As is always the case during the six-plus weeks between the day pitchers and catchers report and the actual Opening Day of the regular season, injuries have begun to dictate the precise direction the roster of the Cincinnati Reds will go.<\/p>\n
Hunter Greene, resident ace, will be out until about the All Star break after having bone chips removed from his right elbow. New lefty reliever Caleb Ferguson will be out for a few weeks as he works his way back from an oblique issue. Considering there\u2019s no one-for-one way to replace an ace or the team\u2019s go-to lefty reliever, the Reds will likely end up with something of a ripple effect down roster, and that plays into these latest projections.<\/p>\n
Beyond that, there\u2019s the looming administrative decisions. Some players on the fringe of the roster still have options remaining, while others do not – building an Opening Day roster capable of winning games early is important, no doubt, but so is making sure you\u2019ve got the most possible depth for seven months of baseball is, too. So, we\u2019re going to see some decisions that walk that tightrope made this week, too.<\/p>\n
With Opening Day now less than a week away and Cactus League play wrapping this weekend, here\u2019s our last, final stab at what the team\u2019s Opening Day roster will look like.<\/p>\n
Notes: This is a known, that the Reds will have six guys for five spots but not a \u2018six-man rotation.\u2019 How that actually shakes out, though, remains to be seen.<\/p>\n
Burns, Lowder, and Williamson may each have a would-be start skipped, one or two may piggyback with another, and off-days baked into the early season schedule will define this while Greene is out, too. What we do know is that manager Terry Francona has said plainly that this won\u2019t be the mix for the long term, but this is an early way to limit innings on that trio while also making sure there\u2019s a big-league capable starter for each and every game, too.<\/p>\n
What we don\u2019t know, though, is exactly how much we can expect from them as relief options, and that impacts how we build out the team\u2019s bullpen below significantly.<\/p>\n
Notes: Moll is locked in a battle for a spot here with Zach Maxwell with the rest listed here already having made the roster (and the likes of Luis Mey and Kyle Nicolas having been told they won\u2019t make the club for Opening Day). Moll, though, is out of options, and his presence as a lefty with Ferguson out is a double-whammy for why he\u2019ll make the club.<\/p>\n
There\u2019s no way the Reds will risk losing him altogether on waivers before the season even begins given the other injuries on the roster right now. That\u2019s a bummer for Big Sugar, but he\u2019ll marinate with AAA Louisville and firmly be in the mix at the big league level at some point down the road.<\/p>\n
Notes: Not a ton of movement here aside from Benson having been told he\u2019d made the club, and that bumps JJ Bleday – who has options – off the Opening Day roster and back to AAA Louisville. That may be a tough pill to swallow for him, but he struggled last year, spent time in AAA last year, and still needs to show he\u2019s made fundamental changes, and that\u2019s a scenario very similar to where Benson (and Noelvi Marte) were this time last year when both were sent to AAA to begin the year and work their way back.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s a bummer for Rece Hinds, too, as he\u2019s shown out well all spring after a solid 2025 with AAA Louisville, but he, too has options.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s that maximized flexibility that makes me think the Reds will do what it takes to keep Nate Lowe within the franchise, and since he\u2019s a non-roster guy that means adding him to the 40-man and carrying him on Opening Day. They can\u2019t simply option him to AAA, as he\u2019s got an opt-out clause with his veteran status. While he\u2019s not a perfect roster fit, he\u2019s a proven guy who\u2019s got a Silver Slugger and Gold Glove under his belt, and he even hit well last year down the stretch with Boston last season. You don\u2019t just let that walk when you\u2019ve got it around as a bench option, especially when your likely 1B to start the season (Sal Stewart) is a rookie who\u2019s barely played there and there\u2019s a dearth of legitimate left-handed hitting on the roster (or in the franchise altogether).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As is always the case during the six-plus weeks between the day pitchers and catchers report and the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":637201,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2400],"tags":[5,535,50,29088,4259,4,536],"class_list":{"0":"post-637200","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cincinnati-reds","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-cincinnati","10":"tag-cincinnati-reds","11":"tag-cincinnati-reds-roster","12":"tag-cincinnatireds","13":"tag-mlb","14":"tag-reds"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116273070983322197","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/637200","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=637200"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/637200\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/637201"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=637200"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=637200"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=637200"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}