MLB Offseason Preview - Cincinnati Reds

Cincinnati Reds

National League	Central Division
68-94	35.5 GB of Division Lead
Manager Bryan Price	GM Dick Williams
AAA affiliate Louisville Bats	AA affiliate Pensacola Blue Wahoos

2016 Rankings

Hitting	AVG – 14th	OPS – 23rd	Runs – 18th	HR – 23rd	SB – 2nd
Starting Pitching	ERA – 25th	K/9 – 20th	H/9 – 18th
Relief Pitching	ERA – 29th	K/9 – 25th	H/9 – 23rd

Top Hitters

POS.	Name	AVG	OBP	Slug	HR	RBIs	WAR	SB
1B	Joey Votto	.326	.434	.550	29	97	4.0
LF	Adam Duvall	.241	.297	.498	33	103	3.2
CF	Billy Hamilton	.260	.321	.343	3	17	2.8	58

Top Pitchers

POS.	Name	Record	ERA	IP/Saves	K	BB	ERA+	WAR
SP	Dan Straily	14-8	3.76	191.1	162	73	113	4.3
SP	Anthony Desclafani	9-5	3.28	123.1	105	30	130	3.0
RP	Raisel Iglesias	3-2	2.53	78.1	83	26	169	2.7

Trades that Occurred During Season

• Traded OF Jay Bruce to the New York Mets for INF Dilson Herrera and P Max Wotell

Impending Free Agents

• P Alfredo Simon
• P Ross Ohlendorf
• P Blake Wood

Top Prospects

POS.	Name	Level
SP	Robert Stephenson	MLB
SP	Cody Reed	MLB
OF	Jesse Winkler	AAA
SP	Amir Garrett	AAA
2B	Jose Peraza	MLB
C	Tyler Stephenson	A

Team MVP

• There hasn't been a Reds player other than Joey Votto that would be considered for Team MVP for years and he was there best player once again this season.  Votto started the season slowly, only have a slash line of .252/.386/.446 in the first half but  turned that up to a line of .408/.490/.668 after the All-Star Break.  During the second half of the season, there was no better hitter in baseball than Votto and he was able to prove once again that he is one of the best hitters in the majors.  Without him, the Reds would have been much worse this season than they were and he has invested himself into the franchise's rebuild and has said that he wants to see it through.  I hope for him that the Reds are able to continue the path that they are on and can get back to competitiveness before the end of Votto's career.

Success/Failure

• Failure - Although no one really expected the Reds to have success on the diamond, I still consider this season a failure for them for things in addition to the on-field product.  For one, the return that the Yankees got for closer Aroldis Chapman was much better than what Cincinnati received when they traded him to New York.  This isn't entirely the Reds' fault due to the timing of Chapman's domestic violence arrest and them trading him, but it is just another event in a line of poor roster moves for the team.  Similarly, they also didn't get much back in their trade of Jay Bruce to the Mets, considering what power hitters have gone for in the past. On the field, they had terrible pitching, both in their rotation and in the bullpen.  This could be an area that is able to be fixed in the next couple of years as the Reds have three pitchers in Baseball America's Top 100 Prospects list.  I also think that they need to do something else at manager. Bryan Price has not been good in his three seasons with the Reds, having just a .428 win percentage and has made some bad tactical mistakes.  Take, for instance, his poor decision not to challenge the play that ended the game against the Cardinals late in the season.  St. Louis walked off the game when Yadier Molina hit what should have been called a ground-rule double but was missed by the umpires, allowing Matt Carpenter to score from first base.  Had the play been ruled a ground-rule double, Carpenter would have had to stop at third base, and the game wouldn't have ended.  Price had the chance to issue a challenge but failed to do so in the allotted time limit and the Reds lost the game.  He should have challenged the play right away even if he was unsure if it would have been overturned; he had nothing to lose.  Instead, he didn't, and the Reds lost the game.

Offseason Outlook

• The Reds are in the middle of a rebuild and need to continue on the path that they are on.  They have some pieces in place for the future, including probably three of their starters and Joey Votto, so they need to continue to develop players around them or bring in players to complement them.  They are in need of the most help in their rotation, which should get better next year with the continued development of young players, but they could be helped greatly by bringing in a veteran starter for his presence in the rotation.

*All stats and information come from baseball-reference.com, espn.com, rosterresource.com, baseballamerica.com, and spotrac.com