Goodyear notes as Cactus League play begins.
I am no photographer, nor am I a wealth of knowledge when it comes to how ‘team pictures’ are put together when players first arrive in spring camp.
What I do know, though, is that there are 20+ pictures of Elly De La Cruz that were taken during this year’s edition, and while he’s holding a bat in many of them, in precisely zero of them is he swinging it – or even in stance – as a right-handed hitter.
The switch-hitting superstar of the Cincinnati Reds definitely had a better time at the plate during the 2024 season when hitting as a lefty (.876 OPS) than as a righty (.661 OPS), but perhaps that’s something he’s hell-bent on changing in 2025. If so, he sure wasted zero time in making said statement, as he launched homers from both sides of the plate in his Cactus League debut Saturday in Goodyear against the Cleveland Guardians.
That was some of the best news anywhere in baseball on Saturday, though the Reds winning 6-3 over Cleveland (with help from a 3-run dinger by catcher Will Banfield) was more good news from Cincinnati’s camp. Matt McLain, Spencer Steer, Austin Hays, Jeimer Candelario, Tyler Stephenson, Stuart Fairchild, and Will Benson combined to go 0 for 13 with a pair of Ks while Hunter Greene (4 H, 2 ER in 2.0 IP) struggled a bit, but that just serves as reference to how dang early everything is right now.
I should add that Ian Gibaut, who missed almost all of 2024 with injuries, fired a scoreless frame. Rootin’ for Ian to make it back onto the Reds roster, I am.
Over in Maryvale, manager Terry Francona took a slightly less star-studded cast with him for more split squad action on Saturday while up against the Milwaukee Brewers (who were not in split squad action).
The Reds blew a late lead to fall 8-7 as Alan Busenitz was tagged for a homer and 3 ER in just 0.2 IP, but Graham Ashcraft began his quest to earn a spot in the Opening Day rotation with 2.0 IP of scoreless, walkless ball in a plus. Chase Petty followed him with another pair of scoreless, hitless IP, while flamethrowing prospect Luis Mey – whose only real flaw is finding the strikezone often enough to not walk the planet – pitched a scoreless frame with 2 K and zero walks.
Santiago Espinal socked a homer for Francona’s Reds, while newly acquired Leatherman Gavin Lux went 2 for 3 with a double and a trio of ribbies in his Reds debut. Speaking of Reds debuts, this was Francona’s, too, and C. Trent Rosecrans of The Athletic was on the scene to pick his brain about it.
In other Reds news, MLB.com’s Mark Sheldon spoke with superstar Padre Manny Machado about his close friend from south Florida: Reds prospect Sal Stewart. The two have worked out together for years (thanks to former Red Yonder Alonso introducing them), and Machado heaps some very, very high praise on the Reds youngster.
FOX 19’s Joe Danneman has a series of interesting interviews with some of the major faces in Cincinnati camp right now up on his YouTube channel, including this one with resident DH/LF/1B/3B(?) Spencer Steer.
Finally, WCPO has a detailed look at how you can now stream directly all Reds games without having to also subscribe to a cable package thanks to FanDuel Sports Network. That’s a major, major in-market development, one that us out-of-towners have been able to circumvent via MLB.tv for years.