Originally posted on Cincinnati Reds on SIBy James Rapien

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The Reds traded Jonathan India and Joey Wiemer to the Royals for Brady Singer last week.

They received a B+ from ESPN analyst Bradford Doolittle.

“The Reds are plush with infield options, and with India down to one more arbitration-eligible season, this was a good time to move on from the former Rookie of the Year. Adding Weimer into the deal isn’t without pain, but he hadn’t been in the Cincinnati organization for very long and adding a rock-steady rotation member in Singer is worth the cost,” Doolittle wrote. “Singer has always been limited by his lack of secondary pitches, which has left him with unwieldy platoon splits — a .681 OPS allowed to righties that balloons to .784 against lefties. Yet he’s still been a plus pitcher, a career 102 ERA+ starter who has topped 150 innings in each of the past three seasons.”

Doolittle loves the pairing with Reds pitching coach Derek Johnson and believes Singer could help young starters like Hunter Greene and Nick Lodolo.

He is a bit worried about Singer’s history of giving up home runs, especially in a hitter friendly ballpark.

“When Singer struggles, it’s usually because of the long ball and that’s not a great trait for Great American Ballpark,” he wrote. “But there is a lot of upside to this deal for Cincinnati and it doesn’t feel like it has traded anyone that club officials can’t readily replace on the depth chart.”