3 Reds on thin ice with playoff hopes slipping away
The Cincinnati Reds are watching their playoff hopes go down the drain and these three players have struggled a bit, leading to some regression.
At one point in the year, the Cincinnati Reds were the hottest team in all of baseball, winners of 12 games in a row. Fast forward to a few weeks into August and that team looks to be gone. A ton of Reds have found themselves struggling with others landing on the IL.
They watched a playoff spot pass them by over the last few weeks, including a drop down the standings of the NL Central. With such a cold streak going on, the blame can be placed on all levels of the organization.
The front office didn’t pursue pieces to fill the holes in the roster, David Bell has made his fair share of mistakes, and some of the players have struggled recently.
Reds: Tyler Stephenson hasn’t been the All-Star catcher that many imagined
During the offseason two years ago, Cincinnati let Tucker Barnhart walk in free agency, which seemed to be the move that handed Tyler Stephenson the keys to the future as the Reds catcher. This idea got off to a good start in 2022, but Stephenson would battle injuries for the entire season, limiting him to 50 games. During those games though, Stephenson slashed .319/.372/.482 with 6 home runs and 9 doubles.
2023 has been far from a successful year for Stephenson though. In fact, he’s been so streaky this year that Cincinnati hasn’t been able to fully hand him the keys to the team as the catcher has caught in just 60 of the Reds 118 games this year. During the month of August, where the Reds have struggled as a team, Stephenson is slashing .143/.280/.286 in 21 at-bats with one home run and six strikeouts.
At this point, it’s hard to argue that Stephenson is the Reds best catcher, especially when the Reds pitching staff’s ERA is the highest with him behind the plate. Offensively, Luke Maile has been close to, if not above the level of Stephenson. Cincinnati is going to need the young catcher to play like the player that he was in 2021 and 2022 in order to make a better playoff push this season.