Why Cincinnati Reds should bench Elly De La Cruz when Matt McLain returns | Press Box Wag
This week, Elly De La Cruz hit the ball during batting practice.
After this weekend’s series against the Pittsburgh Pirates, the Cincinnati Reds will be in a very big pickle.
And by big, we mean he is 6 feet 5 inches tall, weighs 200 pounds, and strikes out 34% of the time.
How should Elly De La Cruz be used when Matt McLain comes off the sick list on Tuesday in Cleveland?
Reds Twins rosterThe Cincinnati Reds are in a rut. Elly De La Cruz had to sit out a very important game against the Minnesota Twins.
Twins RedsThe Reds lose to the Twins because their plans for pitching don’t work out. For now, the Reds are not in the playoffs.
A move by a Reds player brings the return of Matt McLain to the Cincinnati Reds closer. Hunter Renfroe (DFA) and Harrison Bader (IL) are out.
Manager David Bell won’t say yet, but if those games are as important next week as they look to be now, even a casual fan can see that De La Cruz isn’t their best chance to win, no matter how fast he runs, how hard he throws, or how many Tom Cruise movie trailers he makes.
Bell showed how well he knows it by putting De La Cruz on the bench for the third time in eight games on Wednesday, when Hunter Greene was pitching in a game against the Minnesota Twins that had to be won.
McLain took batting practice on the field all week, and it looks like he’s ready for a quick rehab assignment in the minor leagues over the weekend. With five games left on the schedule, Decision Day is next week, and there will be a winner.
Matt McLain, a rookie infielder, has been taking batting practice all week and seems ready for a short rehab run this weekend. If everything goes well, he might be able to play in the last five regular-season games against Cleveland and St. Louis.
What’s next for De La Cruz, who has been struggling since the All-Star break and whose slump is getting worse this month while his catching looks even worse?
Bell said, “Our main goal is to get Matt back as soon as possible, and we’ll find a spot on the field for everyone else.” “I still haven’t made it there.”
Before McLain went on the disabled list with an oblique strain, he played every day at second base because Jonathan India was hurt. De La Cruz took over every day at short because India was hurt. During this time, Noelvi Marte, a shortstop who plays third base, made his start in the middle of August.
Now, India is back at second base and Joey Votto is back at first base, filling the infield with players. Christian Encarnacion-Strand, who made his debut in July, is also part of this group.
McLain is the most reliable and best shortstop on the team, and Marte, who started at short Wednesday, has done well there as De La Cruz’s “backup” when McLain is out.
Marte is also one of the Reds’ best players this month, and he needs to play. Through Tuesday, he was 18-for-44 (.409) and had an OPS of.981. Encarnacion-Strand is another: he has hit 15-for-47 (.319), hit three home runs, and has an OPS of.900.
Even though De La Cruz’s first five weeks in the big leagues in June and July were great and his future might be bright, he’s hit just.179 (.590 OPS) since the All-Star break and has struck out more often.
He’s had a sore right hand lately, but that doesn’t explain how hard things have been for him. Bell said on Wednesday that he is “physically fine.”
His performance has gotten worse as the season has gone on. His manager, who has always been there for him, took him out of the top four of the group for the first time last week at the start of a six-game road trip and put him in the bottom third. By Saturday, he was in ninth place.
“I do see signs of fatigue, which is very normal,” Bell said on Wednesday.
How can I tell? In the last few weeks, De La Cruz has made it a habit to mess up easy balls in the field.
“So far in the big leagues, he’s had a great time,” Bell said. “And you never know for sure, but I get the feeling that he could use a day or two here and there to recharge and be at full strength for the last run here.”
Elly De La Cruz, who was behind Christian Encarnacion-Strand Tuesday on a ground ball, said he is having trouble but is trying hard to get back on track. “Right now, things aren’t going our way. But we’re still working on a lot of things, and I hope these changes will happen pretty quickly,” he said.
Over the weekend, De La Cruz told Jorge Merlos, his interpreter, “Right now, things are not going our way. But we are still working on a lot of things, and we hope that the changes will happen quickly and here soon.
