I’m sort of getting to that point, as goofy as it might sound to say this right now given how well they’ve played recently.
This team has like 80% of what you need to make a deep postseason run. They’ve got a good lineup, they’ve got depth when half the active roster doesn’t all hit the DL at once. They’ve got a competitive rotation.
The only thing missing is any semblance of a bullpen.
And that’s not even something that could be hard to put together at this point. As others have pointed out, relievers usually get traded around this time of year for PTBNL tier guys. The Reds usually are never in on these trades, with last year’s Archie Bradley trade being an exception.
There are any number of guys out there. Daniel Hudson probably wouldn’t take more than a B- prospect. I’ve thrown Mychael Givens name out there a few times, he only makes 1.3 million. All they would have to do is pay their contracts and they could be had for peanuts, and they can afford it.
So that’s what makes it all the more insulting that they booted Iglesias and non tendered Bradley, and then proceeded to stuff the 15 million dollar savings back in their pockets. They did jack to re-invest Bauer’s money after they left.
Even if you expect them to cut payroll after the covid season - which to be clear they absolutely did not have to do and could’ve weathered any losses perfectly fine (that was the entire point of cutting player’s salaries last year after all) - it’s not really acceptable in any manner to cut the payroll by 40 million dollars or somewhere in that ballpark if I’m not mistaken, and then just tell the fans tough luck.
I guess that’s why I’m getting to the point where if ownership doesn’t back this roster up, a team that has a couple MVP contenders on it and a lineup with depth to back them up, if they don’t put some of that money back into the team after 5 years of being a laughing stock and one barely .500 season - if they can’t spend like 5-6 million dollars to shore up the most easily filled black hole on this team, I think I might be done. I mean like, “go ahead and move the team because I refuse to support an organization that totally refuses to try to compete at all.”
We’re coming up on 20 something years of GABP, I wouldn’t be surprised if there are whispers about what’s going to replace it sometime in the next decade. And if I see a bunch of good relievers exchange hands for jabroni level prospects and the Reds don’t get in on it because they can’t unpinch their pennies, then I’ll do everything I can with my meager influence to vote against or otherwise do what I can to contribute to this team never getting another stadium in this city again. It’s time to put up or shut up with this ownership group. Just get it done.