Monday's chess match underscored the flaws on the Reds' roster

The 2025 Cincinnati Reds have a small margin for error. They’re not filled with power hitters, there are question marks and uncertainties at several spots in the depth chart, and the Reds have had to play their best game to earn most of their wins this year.

The challenge is even greater because of the way this team is constructed, it’s tough to win on the margins. That was more obvious on Monday than it has been all season as the Brewers took a 3-2 win over the Reds at GABP.

Because of the state of the Reds’ 26-man active roster, Terry Francona’s options were very limited while Pat Murphy’s Brewers had weapons on the bench and in the bullpen at their disposal.

The Brewers took a 3-2 lead into the bottom of the sixth inning on Monday as starter Aaron Civale (4.47 ERA over the last few seasons) zipped and spun off-speed pitches around the Reds. Hits by TJ Friedl and Elly De La Cruz plus a perfect bunt by Spencer Steer sparked a two-run first inning for the Reds, but the offense shut down after that.

Civale was pulled from the game with one out in the sixth with a runner on first (Tyler Stephenson). Everything that happened next showed the flaws on the Reds’ roster.

The Brewers have four left-handed relievers on their roster, which gives Murphy more options to play platoon matchups. In the sixth on Monday, he brought in Rob Zastryzny, who has been a low-leverage reliever for Milwaukee and just joined the team a few weeks ago as the Yankees traded Zastryzny to the Brewers for cash.

This was the Reds’ chance to score against a susceptible pitcher.

Murphy put Zastryzny in the game because of the Reds’ weakness against LHP. The bottom half of the Reds’ lineup consisted of Will Benson (left-handed hitter), Jose Trevino (backup catcher), Jake Fraley (left-handed hitter) and Garrett Hampson (backup utility player).

These players were in the Reds’ lineup because of a number of factors.

Fraley might not have been an every day player upon his return from the IL last week, but then Austin Hays suffered a foot injury that landed him on the IL.

Benson got his shot with the Reds this year because of injuries to Hays, CES, Jeimer Candelario, Noelvi Marte and Tyler Callihan. Benson had a terrific start to his big league season, but he has cooled off.

The Reds don’t have many reliable hitters right now. Typically, the Reds have saved Trevino at catcher with Tyler Stephenson at DH for when the Reds face LHP. But because of where the Reds were at, Francona used that alignment on Monday.

Hampson started at third base because both Santiago Espinal and Matt McLain got a day off. Espinal and McLain have been two of the Reds’ most important players recently with Francona calling Espinal the Reds’ best situational hitter and showing confidence in McLain while saying, “He’s going to get hot. I’m surprised it hasn’t happened yet, but it will.”

Last week, Francona gave the slumping Espinal and McLain each a mental day off in the series against Kansas City. It’s a common move that managers do to give struggling hitters a small break.

On Espinal and McLain’s days off last week, they each ended up pinch-hitting. Then on Monday against the Brewers, Espinal pinch-hit. McLain did not. Did Francona want to give McLain the entire day off on Monday? Francona said, “He was going to pinch-run in the ninth.”

All of this is context for how the stretch run of the game played out. Back to the sixth inning. The tying run is on first base.

The left-handed Zastryzny entered the game with Benson, Trevino and Fraley due up. Francona countered by having the right-handed Connor Joe pinch-hit for Benson and the right-handed Espinal pinch-hit for Fraley. This was the Reds’ chance, and Francona pushed in his chips by using the bench.

Joe singled and moved Stephenson to second base. But Trevino struck out and Espinal grounded out to end the inning.

The Brewers won the first round of the chess match, and the Reds had burned their entire bench aside from McLain and Austin Wynns.

Now in the seventh, the Brewers brought in a standout high-leverage left-handed arm in Jared Koenig. The right-handed Hampson was due up, but Murphy wasn’t game planning around the No. 9 hitter with a .167 batting average. Koenig struck out Hampson to open the seventh inning, and he didn’t face another right-handed batter.

Because Espinal (the No. 2 hitter in the lineup on most days) was on the bench, the left-handed Gavin Lux made a rare appearance in the No. 2 spot in the lineup on Monday. The top of the Reds’ lineup was three left-handed hitters in TJ Friedl, Lux and Elly De La Cruz (a switch hitter who’s much better against RHP than LHP).

Friedl grounded out, Lux walked and De La Cruz struck out to end the seventh inning. The Brewers win Round 2 of the chess match.

(One quick tangent. The Reds’ bullpen hasn’t been playing the matchups much this season. Brent Suter has been the long-man. Taylor Rogers almost never pitches in high-leverage situations. Left-handed specialist Sam Moll is in Triple-A. When a tough lefty on the opposing team is up in a big spot, it’s mostly been Graham Ashcraft or Tony Santillan on the mound. Lyon Richardson, Scott Barlow and Ian Gibaut have also gotten some of those chances).

For the eighth and ninth innings on Monday, the Brewers used two standout right-handed relievers in Abner Uribe and Trevor Megill. But Benson and Fraley were out of the game, so Uribe and Megill faced Tyler Stephenson and Spencer Steer (two of the Reds’ better hitters) followed by Joe, Trevino, Espinal and Hampson.

Joe, Trevino, Espinal and Hampson are four right-handed hitters who don’t hit for power. Joe, Espinal and Hampson have been struggling, and Trevino doesn’t have a long track record of being an impact hitter. And Joe, Trevino, Espinal and Hampson all walked into matchups against great right-handed pitchers.

Meanwhile, McLain was only going to be used as a pinch-runner and Wynns has four at-bats since May 8.

Stephenson, Steer, Joe, Trevino, Espinal and Hampson went down in order to end the game.

There are a lot of uncertain pieces with the Reds right now, but the need for McLain to produce especially stood out on Monday. So did an interesting scene during batting practice. As other players were working out, Francona sat with McLain on the bench and put his arm around him.

They had a long conversation. At one point, they both stood up and went through a hands-on demonstration of McLain’s swing. Francona then lightened the mood with a few jokes, pounded McLain on the chest and they both went back to preparing for the game.

The Reds can only be good if their homegrown stars play up to their potential, and McLain is such a pivotal piece. Because of where he’s at now, Hampson was the one with the bat in his hands in the ninth inning against a division rival on Monday.