2023 Pre-Season Profile: Cincinnati Reds

 #28

The Cincinnati Reds have been selling off big league talent over the last few years and building up a strong farm system in the process.  Will 2023 be the year the big league roster starts to see some impact from all this young talent?

2022 Predictions

#26 - 4th in NL Central

MIH - Jonathan India

MIP - Luis Castillo

PTW - Hunter Greene

2022 Results

#27 - 62-100 - 4th in NL Central

Highest WAR (Position) - Brandon Drury

Highest WAR (Pitcher) - Luis Castillo

The Reds went from over .500 in 2021 to a 100 loss season in 2022.  They saw their ace traded mid-season (Luis Castillo), as well as their best hitter (Brandon Drury).  The offense struggled to score, but their young pitching showed some real bright spots, with phenom starters Hunter Greene and Nick Lodolo having strong rookie seasons.  Also, rookie Alexis Diaz emerged as their closer of the future.  So amid a disappointing season, there was some hope.

Additions / Subtractions

As with many teams in rebuild mode, the offseason was about seeing if any of their veterans had value on the trade market while bringing in other veterans to be placeholders until the kids are ready.  Much of the Reds' work was done mid-season in shedding big league talent, but the offseason also saw the departure of Mike Moustakas, Kyle Farmer, Donovan Solano, and Mike Minor.  The new crop of veterans include starter Luke Weaver, shortstop Kevin Newman, and corner outfielder / first baseman Wil Myers.

Most Important Hitter

Nick Senzel

Not every prospect works out, and so far in his big league career, Nick Senzel is one of those prospects that just hasn't.  The former #2 overall pick is now entering his age 28 season and 5th full season in the big leagues.  So far, his rookie season (2019) was the most successful, where he posted a measly 87 OPS+ with 12 home runs.  In 2022, he had a 64 OPS+ with only 5 home runs and 25 RBI's in 110 games.  The good part about being on a rebuilding team is you are given more opportunities for playing time and development.  Senzel is once again slated to be the Reds' everyday centerfielder, but with the youth movement moving through the minors, Senzel needs to start showing some progress, or he will no longer have a job in Cincinnati.

Most Important Pitcher

Hunter Greene

No one meant more to the future success of the Reds in 2022 than Hunter Greene.  The flame-throwing phenom had a solid rookie campaign in his age 22 season, showing why everyone had been waiting for his debut since he was picked 2nd overall in the 2017 draft.  Now it's his time to take the next step and show he is ready to be the new ace of the Reds.  If Greene can solidify himself at the top of the Reds' rotation, then the Reds will be ready to contend sooner than anticipated.  It would also mean they have a true superstar on their hands too.

Prospect to Watch

Elly De La Cruz

The Reds have a strong farm system, boasting 4 players in the Top 100 Prospects.  Their system has a unique makeup though, with 7 of their top 8 prospects playing either shortstop or third base.  However, the class of the group, and the player most ready to make a splash in 2023, is Elly De La Cruz.  This 21 year old shortstop is ranked as the 10th prospect in baseball, and it's easy to see why.  At 6'5", he's a towering presence with special speed and some real pop in his bat.  In 2022, between Single-A and Double-A, De La Cruz hit 28 home runs and had 47 steals.  I don't think the Reds can keep him out of Cincinnati much longer, and he has an outside shot at making the Opening Day roster.

2023 Prediction

5th in NL Central

The Reds are definitely headed in the right direction, but they are not ready to turn that corner yet.  As some of these top prospects like Elly De La Cruz, Noelvi Marte, and Brandon Williamson join the big leagues throughout the year, the team will improve and become more and more fun to watch.  Look for next year to be a big jump year in Cincinnati, but for now, the record won't be great.

Fearless Prediction

This will be Joey Votto's last season.

It feels like it is time.  Joey Votto has been the face of the Reds almost since the moment he arrived in 2007.  He's a 6 time All Star, won a Gold Glove and an MVP.  He has a chance at being a Hall of Famer.  He's also entering his age 39 season, last year was the worst year of his career, and he's in the last year of his 10 year megadeal (which is the only reason he hasn't been traded like the rest of the team's veteran assets).  He has a team option for next year, but there's no way it gets picked up.  The production doesn't warrant a $20mil+ contract for his age 40 season.  I could see Votto opting to retire than wear another jersey besides the Reds.

