If I had a $50 bill for every time I’ve seen that the Cincinnati Reds showed interest in a player via trade or free agency but couldn’t land that player because “it costs too much” in either money, years, both, or prospects, I would not have any debt. Heck, I might even be able to retire and not work anymore. Oh, to live that dream. Infielder Gleyber Torres recently signed with the Detroit Tigers on a 1-year, $15,000,000 deal. The Reds, according to Evan Petzold of the Detroit Free Press, had shown interest in Torres.
The interest shown by the club for yet another infielder is interesting. Torres, who has spent his entire big league career with the New York Yankees, has only played shortstop and second base in his career, with all but six games in the last three seasons being at second.
The Reds, as you surely know, already seem to have too many infielders and that’s even when we consider that the team has the designated hitter option now. It’s one of the reasons that they felt good enough to trade away Jonathan India at the start of the offseason – they didn’t have anywhere for him to play every day if everyone was healthy.
Second base, presumably, is going to be Matt McLain’s position. Maybe he moves to third base if the team were to have brought in Torres. But that means that some combination of Noelvi Marte and Jeimer Candelario were going to be playing elsewhere. Marte, after what happened last season, probably needs to have an enormous spring to be given a starting spot anyways and likely could use some time in Triple-A to prove he belongs back in the big leagues. Candelario can play first base and be the designated hitter at times, but that means that Christian Encarnacion-Strand is also moving into some sort of not-playing-daily kind of role. His 2024 season was poor, and it barely lasted a month, and he was likely playing while injured – but he entered the year as a part of the future plans for the club and was the for-sure first baseman.
If the Reds had some interest in Torres, then they clearly don’t seem to have much faith in any of their infielders with the exception of Elly De La Cruz and maybe Matt McLain. And while that can be understandable for several reasons, infield is hardly the biggest weakness on the club. It would be one thing if Torres were an absolute stud of a hitter. But he’s not. That’s not to say he’s a bad hitter – in 2024 he was essentially league average as he posted a 101 OPS+ (which is OPS adjusted for ballparks played in where 100 is average). The two previous seasons he was at 113 and 118. Those are good numbers, but not difference-maker caliber numbers, either.
All of that said, Torres probably would have strengthened the team overall. For one reason or another it didn’t work out. Maybe Torres preferred to play in Detroit, though on a 1-year deal the Reds absolutely should be trying to sell Great American Ball Park to all hitters as a way to “rebound and cash in”. What seems more likely is that Cincinnati simply wasn’t willing to spend the money. Which seems strange given that he signed for less in both terms of years and dollars per year than was projected by MLB Trade Rumors. If you weren’t willing to be sort of in that range, what’s the point of showing interest?
In markets where supplies are limited, sometimes you can’t be rational about spending. Overpriced, not worth it, etc….. that doesn’t really exist in sports because you can’t just wait until next week until the new stock comes in for the exact same thing. Being rational about “paying market value” usually means you continue shopping on the market and wind up with something less valuable in production than you were shopping for. Sure, maybe it cost less, but they don’t let you hang banners celebrating how little money you spent, you get to hang banners for winning more games than everyone else.
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