Let’s be honest about this past season. For Reds fans, we were disappointed. This was supposed to be a year where we would see a leap forward in our young, promising prospects at the Major League level. Unfortunately, that didn’t happen. Coming off of a season where Manager David Bell was rewarded with an extension, then was fired with 5 games left. For the Reds and Nick Krall to make that decision so early following said extension, it must have been considered a disappointing season for the front office as well. Here is a month by month breakdown of the season that was not a complete disappointment, as there were some good moments. Just not enough to make the post-season.
March/April:
On March 8th, third baseman Noelvi Marte was suspended for 80 games for testing positive for performance enhancing drugs. This really kicked off a landslide for the Reds. Jose Barrero was claimed off waivers by the Rangers so the Reds were without a backup plan and acquired Santiago Espinal from the Blue Jays. On March 27th, Matt McLain would undergo surgery to repair cartilage damage in his right shoulder, knocking him out for what would turn into the remainder of the season. Brandon Williamson would begin the season on the IL with a shoulder strain. With all of this, the Reds’ plan to have Jonathan India get playing time in the outfield would be postponed going into the season.
The Reds would come out strong. Through April 25th, the Reds were 15-12 and coming off of a sweep of the LA Angels and a split with the Philadelphia Phillies. The Reds offense was not great. The Reds finished April 17th in home runs with 25. 29th in batting average with a team average of .208, but finished in the top 10 in runs scored. On the pitching side, the team was 14th in team ERA at 3.76 and 16th in home runs allowed with 26.
May:
May was not good. The Reds finished the month with a .213 batting average, worst in MLB, tied for last in home runs, 29th in runs scored and last in hits, 13 behind the next closest. The Reds record in was May 9-18, highlighted by a 8 game losing streak and a 3 game sweep by the Dodgers. The Reds’ pitching finished 10th in home runs allowed with 30, 16th in hits allowed and 15th in ERA at 3.98. The Reds ended May at 25-32.
The Summer:
June was a reasonable rebound, coming off a terrible May. They would finish 14-13 in the month but strung together 7 consecutive wins. The team improved their batting average and runs scored to 11th best in MLB. Batting .253 with 126 runs scored. Pitching was good, the team held a 3.74 ERA and a .226 batting average allowed. 9th and 7th best in MLB respectively. Noelvi Marte would return to the Reds on June 27th following his suspension. The Reds record would be 39-45 overall to end the month of June.
In July, the Reds ended the month 13-11. Rece Hinds would provide a spark to the offense, the team would finish 6th in home runs, 9th in runs scored, 9th in OPS and 3rd in stolen bases. The month would be highlighted by Rece Hinds and Hunter Greene. Hinds would win player of the week for the week of July 14th. In his first 7 games, Hinds hit .423 with 5 home runs and 11 RBI. Hinds also has the most extra base bits in a players first 2 games in the modern era. Hunter Greene would finish the month with a 0.33 ERA and 29 strikeouts in 27 innings pitched. The rest of the Reds pitching remained consistent with the 11th best ERA, top 20 in home runs allowed with 28, and 22nd in strike outs. The team finished with a July record of 52-56.
August/September:
The team would go 12-17 in August. Hitting would regress again, but the power would improve. The team would finish 5th in home runs, but 21st in batting average. The pitching would struggle, finishing 27th in ERA, 4th in hits allowed, allowed the most runs scored and home runs, but finished 5th in strikeouts. The team ended the month 64-73.
In September, the team finished 13-12. The team would sweep the Astros to start the month but would lose 3 out of the next 4 series and would fire David Bell following a 2-0 loss to the Pirates to conclude their final home stand. Freddy Benavides would take over interim duties to finish the year and get 1 win out of his 5 games.
Final thoughts:
Elly De La Cruz is a budding star and Hunter Greene is the ACE of this team. The team’s hiring of Terry Francona, in my mind, signals the front office believes this team can win and win now. I believe Noelvi Marte will improve next season. I think Jeimer Candelario played hurt most of the time. The 3 wild cards for me are Christian Encarnacion-Strand, Nick Lodolo and Matt McLain. CES could be the power bat this team longs for. Nick Lodolo can be just as good, if not better than Hunter Greene when healthy. Matt McLain, like he was when he was promoted in 2023, could be the spark to lead this team needs at 2nd base. 2024 wasn’t what we wanted as Reds fans, but maybe it’s what we needed.
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