What the Heck is Going on with the Cincinnati Reds?

by Ray Keating

The Keating Files – January 31, 2020

With Spring Training’s date for pitchers and catchers fast approaching, the season of baseball hope is upon us. But this seems like a different kind of hope for my Cincinnati Reds this year.

I have two early baseball memories. 

First, I recall watching the New York Mets celebrate their World Series win in 1969, with Tom Seaver spraying champagne on the television camera. But I was only six years old.

My second memory comes from a moment four years later during the National League Championship Series. Pete Rose slid into shortstop Bud Harrelson and second base trying to break up a double play. The result was a fight, and empty dugouts. This time, I was 10, and becoming far more interested in the game. It was time to pick a team. As a New Yorker, I was expected to side with Harrelson and the Mets. But Pete Rose grabbed my interest, and I quickly came to appreciate the way he played the game. Yes, Pete Rose made this kid, living in New York, a Cincinnati Reds fan.

Today, my oldest son, David, reminds me of a chat with a friend while in high school. Somehow, they got talking about what baseball teams their fathers followed, and after David noted that I was a Reds fan, and when I became one, his friend simply declared, “Your father is a frontrunner.” Each time my son mentions this, I chuckle, and acknowledge that, in a sense, it seemed pretty easy for a 10 or 11 year old to become a Reds fan at the time (and shortly thereafter with the Big Red Machine winning the 1975 and 1976 World Series). 

But I then note that I’ve stuck with my Reds ever since, including some very thin years, including the last six seasons that included four years of losing more than 93 games, and two years of losing 86 and 87 games.

In fact, over the 28 seasons since the Reds won the 1990 World Series, they’ve managed to make the postseason only four times (five if you count an extra game in 1999 to decide who would make the playoffs, by the way, against and losing to, you guessed it, the Mets). 

As a fan, over such a long stretch, losing almost becomes the norm, and worst of all, the expectation. And that only gets magnified when one roots for a so-called “small market” team, and you start buying into the argument that we’re trading our top players in order to stockpile prospects to win in the future. And one waits for the future to arrive – year after year.

All of this is why I now ask the question: What the heck is going on with the Cincinnati Reds ... with my Reds?

Cincinnati suddenly has become the most active team in the offseason in signing free agents. It started in early December, with the Reds signing Mike Moustakas, the three-time All-Star, to a four-year, $64 million contract. 

And then, a couple of weeks later, came a two-year, $15-million deal with lefthanded starter Wade Miley.

The new year brought the signing of the Reds first player from Japan. Outfielder Shogo Akiyama, a career .301 hitter, signed for three years at a total of $21 million.

On January 27, the Reds announced the signing of free agent outfielder Nick Castellanos to a four-year, $64 million contract.

And on January 30, the Reds added to their bullpen by signing Pedro Strop for one year at a base salary of $1.825 million.

Suddenly, the Reds have a solid and deep starting rotation of Luis Castillo, Sonny Gray, Trevor Bauer, Wade Miley and Anthony DeSclafani. And the lineup ranks as formidable with Joey Votto, 1B, Moustakas, 2B, Freddy Galvis, SS, Eugenio Suarez, 3B, Tucker Barnhart, C, and an outfield of Akiyama and Castellanos being joined by either Aristides Aquino or Nick Senzel.

So, this is something that I’m not used to with the Reds – at least not in recent times. I mean the Reds have made big moves, spent money, and look competitive this year. Could they be postseason bound? Well, let’s not get ahead of ourselves. As a Reds fan, I’ve been disappointed before. 

Whenever the date for pitchers and catchers fast approaches (Feb. 13th for the Reds, this year), hope rises for this baseball fan, as it does for most others. But after this unexpected and welcome offseason, this Reds fan’s springtime hopes are not fanciful, but instead actually have some basis in reality. Play ball!

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Ray Keating is a columnist, a novelist (his latest novel is The Traitor: A Pastor Stephen Grant Novel, which is the 12^thbook in the series), an economist, a nonfiction author (among his recent works is Free Trade Rocks! 10 Points on International Trade Everyone Should Know), a podcaster, and an entrepreneur. The views expressed here are his own.