The Cincinnati Reds Want You to Wait

The Cincinnati Reds plan seems to be waiting and it's getting tiresome

Jul 21, 2024; Washington, District of Columbia, USA; Cincinnati Reds pitcher Justin Wilson (32) walks off the field at the end of the eighth inning against the Washington Nationals at Nationals Park. Mandatory Credit: Geoff Burke-USA TODAY Sports / Geoff Burke-USA TODAY Sports

Are Cincinnati Reds fans just supposed to wait?

After the Reds were swept by the Washington Nationals in the first series out of the All Star Break, enthusiasm for the Reds playoff chances has disappeared. 

Are the Reds too hurt to compete? Are the Reds too young to compete? Are the Reds too poor to compete? In a professional sport where there is no salary cap, the answer to all of this should be no. All 30 teams should have the necessary resources to make their 26-man roster just as competitive as they can be.

So why isn’t the Reds roster that way? Because of the injuries to this team, they have played lots of games with players we did not expect to have playing time in February. How can that be their excuse, though, with the team they are going up against for three games beginning Monday? The Atlanta Braves have lost their best hitter, in Ronald Acuna Jr., AND their best pitcher, in Spencer Strider, and are still shoe-ins to be a playoff team.

The Braves are not ran by Steve Cohen or some megalomaniacal billionaire with deep pockets and money to burn. They are not ran by a large group of wealthy individuals that would put winning games ahead of all else and spend whatever they need to accomplish it. They are ran by reasonable sports owners. They are a well-run team.

Why do we constantly arrive at this junction during the season? Most Reds fans count down to it from the time the first pitch is thrown on Opening Day. The moment when we unironically say “We’ll get em next year.”

While the math on the 2024 team says it’s not that time, there have been a litany of signs pointing to that being the case already. It took until the penultimate day of the 2023 season for the Reds to be knocked out of the playoff race, but that team did not exhibit the tell-tale signs of mediocrity so early and consistently as this year’s team. So is it because they are too young? Maybe the answer is yes, but then the question must be asked: why do we have to wait for them to not be too young?

The Reds front office has been selling the idea that the young core of talent will lead this team to the promised land. I bought this idea, early, but I am wavering on it as of late.

When will everyone be good AND healthy at the same time? With the way the Reds build a roster, financially, they have a finite amount of time that Elly De La Cruz will be here. Also, it seems as if this plan” is based on everything going right all at the same time. Most analysts like to call this the 99% outcome. Is the plan really to wait for the 99% outcome to be reality and just throw up our hands and say “oh well” when it fails?

That’s how this season has felt. As much as we want to be excited about the careers of Elly De La Cruz and Spencer Steer and other talented young players the Reds have, it feels as though the front office is waiting for … something. It seems as thoughNick Krall and company, as much as Reds fans themselves, are just waiting for players to be good to then they will go for it.

They waited for the first rebuild to succeed and then go for it. When it didn’t, they spent a bunch of money on Nick Castellanos, Mike Moustakas, and a few trades to distract Reds fans from the failure to rebuild. Will we have to wait another two or three years to figure out if this latest plan will work?

The 2024 Reds had needs that weren’t addressed. They needed outfield help. They needed pitching. They kind of addressed the pitching, but they did so with one veteran pitcher coming off major shoulder surgery. If the way they will “add to the roster” is by finding the bargain players and hoping they return to their former glory, isn’t that just adding more variables to an equation with a lot of variables, already? Did they fail to address those needs because they weren’t sure the team was ready to compete yet?

I will watch this team and I will love the players on the field, but it is getting harder and harder as the years go along to be invested in any kind of hope that they will win any meaningful postseason games. De La Cruz, Steer, even Jonathan India and Tyler Stephenson have tons of talent and are the kind of guys who can lead a team to success. But baseball is not won by a few but by a team. Until the Reds show they can build a team, I will not be buying the idea that they are selling of future happiness. I am tired of waiting.