When the buzzer sounded on the July 31 MLB trade deadline at 6 p.m. on July 31, the Cincinnati Reds were sitting in the shadows of baseball’s headline makers from Houston, San Diego and Seattle.
But they might have done more to improve their club than anybody else in the National League Central, adding Gold Glove third baseman Ke’Bryan Hayes, starting pitcher Zack Littell and outfielder Miguel Andujar in the final 28 hours before the deadline — with five more would-be deals percolating as time expired.
Love or hate the moves – or anything in between. The thing that stood out about this trade deadline compared to recent seasons was as conspicuous as the speedy hiring of Terry Francona as manager last October.
“The biggest thing for me is that we bought,” Reds president Nick Krall said. “We were in position to buy. We put the club in position to buy. The players put themselves in a position to buy.
“That’s the biggest thing, that we were able to add to this team. And see where it goes.”
This deadline period for the Reds stood in stark contrast to the last two seasons when they whiffed on adding even the modest starting pitcher that might have made up the two-game difference in making the playoffs in 2023 and neither bought nor sold last year in what players called a “weird” process.
Whatever happens over the final two months for this team, there at least was no ambiguity about their approach this time around — although maybe ownership could have shown a similar urgency as the players and front office and kicked in enough resources to go a little bigger.
Despite limited financial flexibility compared to many of their rivals for playoff position, the Reds were as aggressive at the deadline as they’ve been since completing that last selloff to start the rebuild.
“Everyone in here’s been working hard to play in October,” veteran pitcher Nick Martinez said, “and knowing that our front office has that same mindset should give us all a big boost of confidence and a lot of energy to finish strong.
“I like our chances.”
They still have an uphill climb in a loaded National League field of playoff hopefuls that got even more loaded with the Padres pulling off a flurry of big moves to win the deadline and the Mets adding Cedric Mullins and Gregory Soto from the Orioles.
On the other hand, nobody improved more on paper than the Reds in a division where the Cardinals and Pirates were sellers and the big-bucks Cubs left fans fuming over incremental moves for starter Michael Soroka, reliever Andrew Kittredge and utility player Willi Castro.
- Andujar can play both corner infield positions and both corner outfield positions and has hit left-handers well enough in his career — especially in recent years — that Krall considers him a “middle-of-the-order bat against lefties.” He’s hit .422 with a 1.036 OPS against lefties in a small sample size this year.
- Littell is a right-hander who has a 3.58 ERA in 22 starts this season and throws strikes often enough that he leads the league in fewest walks per nine innings and most home runs allowed. Adding him allows the Reds to significantly upgrade the bullpen by moving veteran righty Nick Martinez into a relief role while keeping him available for an occasional spot start as needed.
- Hayes is by far the best defensive third baseman in the game according to major defensive metrics and also the worst-hitting third baseman among qualifiers. The upgrade he provides at third in the field had a ripple effect on right field, where Noelvi Marte takes his productive bat for more regular playing time at a position the Reds have lagged significantly among peers both offensively and defensively.
“All three of those guys that we got are real good guys, really good clubhouse guys,” Krall said. “We feel we improved our pitching, our defense and our offense.
“Look, I’ve said this from the get-go. We’re trying to build from within. We need to build this core from within, and when we went to get ourselves in position to be buyers at the deadline,” he said. “That’s what we are. And we were able to buy and give ourselves the best shot moving forward.”
At least until they took the field after the deadline passed, the guys in the clubhouse responded as though the message was received.
“I’ve played with Littell before; we were drafted together in 2013 in Seattle,” Reds closer Emilio Pagán said. “He is a bulldog on the mound. He’s an innings eater in the rotation.
“The locker room’s pumped up, man. We’re excited about it. We know we’ve got work ahead of us to do to get where we want to go. But I feel like we’re in a good spot. So now it’s go time.”
This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: What was big deal for Cincinnati Reds at MLB trade deadline? ‘We bought’