Cincinnati Reds newcomers Zack Littell, Ke'Bryan Hayes and Miguel Andujar have helped boost the Reds to the verge of playoff position.
PHOENIX – Somebody asked Cincinnati Reds manager Terry Francona the other day whether his knack for getting the most out of rosters during his career applies especially so to players who get acquired late in the season at the trade deadline.
“(Shoot) no,” he said. “I just get out of (Miguel) Andujar’s way. He came here and got hot. If anything, I pat him on the back really good.”
Francona must be doing a lot of good patting with Zack Littell and Ke’Bryan Hayes, too.
Because three weeks after the trade deadline, look who’s on top of the leaderboard in the race for trade-deadline champs.
For a struggling big-league reliever (Taylor Rogers), journeyman minor-league starter (Brian Van Belle) and three well-regarded, dice-roll Class A prospects, the Reds acquired:
- Littell, a rent-a-starter having a good year for the Tampa Bay Rays, who is 1-0 with a 3.06 ERA in three starts (17 2/3 innings) for the Reds as he makes start No. 4 against the Diamondbacks Aug. 22.
- Andujar, a lefty-crushing outfielder who has hit all pitchers so well since coming from the Athletics that he and his 1.102 OPS since the trade have found a regular home in the Reds cleanup spot.
- And Hayes, a Gold Glove third baseman acquired from the Pirates with four years club control to upgrade the defense — but who along the way has provided a .267 average with seven extra-base hits and a .790 OPS in his 19 games entering the weekend.
That’s arguably the best return at the deadline for any team in the majors.
By comparison, the combined 1.5 WAR (baseball-reference.com) of those three players since the deadline (through Aug. 21) eclipses the combined 0.6 WAR of Seattle’s big-boy acquisitions Josh Naylor, Eugenio Suarez and Caleb Ferguson, as well as the 1.0 WAR of San Diego’s splashy trades for Mason Miller, Ramon Laureano and Ryan O’Hearn.
And forget about the Rangers’ acquisition of high-profile rent-a-starter Merrill Kelly (winless in four starts, 4.09 ERA) and reliever Danny Coulombe (5.68 ERA in eight appearances).
As Francona said the day after the deadline: “I don’t know if they were the sexiest moves. I don’t care. I thought our (front office) guys did a really good job. I think they made us better.”
Noelvi Marte: The right (field) stuff
The significant added byproduct of the Hayes trade – by design – was the full-time move to right field of Noelvi Marte, who struggled defensively at third but was hitting well enough that the Reds looked for a creative way to keep him in the lineup.
He’d never played a game in the outfield in his life until last month in New York but has handled it well enough to become the Reds’ everyday starter there.
And in 20 games since moving exclusively to the position that had been a Reds weakness for almost four months, Marte is 28-for-78 (.359) with four home runs, seven doubles, a .603 slugging percentage and .962 OPS.
The Big Number: 30
Games the Reds have lost after holding a lead, tied with the Mets for ninth-most in MLB this season. That includes the Reds’ last five losses.
All but one of the teams with more than the Reds, entering the weekend, have losing records this season (Padres: 31).
Reds personal Angels of mercy
The Reds came within a run of sweeping the Los Angeles Angels this week for the fourth consecutive series, dating to 2019.
They’d won 10 straight games against the Angels until that 2-1 loss in the series finale. The last time the Angels beat the Reds before that was June 25, 2019 (to complete a two-game sweep, before the Reds swept them in a two-gamer later that season).
That’s the Reds’ longest winning streak ever against an American League opponent.
Their longest active interleague streak is now three (Tampa Bay Rays).
What’s in a name?
What is it about a quick glance at Littell’s bio that makes some people immediately think of a small, white mouse?
“Yeah, I know,” he said. “Stuart Little.”
Zack’s middle name is Stuart. So it’s not hard to imagine the ribbing he got from grade school pals when the Stuart Little movie franchise got popular.
“All the time,” he said.
At least until the 6-foot-4 right-hander had his first growth spurt.
He said it
“No shizzle.”
–Francona on whether he planned to stay after the Aug. 11 game at Great American Ball Park for the Snoop Dogg postgame concert.
Among those at the ballpark that day, he apparently was in the minority. That game/promotion drew the ninth sellout of the season for the Reds, already matching last year’s total for the season.
Greene walks mile (or two) in Trout’s shoes
Mike Trout played 14 games against the Reds before Aug. 19 but somehow never faced Hunter Greene until then.
The three-time MVP doubled home a run, singled and struck out against the All-Star right-hander in the Reds’ victory that night.
“I have a ton of respect for him, but I’m also doing my thing in the big leagues,” Greene said of the first encounter. “He’s a fantastic person and player.”
Enough of an influence that Greene has walked a couple seasons in Trout’s cleats – wearing Trout’s signature style Nike’s this season and last.
“It’s funny. I was wearing his cleats (in this week’s matchup),” Greene said. “So I was trying to strike him out. I think he looked down, and maybe that’s why he got a couple hits.”
Why Sam Moll chose that song
Some may have noticed during recent home games that reliever Sam Moll has a new walkup anthem for his appearances.
She don’t lie, she don’t lie, she don’t lie …
That’s right, Cocaine — Eric Clapton’s half-century-old, bluesy, guitar-rock edition.
It’s an all-time great classic and an inspired announce-your-presence-with-authority choice of walkup music.
And there’s really nothing more to it than that, says Moll. Except a cool shoutout to his dad and the music they’d listen to on the way to Sam’s ballgames as a kid.
“Whenever we’d drive to the field, or anywhere I’d go with my dad, it was always classic rock on the radio,” Moll said. “So I like that genre.
“Nothing special,” he said. “I just wanted to change it up. Hell, it could change again.”
For whatever it might be worth, Clapton has called the song “quite cleverly anti-cocaine.”
Reds out of their league
With three-game series remaining against the Blue Jays and Athletics, the Reds are 25-17 (.595) against American League teams this season, clinching their second winning record in interleague play since MLB first employed a schedule that assures games against everybody in the other league (2023).
A 4-2 finish against the Jays and A’s would give the Reds a team-record 29 wins against AL opponents (28-18 in 2023).
For those scoring at home, the other side of this year’s interleague coin is a 42-44 record against NL foes (entering the weekend) for a team battling for an NL playoff spot.
'Base hit'
Late in one of those Angels games early in the week, Andujar rocketed a foul ball into the Anaheim press box so hard that an unnamed Cincinnati press box wag just missed barehanding the screamer, which caromed back into the stands despite the superhuman effort.
Local scorers (and one broadcast booth wag) called it an error, pending an appeal to the league.
Press box wag: "Guarantee that's a base hit at home."
Did You Know
When Austin Hays, Elly De La Cruz and Ke’Bryan Hayes led off the third, fifth and eighth innings with triples Aug. 18 against the Angels, the Reds became the first MLB team to lead off three innings in a game with a triple in more than 12 years (Pittsburgh Pirates on July 30, 2013, fifth, sixth and eighth against the Cardinals).
For anyone who thinks the Reds blew it by failing to score after one of those triples, consider the Pirates in that 2013 game failed to score twice after leadoff triples.
This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: How Cincinnati Reds won MLB trade deadline | Press Box Wag
Category: Baseball
