After a series of big moves and injury updates, here’s our latest projection.
As should always be expected in the third and fourth weeks of any camp in Spring Training, a whole hell of a lot of news has impacted our initial (and subsequent) roster projections.
Noelvi Marte got smacked with an 80-game suspension for PEDS. Ouch!
Jose Barrero got placed on waivers in early March, for whatever reason, a decision that might well have serious ramifications since TJ Friedl has been diagnosed with a sprained wrist. Who’s the CF for the Reds if Friedl, who I have starting the season on the IL now, misses significant time?
Fernando Cruz has been serving up bombs, unfortunately, and since he’s a) got an option and b) other arms have shown themselves to be more healthy than they were earlier in came, he’s on the AAA Louisville roster come Opening Day in this Volume III projection.
Did I say ‘arms’ and ‘healthy’ in the same sentence? I suppose I should have mentioned righties in said sentence, since the lefties are all over the map. Alex Young has been downgraded to out for Opening Day, while Sam Moll still hasn’t thrown a pitch in a Cactus League game. The Reds signed Justin Wilson on Friday because they needed the lefty cover, and that’s a pretty good tell that things are in flux out there.
As for how the Reds fill-in for the lack of Marte on the infield, Friedl in the outfield, and with them surely going to have Jonathan India in kid gloves (boots?) defensively until he’s totally beyond his plantar fasciitis, I’ve added both Tony Kemp and Nick Martini to the roster. Kemp can cover both infield and outfield (and has 42 games played in CF to his name), while Martini has shown he can at least thump the ball when given the chance. It’s a two-player way of adding defensive cover for Friedl and Marte (Kemp) and offensive cover (Martini, in theory).
The lone hangup I’ve got at the moment is whether the Reds will go with an obvious four-man rotation until Nick Lodolo debuts on April 10th. They’ve got a pair of scheduled days off before his targeted return date, in theory giving them the ability to roll with a deeper bullpen instead of a fifth starter. For now, I’ve got them sticking with a fifth starter (with Nick Martinez in a bullpen role).
The biggest takeaway here? Man, do I ever hope TJ Friedl is absolutely fine and returns in plenty of time to make the Opening Day roster 100%.
Catcher (2)
Tyler Stephenson, Luke Maile
Infield (5)
Christian Encarnacion-Strand, Matt McLain, Elly De La Cruz, Jeimer Candelario, Jonathan India
Outfield (3)
Will Benson, Jake Fraley, Stuart Fairchild
Infield/Outfield/26th man (2)
Tony Kemp, Nick Martini
Spencer Steer (1)
Spencer Steer
Starting Rotation (5)
Hunter Greene, Frankie Montas, Andrew Abbott, Graham Ashcraft, Brandon Williamson
Bullpen (8)
Alexis Díaz, Emilio Pagán, Brent Suter, Nick Martinez, Lucas Sims, Tejay Antone, Justin Wilson, Buck Farmer
15-day IL (5)
TJ Friedl (wrist), Ian Gibaut (forearm), Alex Young (back), Sam Moll (shoulder), Nick Lodolo (tibia)
80-game Suspension (1)
Noelvi Marte