2021 Pre-Season Profile: Baltimore Orioles

#25

The Baltimore Orioles have spent most of the last 5 years as one of the worst teams in baseball.  Are they finally ready to turn the corner and start to compete again?

2020 Predictions

#30 - 5th in AL East

MIH - Hanser Alberto

MIP - John Means

PTW - Ryan Mountcastle

FP - The Orioles will cut more payroll than is earned by the rest of their 25 man roster.

2020 Results

#26 - 25-35 - 4th in AL East

The Orioles surprised everyone and jumped out to a hot start in the COVID-shortened 2020 season.  Eventually they cooled off, and probably thanks to the short season, did not have enough time to fall all the way back to the cellar of the division.  It was good to see the Orioles relevant again, even if it was just for a couple weeks.

Additions / Subtractions

The Orioles made some small adjustments to a budding young roster.  They replaced shortstop Jose Iglesias with veteran Freddy Galvis.  Second baseman Hanser Alberto moved on to the Royals.  On the pitching side, the Orioles traded away Alex Cobb while signing Felix Hernandez on a minor league deal.  The biggest addition for the Orioles this season wasn't a transaction at all.  Trey Mancini is back after a year of battling colon cancer.  He will be the strong veteran presence in the young clubhouse in Baltimore.

Most Important Pitcher

Anthony Santander

Through the 2020 season, Anthony Santander led the Orioles' roster in WAR while starting to emerge as a low key potential star.  Entering his age 26 season, he has been an above average hitter (in terms of OPS+) in both of his full seasons so far.  The Orioles are starting to reach that point in their rebuild where they are starting to see which young players they can start to count on to be a part of that young core moving forward.  Santander seems to be one of the centerpieces.

Most Important Pitcher

John Means

The Orioles have some great young pitching starting to work their way through the farm system.  At the top of the system though, right now they are a little thin.  Counting on guys like King Felix and Wade LeBlanc to be key pieces in the rotation are showing how they are just waiting for the young kids to be ready.  The one young pitcher that has started to establish himself in the big leagues is John Means.  After being an All Star in 2019, he had an average season in 2020.  He needs to bounce back and emerge as an ace to be a part of the plans moving forward.

Prospect to Watch

Adley Rutschman

At some point in the 2021 season, the Orioles' news cycle will start to focus on when it will be time to start the clock on former #1 overall pick Adley Rutschman.  The top overall pick in 2019 and the #2 overall prospect in all of baseball, Rutschman is a switch hitting catcher that is the future face of the Baltimore Orioles.  The only question is if he will announce his presence with authority this season or next.

2021 Prediction

4th in AL East

I fully realize predicting the Orioles to finish above the Red Sox this season is quite a bit of a stretch.  The Red Sox are pretty easily the more talented roster.  With that said, the Orioles had some pretty decent success in 2020, and for a young team like this to get a string of success like that, the confidence can only build knowing that they are capable of winning.  The Orioles seem to finally be moving up, while the Red Sox seem stagnant at best.  For that alone, it was worth predicting the Orioles to repeat in fourth place.

Fearless Prediction

Trey Mancini will win Comeback Player of the Year.

Okay, this isn't a very bold prediction but it is worth mentioning.  As soon as Trey Mancini sees the field in a regular season game and shows any shadow of the player he was before cancer struck, this award will pretty much be in the bag.  And fully deserved.

2021 Pre-Season Profile: Pittsburgh Pirates

 #30

Spring Training is open and it looks like we are having something that much more resembles a full and normal baseball season in 2021!  Around this time every year, I love to look ahead and preview what the season will look like for every team.  We start at the bottom of my power rankings and work up to my predicted World Series champ.

Our first team is the team that was, by far, the worst team in the short 2020 season.  Is it possible after that horrible 2020 campaign, the Pirates have farther to fall before they turn the corner.  The answer might be yes.

2020 Predictions

#28 - 5th in NL Central

MIH - Bryan Reynolds

MIP - Chris Archer

PTW - Mitch Keller

FP - Chris Archer will be traded before the end of the season for one mid-level prospect.

