Cincinnati Reds at a Home Field Disadvantage

The Cincinnati Reds just finished another homestead under .500. The Reds have not taken advantage of home-field advantage ever since the MLB clock started ticking for Elly De La Cruz.

Using that as a jumping off point for evaluating this team, the Reds are 71-78 at Great American Ballpark. Put it this way, there are 21 other teams in MLB with better home records.

The fact that they aren’t worse off really speaks to the home field advantage. Performance-wise, they are 25th in team ERA during that time and 27th in wRC+. And despite being privy to 81 games at one of the most friendly parks to hit a home run in, there are seven teams with more dingers at home than the Reds, during that time.

During this period, De La Cruz leads the Reds in hits, doubles, triples, home runs, walks, strikeouts, and is second in RBI. He is the only player with at least 20 HR at home in this 149 game sample size.

One of the biggest factors in the anemic offensive performance at home for the Reds during this time has to be the consistent health of this roster. De La Cruz and Spencer Steer are the only two players with more than 110 games played. In fact, in these 149 games, the list of players who have played in 100 or more of them are as follows: De La Cruz (146 games), Steer (142), Tyler Stephenson (110), Will Benson (108), TJ Friedl (103), and Jonathan India (101).

So maybe the heart of the problem has been the roster construction. When the young core of talent that is expected to comprise the roster is not healthy, the Reds don’t have a backup plan. Instead, they turn to whoever they can find to man the field.

Regardless, the Reds need to be better at home.

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