3 Cincinnati Reds who should be traded and where

Trade idea: Cincinnati Reds send Kevin Newman to Seattle Mariners

This trade certainly won’t be an earth-moving deal, but the call-up of Matt McLain to play shortstop has caused a logjam in the middle infield in Cincinnati. Moving Newman makes sense for the Reds, even though he still has a year of team control left.

Newman’s OPS+ of 61 certainly doesn’t have teams lining up at Cincinnati’s door to ask about him. However, the Reds have to do something about Newman and moving him off the team gets rid of the reminder of a trade between Pittsburgh and Cincinnati involving Newman that easily leans toward favoring the Pirates. Cincinnati needs to try to get what they can out of him, even if it’s a low prospect from the Mariners.

Why Seattle? Well, the Mariners aren’t getting as much production as was hoped out of second base, where Kolten Wong has led a downward spiral in the Pacific Northwest at the position. Entering Wednesday, the Mariners were next-to-last in MLB in bWAR at second base at minus-1.3, so Seattle could use some ideas to improve here. Perhaps a depth piece like the 29-year-old Newman could help the Mariners?

Cincinnati and Seattle have been trade partners in the recent past, so perhaps there is another chapter in that story left to write involving Newman.