De La Cruz said that his body is fine.
“We’re still ready,” he told her.
Ready or not, it’s time for De La Cruz to “recharge” for a longer time and either be used as a tool off the bench or maybe even spend 10 days on the IL until the playoffs.
That’s something that needs to be decided by Friday.
If not, it seems clear that the team won’t have room for both McLain and Tuesday when he comes back.
Home Schooled
The Reds had to go 5-1 in their last homestand to escape having a losing record at Great American Ball Park for the whole season.
After sharing the first two games of the series against the Twins, that’s a 4-0 finish.
Historically, that means they have a 1 in 100 chance of making the playoffs.
Elias says that only one team has ever made it to the playoffs with a loss record at home for a full season. That team was the Atlanta Braves in 2001, who went 88-74 overall but 40-41 at home.
The only other teams to do this in a season of any length were the Kansas City Royals in 1981, when a strike cut the season short, and the Miami Marlins in 2020, when a pandemic cut the season short. Both teams finished with losing records overall.
“We still have time to not have a losing record,” said Bell. “If that doesn’t happen, we’ll be one of those few teams.”
Quote of the Week
“We’ve got our eyes on something more than just making the postseason. Might as well win the whole f—ing thing.”
–Reds reliever Lucas Sims, channeling his inner Jake Taylor.
bWAR Hero
How’s this for an unsung hero in a bullpen full of them:
Since he was traded to the Reds from the Oakland A’s the day before the trade deadline, left-hander Sam Moll has allowed exactly two runs in 20 innings through Tuesday (0.90 ERA), both in the same game, on the same Josh Bell swing in early August.
The one starter the Reds got right before the trade deadline, Sam Moll, has been great for them. He hadn’t given up a run in 16 straight innings before Wednesday’s game.
We don’t need to talk about how that eighth-inning hit affected things like wins and losses and tiebreakers in the playoffs. Since then, they have played 16 games without scoring.
In fact, his 1.1 WAR (baseball-reference.com) in seven weeks with the Reds is better than the combined WAR of the top four relief players in the majors.
And the Reds swooped in to get Moll after the rival Chicago Cubs thought they had a deal with the A’s for the lefty both teams needed, with the Reds sending Double-A right-hander Joe Boyle (who made his start Sunday) to Oakland.
It looks like Nick Krall is pretty good at trading. The trouble is that he doesn’t make enough trades.
Enough Hunters for Reds October?
Before Hunter Renfroe was sent down on Monday, the Reds and Hunter Greene made up half of the active Hunters in the big leagues.
Hunter Harvey, who plays for the Washington Nationals, and Hunter Brown, who plays for the Houston Astros, are the other two.
Hunter Strickland could have been the third if he hadn’t been kicked out of the group in May.
The Big Number: .574
That was the Reds’ winning percentage in games started by second baseman Jonathan India after the Reds beat the Twins Monday to improve to 62-46 when he starts.
That would win three of MLB’s six divisions and five of the six wild-card playoff berths if the field was determined today.
In other words, the Reds are the fifth best team in baseball with India. And the Chicago White Sox without him.
The Kid Rocks
Right-hander Connor Philliips earned an unexpected fourth start this month with a sterling, seven-inning performance in Monday’s victory over the Twins.
Don’t be surprised if the kid who spent half the season in Double-A earns himself a playoff start with another good one Saturday.
Assuming the Reds don’t run out of pixie dust before then.
Overheard
Press box wag during Tuesday’s loss to the Twins: “Who gets eliminated from playoff contention first: the Bengals or the Reds?”
Did You Know?
This year, the Reds are 14-5 in games that rookie left-hander Andrew Abbott has started. This is the most wins for a starting pitcher out of the 17 used so far.
But everyone is aware of that. Dude also has the best ERA among starters at 3.68. The DYK is not that.
This is it:
The starter who has won the second most games for his team?
Weaver, Luke. With 12.
That’s right, the guy with the 6.87 ERA who was let go by his second team in a month last week.
Does anyone still think it was smart to not add a starting on the day of the trade deadline?