives at the GM meetings and pulled them on the most likely next World Series appearance from the NL Central, talking about Chicago, St. Louis, Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, and Milwaukee. And the results were not surprising. 21 execs pulled, 11 of them picked Chicago. And most of the reasons were, you know, well, they got the most money, they spend the most money, they’re the biggest market, all of the things that nobody would be surprised about. And I know that there are probably some people that are saying, well, it’s Gordon Whitmire. Of course, the Cubs are the focus. But I I would like to say that I actually don’t mind Gordon Whitmer. I appreciate his his uh point of view. Trying to think of the word. Uh not antagonistic. That’s not the right word, but it’s, you know, the other point of view on Red’s baseball and things like that. I appreciate where he’s coming from because I always thought if I had ever covered another team in another market, there would always be a little bit of Reds that trickled in with my coverage. And that’s why I’m glad that I’m here. Yeah. But when it comes to this poll, the results are very unsurprising because when you talk with other executives, they do the thing that everybody else does when they look at the NL Central and they say it’s the Cubs because they’re the biggest market and that’s distressing them. Yeah. So, if your listeners just saw me, my daughter came to say bye to me before she went to the library. So, that’s why I blew a kiss. So, if anyone’s wondering why that was all weird looking, don’t worry about it. It wasn’t my direction. So, I was then I figured that was probably the case. Yeah. Um, but I don’t necessarily feel like it’s a shock that the Cubs are definitely the favorite there in that circumstance. Like you said, the big market, they’ve been the team who’s kind of been the most aggressive in the central in years past where, you know, a situation like the Brewers where they haven’t been aggressive, they just constantly won. Um, which is really irritating by the way, but you know, the Cubs have been a team that have gone out and got guys, Kyle Tucker, Shota. Um, now they Cody Bellinger. Now, they’ve lost a lot of those guys, too, obviously. Um, but they have made the effort consistently to go out there and try to improve their roster year in and year out, where, let’s be frank, the Reds have not. Um, now this last trade deadline, I I like the Red’s moves. Now, do I ever want to see Zack Latella pitch in a playoff series again for us? No. But I did appreciate, you know, that circumstance where the Reds kind of went out and made moves to kind of get the team better for a playoff push. So, in this circumstance, I kind of come back because I have a tendency to do that. I apologize. Um, I do feel like we’re in a situation where it’s much easier to pick the cuffs in that case. Now, the one person who says the Reds, you get it, right? Um, because if all these players that we’re banking on reached their ceiling, it’s a pretty darn good baseball team. Um, it’s a team that consistently if like the Reds make an effort, if God knows what’s going to happen for the 27 season with the CBA, um, if those guys reach their talent levels, we have a lot of excitement for this team for the future. Um, but that is if if if if and this one person, this one executive seems to be banking that the if can happen because if Elliot the Cruz is himself, then he’s probably an MVP. If Matt Mlan reaches to a place where he’s going to go, then he has a tendency to be a multi-time all-star. If Hunter Green can actually stay on the stay on the mound, has a chance to be a SI Young winner. If Tyler Stevenson keeps developing, has a tendency to be a really good power hitter in the middle of your lineup. But like I said, if if if. So if this executive feels like the if is very possible, then don’t be unanimous. Don’t be anonymous. Come on Locked on Reds and tell us why you feel this way because we need we need this positivity in Cincinnatic Gordon Whitmer talks about the fact that he talked to all NL Central executives including Nick Crawl, but the rules were you can’t vote for your own team. So, it’s not as if the one vote came from Nick Crawl because he wasn’t allowed to in the section. We would have known by the quote anyway because it would have been way too long of saying nothing. Yeah. Well, see, you know, and and stuff and things and junk. Um, yeah, something like that would have sounded similar. But I also know that like Gordon made a point of saying that I don’t think they were all in the same room together. This wasn’t like a, hey, there’s one guy that decided he wanted to be dissenting and not pick the Cubs or the Brewers because the Pirates and the Cardinals were not voted on at all. It was 11 for the Cubs. Um, eight Well, I’m trying to do my math on the fly here. It’s not great. 11 for the Cubs, nine for the Brewers, one for the Reds. uh in the 21 execs that were pulled. I just I I think it points to and you mentioned the CBA. I think it points to why the idea of a salary cap is the focus for this next CBA war be not not necessarily because you’re trying to bail out teams like the Reds or teams like the Pirates or teams that aren’t necessarily ran that well. It’s because you’re trying to create more parody because right now the answers are simple when it comes to who is the favorite to make it to the World Series out of the National League. It’s the Dodgers, it’s the Mets, it’s the Phillies, and it’s the Cubs. And you could probably make an argument for the Braves so long as they don’t go through another injury Armageddon like they went through last year. And you could probably make an argument for the Brewers because they’re just a well-run organization. But we saw what happened to a well-run organization that dominated the regular season year in and year out and they faced the Dodgers in the playoffs. The Dodgers are