2020 Results

#30: 19-41, 5th in NL Central

The Pirates quickly dropped all the way to the bottom of the league in 2020 as so many things went wrong in the shortened season.  Bryan Reynolds, the Pirates' breakout star in 2019, had a very disappointing season.  Chris Archer opted out of the last season of his deal with the Pirates.  Nothing went well for Derek Shelton in his first year as manager.

Additions / Subtractions

The Pirates had not entered a full rebuild until now.  This offseason, they traded Josh Bell to the Nationals, Jameson Taillon to the Yankees, and Joe Musgrove to the Padres.  They also let Trevor Williams and Chris Archer sign elsewhere.  With Archer's departure, we might be looking at one of, if not the, worst trade of the 21st century so far.

Most Important Hitter

Gregory Polanco

As the last holdover from the Pirates' playoff teams, you have to think Gregory Polanco will not be lasting much longer in Pittsburgh.  He has a team option after this year, so he could become a free agent after 2021, however he needs to reestablish his value this season as he has never really turned into the star his potential said he could be.  If he has a solid year and returns to hitting like he did in 2017 and 2018, he could be worth something on the trade market mid-season.  Otherwise, he will just walk away after the season.

Most Important Pitcher

Mitch Keller

With Musgrove, Archer, Williams, and Taillon all moving on, that leaves the young Mitch Keller as the ace of the Pirates' rotation.  Keller recovered from a rough debut in 2019 to have a solid season in 2020.  Now he is going to be asked to be one of the faces of the franchise moving forward and be a potential star.  He has the talent if it all comes together right.

Prospect to Watch

Ke'Bryan Hayes

In 2020, we finally saw the long-awaited debut of 2nd generation baseball phenom Ke'Bryan Hayes (son of Charlie Hayes).  In only 24 games, Hayes led the Pirates in WAR for the season.  He did maintain his rookie status, so he will enter 2021 as the team's starting 3rd baseman, the 9th best prospect in all of baseball, and the new star at the heart of the Pirates' lineup.

2021 Prediction

5th in NL Central

As bad as 2020 was for Pittsburgh, I think 2021 will be worse.  They don't have many veterans left, they don't have a ton top-tier young prospects ready to hit the big leagues right now, and the rest of their division is going to be very competitive.  They could be a 110+ loss team this year.

Fearless Prediction

Ke'Bryan Hayes will be an All Star and Rookie of the Year in 2021.

As bad as the Pirates are going to be, young Ke'Bryan Hayes will definitely be a standout and a reason to watch the otherwise irrelevant season they will have.  Look for him to be the sole Pirates representative at the Mid-Summer Classic and ride that all the way to a potential Rookie of the Year win when all is said and done.

2020 Pre-Season Profile: Baltimore Orioles

#30

I wasn't planning on writing my baseball preview articles this season.  I didn't think I was going to have the time (and I didn't).  Then the whole world shut down with a pandemic, and the baseball season was indefinitely postponed.  Needless to say, I all of a sudden have some time on my hands.  So to celebrate the week the baseball season was supposed to start, I am instead starting my slightly delayed look at the season that will be ... whenever we get around to it ... if we get around to it.  (My money is on Opening Day being the 4th of July.)

It is so disappointing to see this season delayed because there were so many fascinating storylines to follow.  Two of the biggest brands and best teams in baseball got even better by each adding one of the best players in the game.  Speaking of the best players in the game, the undisputed #1 of that list finally got a formidable right hand man.  Then there are the teams mired in controversy after a cheating scandal that led to year-long suspensions and references to Pete Rose and Shoeless Joe.  There are a couple superteams and a handful that are in the middle of a full rebuild, but you also have over 20 teams you could legitimately argue are serious playoff contenders.  No wonder rumors are flying to expand the playoffs (a plan which I love, but I don't think it will actually happen until baseball expands to 32 teams).  Even the rebuilding teams are starting to have some reasons to be excited as the stockpiling of prospects are starting to hit the big league field, however this delayed and most likely truncated season will hold back the development of a lot of young talen.  It is going to be an exciting season ... whenever it gets started.

With all that said, we are starting at the bottom and looking at the teams that really have the least to be excited about.  The Baltimore Orioles have been in full rebuild mode for several years now, finishing in the cellar three straight years and bottoming out in 2018 when they lost 115 games.  Last season saw a new GM and manager, but it also saw another 100 loss season.  Will 2020 bring a noticeable improvement or more of the same?

