Cincinnati Reds Expected to Take Drastic Steps with Former Roster Centerpieces
The Cincinnati Reds are expected to take a pair of drastic decisions with two players who were supposed to be centerpieces of their roster, according to reports.
Per Bob Nightengale of USA Today:
The Cincinnati Reds are expected to non-tender Nick Senzel and trade Jonathan India this winter while strongly pursuing a veteran starter like Michael Wacha or Wade Miley.
Let's start with India, who won the Rookie of the Year award in the 2021 season. We had heard that the team was getting trade interest on him just last week.
This makes sense all around. The Reds have one of the youngest teams in all of baseball and are loaded with position player depth including Elly De La Cruz, Spencer Steer, Christian Encarnacion-Strand and Matt McLain. They likely can afford to move India - especially if they were to get some starting pitching - which was their downfall in 2023. This would go well with Nightengale's report of them looking at free agent pitchers as well.
Other teams clearly know about the glut of young talent the Reds have, so them asking about India is logical too.
The 26-year-old India won the Rookie of the Year award in 2021 but has not been as good in each successive year. He hit .269 with 21 homers in 2021 while posting a .376 on-base percentage. He played just 103 games in 2022, hitting .249 with 10 homers. This past year, he played 119 games, hitting .244 with a .338 on-base percentage. He had 17 home runs.
As for Senzel, he's a former top prospect who has battled to stay healthy in his career. He's never played more than 110 games in any of his five seasons in the big leagues (including COVID 2020 shortened season). He is a lifetime .239 hitter with a .302 on-base percentage.
He's still just 28 years old.
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