The sprint to the trade deadline starts with the Reds flashing some upside

NEW YORK — Most of the Cincinnati Reds’ players and coaches were early for the scheduled meeting in the clubhouse at 4:20 on Friday afternoon. They had used the All-Star break to pick out an official gift from the team to Terry Francona to honor the manager’s 2,000th career win.

They selected a pricey Rolex watch. Francona later joked that giving him a Rolex is like “painting a pig” (he meant putting lipstick on a pig). It felt like the thought mattered even more than the gift to Francona.

The 2025 Reds aren’t the slugging juggernauts that Francona managed in Boston. They’re not quite yet the precisely running fine-tuned machine that Francona’s teams in Cleveland were.

But Francona has made it clear: He likes these guys in Cincinnati, and he’s optimistic about where the Reds are at coming out of the All-Star break.

“That’s what motivates me, it’s the players,” Francona said. “I love the players… I wish we had a better record. We are where we are. If we play good, I bet you (we have a chance). We had a lot of ups and downs. You don’t know what’s going to come at you. But I love that group. I’m really fond of them, and I think they know that.”

Francona expressed that to the team as clearly as he could on July 6 when Elly De La Cruz was announced as the Reds’ only All-Star (Andrew Abbott later went on to make the team). Francona said that he’ll take this group.

He loves the way they listen. He loves the way they show up on time. He loves the way that every player aside from Elly De La Cruz (who was required by Francona to take a day off) showed up for an optional team workout on Thursday and then competed their tails off during an opposite field hitting contest.

Francona is looking forward to the next two-plus months, and potentially more, for this team.

“Teams that have a chance to win, you can use it to your advantage,” Francona said. “Teams are more apt to try to play the game correctly when you have a chance to win. It’s just frankly way more fun. You’re a little bit nervous. Sometimes, there’s some anxiety. It’s because you think you have a chance. That’s meaningful.”

That’s where the Reds are at. They’re 2.5 games back of the third Wild Card spot. They haven’t shown yet that they’re better than the teams in front of them, including the Cubs, Brewers, Mets, Padres, Giants and Cardinals. But the 2025 Reds are definitely capable of making a run. There’s nothing guaranteed, but it should be fun for a Reds’ franchise that hasn’t made a postseason in a non-COVID season since 2013.

“We know where we’re at,” Tyler Stephenson said. “We’ve got an unbelievable group in here with Tito and the staff. We all believe in it. He believes in us. We all know that. We’ve just go to to keep taking care of business.”

The Reds are in a pretty similar position to where they were a year ago. But in 2024, coming out of the All-Star break, the team flopped, got swept by the Nationals and turned in a poor performance in Tampa Bay that felt like a nail in the coffin for the season. The Reds went on to trade Frankie Montas, who was their Opening Day starter. After that trade, Jonathan India said that after the break, Elly De La Cruz was the only guy who showed up and play well. De La Cruz needed some more help.

So one year later, the 2025 Reds start the second half of the season with a road series against a very good Mets team. De La Cruz was pretty quiet. So was TJ Friedl. The team’s ace wasn’t on the mound.

The Reds still went out and outplayed the Mets on the way to an 8-4 victory for Cincinnati.

“There’s depth,” Stephenson said. “In years past there hasn’t been as much of that. We can use that to our advantage.”

The story of the night was that coming off of a victory in the opposite field home run hitting contest, Austin Hays hit two opposite field homers.

Last week, Hays felt himself chasing too many pitches. His approach got exposed in a terrible individual performance last Friday against the Rockies. Thinking about an opposite field approach helped him get back on track.

Hays has a .887 OPS this season. He’s a good player. So is Matt McLain, who’s having a tough season but provided a reminder on Friday that he’s able to take over a game. Against the Mets, McLain made two terrific defensive plays, doubled and homered. So is Stephenson, who also hasn’t quite looked like himself but is still one of the more reliable bats out of any MLB catcher.

So is Lodolo, whose breaking ball is finally finding that extra gear. Lodolo has been solid in 2024. But it’s the breaking ball that’s the key to him reaching his frontline starter potential. He allowed two runs in seven innings on Friday.

“We’ve only just tapped into our potential,” Nick Martinez said. “That’s really promising. We know what it takes, and we’ve got to keep doing that. We don’t quit. We rally behind each other. We play some scrappy baseball. If we remember who we are and trust that we can get back to that, then we have a lot of potential.”

If Hays, McLain, Stephenson and Lodolo turn in big second halves of the season, then the Reds will probably make the playoffs. There’s talent around De La Cruz, Friedl and Abbott. It’s still a team with flaws — Noelvi Marte has to clean up his throws, Santiago Espinal started in right field on Friday, the bullpen has to be more consistent and the starters have to take another step as the strength of the team and carry the team to more wins.

Some of the team’s weaknesses could be addressed with deadline moves. The front office hasn’t yet declared whether or not the Reds will be buyers or sellers or how aggressive of an approach they will take.

“Keep doing what we’re doing, and the front office is going to take care of all of that,” Stephenson said. “We believe in what we have in here. If we add more, great. You’re never going to say no to that. We definitely believe what we have in here is good enough.”

Martinez said, “I don’t think anyone is really focusing on it or putting any added pressure to the trade deadline. Our mentality all year is to win the game in front of us. If we keep that mentality, we’ll be in a good spot come the trade deadline and beyond.”

There might not be a series of moves that could get the Reds back into the NL Central race. The Cubs have a 7.5 game lead over the Reds, will likely be very aggressive at the deadline and have a really scary lineup that’s showing no signs of slowing down. As soon as the Brewers’ pitching got healthy again back in June, Milwaukee has been on an absolute tear.

Even with that, the wild card race remains an attainable goal.

“We’re right there,” Steer said. “We’re hovering around .500, but that gives us a chance. We’re playing good. I think we can play better. That’s an exciting thing. We can play better and we are where we are.”