2019 Predictions

#30 - 5th in AL East

MIH: Chris Davis

MIP: Alex Cobb

PTW: Dillon Tate

FP: The Orioles will pick in the top 5 in the MLB Draft for five straight seasons.

2019 Results

#29 - 54-108, 5th in AL East

The Orioles waited way too long to start their rebuild which almost guaranteed they were facing some ridiculously lean years for quite some time.  The players I predicted their success would be dependent on failed miserably.  Chris Davis followed up the historically bad 2018 with a slightly better but still really bad 2019.  The pure power hitter hit below .180 for the second straight year while also failing to top the 20 home run mark, finishing with a -1.2 WAR.  Entering his age 34 season with three years left on a historically bad 7 year, $161 million deal, he is untradeable and probably uncuttable.  As far their Most Important Pitcher, Alex Cobb only pitched in three games before the rest of the season was lost to a hip injury.  He is also entering his age 34 season and signed through 2022, although on a slightly more bearable deal.  Even my pick for their Prospect to Watch floundered as Dillon Tate, once a highly-touted prospect, could only get 21 innings in.  He is barely staying in the top 30 of Baltimore's prospect list.  There was very little to be excited about in 2019 for the Orioles.

Additions / Subtractions

The Orioles also did not do much over the offseason to excite their fan base.  Their best hitter in 2019, Jonathan Villar, was traded to Miami for a minor leaguer.  The pitcher who had been touted as their ace of the future (although never fully living up to the hype), Dylan Bundy, was traded to the Angels.  Coming in were only veteran placeholders like shortstop Jose Iglesias and starting pitcher Wade LeBlanc.

Most Important Hitter

Hanser Alberto

Last year, I said the Orioles' most important players were the guys that could build trade stock so they could bring back some value.  They don't really have any of those anymore like I already said.  It is now time for the Orioles to take a true step forward, and that means players like Hanser Alberto need to continue to develop into potential stars.  Alberto's success last season allowed for the Orioles to trade Jonathan Villar and make Alberto their everyday second baseman.  He was definitely a bright spot in 2019, hitting over .300 with 12 homers and 51 RBI's.  If the Orioles are going to be better this year, players like Hanser Alberto, Austin Hays, and Anthony Santander need to prove they are ready to be daily contributors and possible stars.

Most Important Pitcher

John Means

If Alberto was a bright spot among the hitters, John Means was definitely the bright spot in the pitching staff.  The Orioles' lone All Star in 2019, Means had a great season, posting an ERA+ of 131 and finishing 2nd in the Rookie of the Year vote behind only Yordan Alvarez of the Astros.  Now with Dylan Bundy gone and Alex Cobb coming off injury, Means will be looked at as the ace heading into the season.  If he continues to develop, he is up to the task and could be the anchor a young team like this needs to move forward.

Prospect to Watch

Ryan Mountcastle

The Orioles have four prospects in the top 100, with last year's #1 overall pick Adley Rutschman topping out at #4.  However, Ryan Mountcastle is the one closest to the big leagues.  A former first round pick in 2015, this first baseman has hit at every level, even winning the AAA MVP last season and the Orioles Minor League Player of the Year award.  At some point in 2020, the Orioles will give up on Chris Davis, either by permanently benching him or cutting him and eating the money.  Either way, he will not block Ryan Mountcastle from making the big leagues for long.  He is a future cornerstone the Orioles will try and build on.

2020 Prediction

5th in AL East

This year will be another year of disappointment for the Orioles.  They seem to be on the trajectory the Astros took at the beginning of the 2010's.  Be really bad for 3-5 years and build up draft picks and prospects that will hopefully lead the team to the promised land at some point in the next 10 years.  The Orioles have already bottomed out, but they aren't ready to get better yet.  Look for this to be the third year in a row they earn a top five draft pick.

Fearless Prediction

The Orioles will cut more payroll than is earned by the rest of their 25 man roster.

Chris Davis is set to make $23 million this year and still has $69 million on his contract.  If he gets cut, those numbers very easily could be greater than the rest of the roster.  If Alex Cobb gets cut too (which is possible if he doesn't bounce back from his injury), then the Orioles will definitely be paying more money to players not in uniform than they will for players that are.  It is never a good thing, but it is sometimes necessary to take the steps forward a franchise needs.