Opinion: Three Bold Predictions for this Year Cincinnati Reds Team

After finishing third in the National League Central with an 82-80 record in 2023, the Cincinnati Reds are coming off of that season. During sections of the season, they had a lot to cheer about with the arrival of Matt McLain and top prospect Elly De La Cruz. With the goal of challenging for the Division title and making a big splash in the postseason, the squad hopes to maintain that energy throughout the 2024 campaign. The team added veteran corner infielder Jeimer Candelario and free agents Nick Martinez and Frankie Montas to strengthen its pitching staff this off-season. My three audacious predictions for this year’s squad are listed below.

The top Sophomore Performer won’t be Elly De La Cruz

Matt McLain will be the young player with the best offensive performance in their sophomore year this year. McLain was called up from triple AAA and participated in 82 games in the previous season. With 365 at-bats, he scored 65 runs, swung 14 bases, had 23 doubles, four triples, 16 home runs, 50 RBIs, and 31 walks. He hit.290/.357/.507 with an OBP of.864 in the 82 games played last year. De La Cruz is the huge name that everyone is talking about, but in my opinion, a player who can’t bat for an average above.240 will be less useful to a club than a player who can hit for a power hit that is close to.300. De La Cruz, Will Benson, and Christian Encarnacion Strand will all be significant contributors to the Reds’ offensive attack, but Matt McLain is expected to have the strongest season out of the four and to have a greater overall impact on the game due to his all-around offensive impact.This upcoming season, my bold prediction is that McLain will play in 150 games, hit between.288 and.294 with 35 doubles, seven triples, 28 home runs, 87 RBIs, score 100 runs, walk 58 times, and steal 30 bags.

Bullpen Improvements

For a club that finished first overall with 53 saves, Alexis Diaz had a strong season with the Reds last year. In addition to such saves, there is still space for growth because they had 79 save opportunities in the previous season, which means they missed 26 of them. Even while not all of those resulted in losses, that is still a significant number of chances. The Pens weren’t negatively impacted by closing it out because they were first in saves and third overall in opportunities. The bullpen’s 4.11 ERA and 1.35 WHIP from the previous season were the drawbacks. Though it’s true that the starters’ seasons weren’t particularly good, the squad was already in trouble when they departed the field. Last season, the Bullpen gave up far too many hits and was unable to miss many bats. Other than having Buck Farmer back, the team didn’t really aid the bullpen this season. Last year, not a single projected bullpen arm had an ERA lower than 4.00.My bold prediction for this bullpen is that Nick Martinez will return to the major league rotation in mid-to late May, replacing Andrew Abbott or Brandon Williamson as a middle reliever. Once Martinez is in the fold, the team will make a trade in mid-June for the best bullpen arm rather than a closer to bolster this bullpen, which will help the team win its first championship in years after going from an over-four ERA of 4.00 in the first two complete months of the season to an ERA below 3.70.

Three-Headed Monster in the Rotation

In addition to Graham Ashcraft, Andrew Abbott, and Nick Martinez for a while, I believe the Reds have a very strong top three in Hunter Greene, Frankie Montas, and a healthy Nick Lodolo. My intuition tells me that Frankie Montas will drive Hunter Greene to his finest season to date, and once healthy again, Nick Lodolo will catch up to them and have an incredible season.My Audacious Forecast Together, these three Reds starting pitchers have won 46 games thus far this season.This season, Greene has 16, Montas has 16, and Lodolo has 14. All three have more strikeouts than 165 strikeouts in a season.

Summary

This year, Matt McLain is going to have an incredible offensive season and emerge as the team’s offensive MVP. While each has a season to remember, Lodolo, Montas, and Greene will all have fantastic seasons leading this rotation. The bullpen was the most difficult bold prediction to make, but I had to take a chance and believe that Martinez’s great lifetime WHIP and ERA figures will help the team stabilize a unit that, aside from Diaz, was a complete bust last season. I believe they recognize Abbott’s potential and use him to push Martinez into a setup/middle relief role. They then go all out in the trade market, acquiring another elite reliever well in front of the trade deadline. This will make this team formidable in the latter stages. As a unit, I believe the Reds will push the Cubs in the NL Central all the way to the wire, and the winner of the division will depend on who strengthened their bullpens the most in the latter stages.