I have to say this now because it might not be long before the premise no longer works: The Reds are by far the most exciting .500ish team in baseball. In fact, they’ve become as must-watch as any .500-ish team I can remember.
The thing about having a record close to .500 is this: There are different ways to get there, and vastly different feelings about taking up residence in that area. For the Phillies and Padres and Mets and Mariners and Twins, playing .500 baseball is eternally frustrating, watching talented rosters perform like they’re stuck in the mud. But for other teams? Ask Pirates fans whether they’re more happy or sad about being a game over .500. After years of blah performances, that feels like a big step in the right direction.
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Same thing for the club playing about a mile from Cincinnati’s Over-The-Rhine neighborhood, the one on the brink of getting Over The Hump and back into the postseason in a full-schedule season for the first time since 2013.
They’re 34-35, just one game out of first place. And, of course, it helps that they’re playing in the NL Central, where the preseason favorite Cardinals have been a last-place disaster, the second-place Brewers can’t figure out how to score enough to support their pitching, the first-place Pirates are better but still building and the Cubs are … not what they want to be yet.
But you know what?
Opportunity is opportunity, and baseball history is full of teams and players who seized opportunities and accomplished great things. Fourteen wild-card teams have made the World Series, and seven of those squads won it all. Seven teams have won the World Series with fewer than 90 wins (in full-schedule seasons).
These Reds absolutely have the players to seize the opportunity offered by the largely mediocre 2023 NL Central. I’m not saying Cincinnati is going to win the championship, of course, but the Reds could absolutely take advantage of the opportunity and win the division and cause all kinds of headaches in October.
“It’s a new lineup now. It’s a special lineup. These guys play the game the right way,” infielder Jonathan India said last week when the club was in St. Louis, taking two of three from the Cardinals. “Once we hit our stride with the group, and everyone is raking, it’s going to be a scary team, for sure.”
The catalyst for the club’s surge toward the .500 mark — and the top of the division — has been the arrival of Elly De La Cruz on the big league stage. The much-hyped prospect has been an instant success, helping the club win games with his power, his speed and his defense. He’s played nine games in the majors, and the Reds are 7-2 in those contests.
“I think everyone’s kind of known what he’s capable of, and then when you see him do the same thing at the big league level, it just solidifies that in your mind,” outfielder Stuart Fairchild told me. “Like, yeah, this guy has serious talent. He’s hitting a ball 115 off the bat for a homer in the second game he played, he throws 100 across the diamond and is one of the fastest players in the game. It’s pretty awesome seeing what he’s able to do every single day.”
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It’s not just De La Cruz, of course. Baseball is a team game, and De La Cruz is just the latest piece to arrive in the majors.
“The exciting thing is, we have other players that have stepped in and really been impactful from the first day they got here, like Matt McLean is an example,” manager David Bell said. “It’s exciting to get good, young players here, but at the same time you expect a lot of growing pains with that, just the ups and downs. And I still fully expect that, but the fact that they’ve stepped up and really been consistent like they have, it says a lot about them.”
The rookies and youngsters have written the script for the 2023 story.
McClain made his big league debut on May 15, and all he’s done is hit .328 with a 136 OPS+ and play solid defense at shortstop. Spencer Steer was the NL’s Rookie of the Month for April, and he owns a 119 OPS+, to go with nine homers, 17 doubles and five stolen bases. Will Benson hit a walk-off home run against the Dodgers.
Oh, and rookie lefty starter Andrew Abbott — who starts Friday against the Astros — didn’t allow a single run in his first two MLB starts, covering 11 2/3 innings.
“I always knew there were a lot of really good players in the organization, but not many of us were in the big leagues yet,” McClain told me. “And we had a lot of good players in the big leagues, so when you combined the two in spring training, it felt good. And a lot of us are here now, so that’s good.”
De La Cruz won’t be the last hyped prospect to have a chance to impact the big club this season. Reds fans eagerly await the arrival of Christian Encarnacion-Strand, who owns a .355 average, 17 homers and a 1.132 OPS in 45 games at Triple-A Louisville.
If the past few rookie call-ups have been any indication, he’ll be ready when he gets the nod.
“I say this every day about them as players,” Bell said, “but also (it says a lot about) our player development system and trying to have the right timing of getting them here.”
