Do the Cincinnati Reds need to add a power bat
One of the most common refrains of the offseason has been that the Cincinnati Reds need to add power. Especially in the outfield. This is a premise with which I thought I largely agreed. But then I went looking and now I don’t know. So here we are, in this column.
First, let’s establish this: there are not a lot of choices out there. 29 players hit 30 homers last year (I think most of us would define 30 homers as a “big power guy”), and I invite you to go look at the list on any website and tell me who you think the Reds could get. There’s J.D. Martinez – who is just about exclusively a designated hitter now – and that’s it. Some poking around reveals Cody Bellinger and Adam Duvall as theoretical options. Though Duvall has seemingly lived on borrowed time his entire career, he is out there.
So those are your choices. Oh, and there is also still Joey Votto, who actually hit a lot of homers in limited time last year. Enough that he would have been top-25 in IsoP (slugging percentage minus batting average – basically it is only accounting for extra-base hit power) if he’d had enough plate appearances to qualify.
Now, let’s look at who is actually on the team. Three guys: Will Benson, Elly De La Cruz, and Christian Encarncion-Strand are rated as having 70-grade raw power per FanGraphs. Encarnacion-Strand hit 33 homers between Louisville and Cincinnati last year. De La Cruz had 25. Benson had a weird start to the year, but showed something like 25-homer power once he got straightened out. We’ve also yet to mention Matt McLain who hit 28 between Triple-A and MLB last year.
Jake Fraley also probably has full-season 30-homer power (or he would if only righties were allowed to pitch, but the point stands, if he’s in the lineup, he’s a power threat). And then there’s Spencer Steer, Jeimer Candelario, Noelvi Marte, Jonathan India, and TJ Friedl, who have all displayed 20-25 homer power somewhere (that’s in the majors for everyone except Marte).
(Aside: I know there are Friedl skeptics out there, but I don’t know what else you want from the guy. He had a 4.4 WAR season last year and was probably the best player on the team overall. The Reds would have to get three dynamite outfielders before he’d see the bench.)
So man, I dunno. Of course, I would like the Reds to have a big power bat, but there aren’t a lot of big power bats out there. And, unless the Reds want to dump some money at Bellinger, there’s no one I’d really rather have than the player they’d be benching. Sometimes, you have to let guys play. Sure, none of the current crop of potential power hitters has done it at the big league level, but there’s only one way to find out if they will.