just better because they spend more money. And it’s the same in the in the American League. You can name those contenders, too. And it’s all based on market size and money spent. If you limit that, the money spent part of that, then you can create parody, which is the job of the league. It is not the job of other teams to spend less money because so- and so is spending less money. It is their job to win. And so if the league limits that, then that makes sense. And so I guess I’m I’m advocating for it a little bit. I think it’s weird that I’m advocating for something that helps out owners that don’t want to spend. But if that’s what they’re going to do and that’s what they’ve done all my life, it’s not as if Bob Castellini and Phil Castellini and the ownership group that is in charge of the Reds is going to wake up tomorrow and put $300 million into the roster. Correct. So, so let’s bring other things into play that at least increase the parody a little bit because I would have a hard time believing like say if the poll were different and he said that 11 of the 21 execs pled the Reds I would kind of raise an eyebrow at that and be like I don’t know like I would love to agree with you but based on the resources of the Cubs I have a hard time agreeing with. Yeah. And that’s where I’m at too because I just feel like with the resources like you mentioned, I feel like that’s what kind of makes this go back and forth. Um, and you know, when people are kind of reluctant on the Brewers makes a ton of sense because history says, “Yeah, they’re very good. They’re about to trade Freddy Peralta and like can they really replace four games?” Yeah. Right. Like probably. Yeah. It’s unbelievably magic. Um, will stop walking people and it’ll become ace. Exactly. Uh Christian Yelich will find his MVP form and hit like 370 and he’s got some sort of serum that makes him ageless or I don’t know whatever Ry Well, not whatever Ryan Bron had. Uh anyway, that part. Yeah. Um but they seem to just kind of press the right button. So the Reds just kind of have not had the ability to press the right buttons. The Reds are uh the team that they’re they’re the mom at the soccer game that has all the band-aids, right? Like oh my kid scraped got scraped in the grass. I got the band-aid. I’ll clean the wound. Um, that’s the Reds attempt at everything is just put a band-aid over and see what happens. So, maybe one of these days that’s not the case. Maybe the CBA will be the thing that makes it not the case, but as you have mentioned, I also am not holding my breath that that’s going to be how it turns out. Something I want to talk about later this week, you mentioned Tyler Stevenson. I I definitely want to dive into him because there were some peripheral numbers that really excited me for his performance coming into this year and I feel like he we constantly say that about him, but I think this was going to be the one because this is the most important year for him. We’ll talk about that later on this week. But also following along with the CBA thing, like I want to discuss this and and I’m going to try to get some some different guests in here this week. I don’t want to keep you locked up all week, but uh definitely gonna have you on again. You know how desperate I am to put a to be in front of a microphone right now. talking Reds. Heck yeah, man. Um, but I I also want to talk about the fact that I think that this this CBA could really fix something that we as Reds fans know in our hearts, and that is that the the guys who run this team are not running it based on merit, but running it based on how they, you know, balance a spreadsheet. I think if you get a salary cap, that changes. I’d like to discuss that a little bit more later on this week. So, make sure you check us out. Make sure you subscribe. Becoming every day of the Lockdown Reds podcast because we’ll be with you all throughout the off season talking Reds baseball. When there’s snow on the ground, which there isn’t right now, I know it’s forecast this week. Uh, but when there’s snow on the ground, when there’s ice on the sidewalks, we’ll be talking baseball right here on Locked On Reds. Now, make sure you go check out Lockdown MLB. He’s got you covered for views around the league and all of his historical uh references when it comes to baseball and and Hollywood and all kinds of things. He weaves it in very very well when he talks baseball. That’s Lockdown MLB. It’s just like Lockdown Reds. We’re part of the locked on podcast network. Your team every day and the number one sports podcast network in the country. But you know that as for Tim, Steve, and myself, we will be locked on Reds every single day. I think Steve’s on a boat somewhere in the middle of Caribbean because he can’t just he can’t stay in the Pacific. Sometimes he’s got to see the Atlantic. Yeah, that’s that’s as Steve as Steve gets right there. I forgot to ask you if he ever goes to the Indian Ocean. I’m sure he’s been there. If he doesn’t

The Cincinnati Reds aren’t going to trade Ke’Bryan Hayes. Can elite glove work alone power a postseason run, or does the lineup desperately need more firepower? Jeff and Tim Daniel debate the Reds’ offseason priorities, dissecting Hayes’ value, the impact on Elly De La Cruz, and the ripple effects of sacrificing bats for glove supremacy.

Gavin Lux’s puzzling role, Matt McLain’s comeback potential, and the ongoing search for a true middle-of-the-order bat headline a critical roster evaluation. Plus, a revealing MLB executive poll casts doubt on Cincinnati’s path to the next World Series, spotlighting the Cubs’ spending advantage and exposing cracks in the NL Central hierarchy. Is a new CBA and salary cap the only hope for a true Reds resurgence?

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0:00 Reds Third Base Outlook
10:45 Gavin Lux Role Uncertain
23:05 NL Central World Series Odds

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