The Cincinnati Reds Are Having The Spring Training From Hell

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I feel bad for the Reds. They have put together a very exciting young roster that should be really competitive in a very weak division. That's if they can ever get out of their own way.

SOURCE - But by Tuesday evening, Matt McLain underwent an MRI exam. While the results and diagnosis were not revealed, Bell confirmed that the issue was more serious than originally expected.

"I think it’s safe to say he’s not going to start the year on time," Bell said. "As far as knowing exactly what that’s going to look like, it’s still too early. Until he gets that second opinion, we’re really not going to know that. We can start planning on not having him to start the year.”

This is the most serious issue the Reds have to deal with. Elly De La Cruz got the all the press but it was McLain who had the great season. In only 89 games, he hit .290/.357/.507 with 16 home runs playing both second and shortstop. De La Cruz is the most talented player on the roster but McLain was the best. That's not slander at all towards De La Cruz who seems to figured out the hole in his swing in the off-season. It's more about how good I think McLain in. The last kind of injury you want to hear about is a shoulder.

But it's not just injuries that are fucking the Reds over. 

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Noelvi Marte has been a top-100 prospect in Baseball America for five seasons. Marte was a key piece of the Luis Castillo deal and was a huge part of the future of the Reds. He had a cup of coffee last year and it looked it this would be his breakout season.

Now, a lot of that is in question. Missing a half season will certainly hurt his progress but now you also have to question how much of his success was aided by PED's. He's only 22 and wasn't dependent on just power so my gut tells me he will still have a nice career.  No matter what, this is another player the Reds didn't need to lose.

The Marte loss hits even harder when the Reds won't have the following players on Opening Day due to injuries: McLain, Brandon Williamson, Alex Young, Ian Gibaut, and TJ Friedl. If you were playing as the Reds on The Show on PS5 and this is how spring training went, you would be well within your rights to just delete this and start over.

Having said all of that, the Reds are still going to be competitive in the NL Central this year. All of these injuries make hanging on to Jonathan India and signing Jeimer Candelario look very wise. I also think the starting pitching can be much better than last year if Hunter Greene and Graham Ashcraft can be more consistent.

Are the Cubs that much better? Re-signing Cody Bellinger was gigantic but it doesn't make them better than last year. I feel like they kind of just stayed in neutral this offseason. I don't think that's ideal for a team that went 83-79. As for the Cardinals, they went and signed a bunch of old guys (Sonny Gray, Lance Lynn, Kyle Gibson, Matt Carpenter) to go along with the other old guys already on the roster (Paul Goldschmidt, Nolan Arenado, Willson Contreras, Miles Mikolas, Steven Matz).

I asked Frank The Tank if he's become a Reds fan in the off-season as some of sort of explaination for such shit luck. He immediately said that he hasn't which means I'm stuck with his Fleming Curse ruining the Mets. 

But people don't give Reds fans enough credit for sitting through a ton of shit since they last won in 1990. I'm old as shit and I was barely 10 years old the last time the Reds were in the World Series. They've had to sit through lousy owners, Ken Griffey Jr getting hurt nearly every year for a decade and wasting the prime of Joey Votto. I'll be rooting for Reds in the NL Central this year. They just needs guys to stop getting hurt or busted with PED's.