Cincinnati Reds: Punisher, villain of the week or MLB’s next big bad?
By TC Zencka
The Cincinnati Reds’ “Punisher” arrived less than a month ago, and he’s torched everything from fastballs to the way we evaluate prospect talent.
Every once and awhile, a situation arises like the Cincinnati Reds have with Aristides Aquino.
Scouts and talent evaluators have an understanding of a player, and then that player makes an adjustment nobody saw coming – that nobody could see coming – and with newfound powers, the transformed crushes, leaving devastated talent evaluators, shaking heads, shrugged shoulders. Ketel Marte muscles into a superstar. J.D. Martinez saves his career in Detroit. Jake Arrieta becomes an ace after left for dead.
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The Punisher is a complicated hero. No means too violent, he lacks the moral compass that curtails most of Marvel’s heroes. Baseball’s Punisher has gleefully set fire to what pundits believed about his abilities, spitting on talent evaluators who thought he didn’t belong among the ranks of our baseball heroes. Those who stand in his way become his antithesis:
Powerless.
Aquino may hit 30 home runs for the Reds this season. The 25-year-old right fielder didn’t make his season debut until August 1, but by the time his 6’4″ frame stepped ominously into Great American Ballpark, those looking to stop him were too late. The Punisher notched the most powerful start to a career in history, and the league has yet to figure him out.
The overall numbers are mind-boggling: .330/.393/.804 with 14 home runs in his first 27 games. His isolated power breaks the scale at .474 ISO. Over almost a month of play, he produced at a rate of 94% better than your average ballplayer. He plays with the strength of two men.
If there’s hope to stop him, it’s in similar supervillains of the past. Mike Jacobs in 2005 who slugged .710 as a 24-year-old rookie but finished with just 100 career home runs. Shane Spencer, who hit 10 home runs in 27 games while slugging .910 as a rookie in 1998. He finished with 59 career home runs.
Is Aquino just another Villain of the Week like Jacobs and Spencer? Or is he Thanos, the Mad Titan, a Big Bad worthy of our time and efforts?
Also possible: Aquino joins baseball’s class of anti-heroes. This non-generational, yet prodigious talents come to stardom differently than your mainstream heroes like Mike Trout, Francisco Lindor or Ronald Acuna Jr. Locals will vouch loudly in their defense of these heroes – for Zack Greinke, Josh Hader or Matt Carpenter – but the general public maintains skepticism, or worse, apathy.
But he could be something more. Aquino’s Triple-A numbers from this season fall more-or-less in line with what we’ve seen in Cincinnati. He hit 28 home runs over 78 games with Louisville, an overall slugging mark of .636 SLG.
The rest of his game is more human. His walk rates and strikeout rates are a smidge below average, the defense is nothing to write home about. But the power is astronomical. It’s the rare singular skill that lifts a player’s profile of its own merit. Simply, the source of his power is his power. He is the ouroboros.
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For a guy that was a minor league free agent prior to the season, to be on pace to hit 30 home runs in two months at the major league level torches everything we know about prospects. He is the hope, the proof, that anybody can find the right adjustment and turn into a superhero.