MLB Payroll Analysis and Offseason Preview: Cincinnati Reds
By Joshua Mayer
With the offseason approaching in less than two months, and all teams’ rosters mostly settled for the year, it’s a good time to start looking at the payroll situation for each MLB team. We continue the series with the Cincinnati Reds.
The Reds have seen their win totals decline ever since they won 97 games in 2012. After limping to a 64-98 record last season, Cincinnati is looking to improve upon their record for the first time in four years. Currently 64-90 (as of September 24), the Reds only need one more win to get past 2015’s total. Still, this season has been far from successful as Cincinnati will finish in the NL Central cellar for the second straight year after not finishing in last since they were in the NL West in 1983.
With very few productive young players on the roster, the future looks bleak for the Reds. Many of the recently acquired prospects have struggled upon debuting for their new team.
Last season, the Reds did a nice job in extracting value for Johnny Cueto and Mike Leake before they became free agents. The haul they got for Cueto was considered a great one throughout the league. The Royals sent Cincinnati three young left handed pitchers. Those pitchers – John Lamb, Brandon Finnegan, and Cody Reed – pitched a combined 284 ⅔ innings to an ugly 5.22 ERA this season.
The return for Mike Leake has actually been better thus far, as slugger Adam Duvall has hit 31 home runs, albeit with a low AVG and OBP.
The team still has a few veterans under contract in long-time Reds Joey Votto, Brandon Phillips, and Homer Bailey. It will be interesting to see if trade chatter picks up with any of these players over the offseason. The Blue Jays were rumored to be interested in Votto last year, but it is unknown if their new regime has similar interest.
With those three high profile stars under contract for the foreseeable future, the rest of the remaining veterans are free agents this coming November. Let’s take a look at those players first.
Note: Only players on 40-man roster/60-day DL with MLB experience accounted for. Players who are not on a 40-man, or on a 40-man without MLB experience have not had their service clocks started.
All stats courtesy of Fangraphs unless otherwise noted