The Cincinnati Reds are slipping the National League Central standings and also are barely holding on in the Wild Card race.
This year, Cincinnati chose to sell rather than invest in their team and improve for 2024, focusing on 2025 and beyond. However, one trade they made with the Milwaukee Brewers was quite confusing.
In his recent column in The Athletic, Jim Bowden criticized the Reds for trading away right-hander Frankie Montas for Joey Wiemer and Jakob Junis.
"Montas has been inconsistent, but he did make some strong starts for Cincinnati," Bowden wrote on Friday. "I understood trading him to open a rotation spot for a younger starter and save some money. But I didn't get the return. Wiemer plays hard but is not going to hit enough and really doesn't have a lot of room to climb the depth chart on the Reds' roster, and Junis is just a 12th pitcher on the staff. It was just weird."
With the Reds sitting a 52-56 and 5 1/2 games back in the Wild Card race, it makes sense that they would want to trade away an asset on an expiring contract. But Bowden obviously wasn't thrilled with the return.
Wiemer is a promising young player who rose through the ranks of the Brewers system, but Junis likely won't help them too much.
While Montas has struggled this season to the tune of a 5.01 ERA, he is still a proven veteran starter that can help the Brewers out. Given the lack of quality players on the market and the returns other selling teams were receiving, the Reds could have done better.
