11-5-25 Reds Hot Stove League

11-5-25 Reds Hot Stove League

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
This is the Budweiser reds Hot Stove League, presented by
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(00:23):
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(00:44):
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Speaker 2 (01:12):
He very delightful, good evening to you, and welcome into
the Budweiser reds Hot Stove League presented by you DF.
We are live the bet MGM sportsbook inside Tom's Watch,
Bart Banks with Jim Day. I'm Tommy Thrall, we are
eager to talk Reds Baseball with you for the next hour.
You can always give us a call five, one, three, seven, four, nine,
seven thousand, uh or one eight hundred the big One.

(01:35):
We've got a big show today, Jimmy, the Skipper, Tino,
Terry franco is gonna be on with us today.

Speaker 3 (01:40):
Yeah, it was a some nice time off I say,
you know, after the season.

Speaker 2 (01:45):
To regroup a little bit.

Speaker 3 (01:47):
But the front office and the coaching staff has been very,
very busy throughout the month of October in the November,
and none more busy than the guy we're going to
talk to.

Speaker 2 (01:57):
Yeah, so a lot to get to with him, including
not really an overhauled coaching staff, but certainly some changes
to the coaching staff. We'll talk about that, plus the
direction of this team heading into the offseason. There's a
lot for us to talk about as well with regards
to where this team's at. There's a lot of guys
that are now free agents from last year's team. Of course,

(02:18):
the Red's coming off the postseason run for the first
time since the twenty twenty season. Let's talk with Red's
manager Terry fran Conatito welcome in and how are you doing?
How's your offseason treating you so far?

Speaker 4 (02:30):
Tommy?

Speaker 5 (02:31):
How are you man? I'm doing wonderful. Thank you.

Speaker 2 (02:34):
I just want to know if the picture you sent
me of your leg it looked like it had been
through a meat grinder. I want to know how that's doing.

Speaker 5 (02:44):
It's okay.

Speaker 4 (02:45):
I'm actually in the car right now, driving from Phoenix
to Tucson, and I will be really happy to get
off out of this seat because this is the one
thing that sitting for a while still hurts like. This
was a little harder surgery than I thought. Remember when
Sean Casey did it, Yeah, this last summer when he

(03:07):
was and I gave him more grief.

Speaker 5 (03:10):
And if iut a known, I would have lightened up
a little bit.

Speaker 2 (03:14):
Did you tear that pletely off the bone? Your hamstring?
And are you and that you said you're your car?
You sound like you're in a space shovel.

Speaker 4 (03:22):
I mean, I'm in the car and I know my
signal's not very good, so I hope you guys can
hear me. But uh yeah, the doctor, doctor Kremchek put
about five anchors in there, and he cleaned me up
and said I'm gonna be pretty good.

Speaker 2 (03:38):
Wow. Well, well that's good to know that you're going
to be good. It didn't look good. I don't think
any of those pictures that you have after the surgery,
you're going to be hanging up in the louver anytime soon. So, uh,
let's talk about those in the food room. Yeah, right,
that's a good appetite, sup President.

Speaker 5 (03:53):
Uh.

Speaker 2 (03:54):
If you could totally imagine these pictures, they are every
color of the rainbow. You couldn't even imagine what part
of the body they came from. They were grouped anyway. Uh,
let's let's talk about this team. I mean, you take over,
you go to the postseason in your first year. But
but knowing you the way we do, you're probably not
satisfied with the way at all and did so. So

(04:16):
when you when you look back on this season, how
long before you were able to kind of relax, decompress
and then go all right, now time for the postportum
and start to break things down.

Speaker 4 (04:27):
Well, you know what, right when we were done, you know,
I had that surgery, so and I stayed in Cincinnati
for about two weeks just because you know, I lived
with myself and I wasn't really self sufficient, so I
didn't want to come back to Arizona until I could
take care of myself. But it gave me two weeks
to to think about.

Speaker 5 (04:48):
A lot of stuff and it was good.

Speaker 4 (04:51):
You know, I got to decompress, but I also had
time to to think about things, and I've made a
ton of notes and shoot, beat up. That's where That's
where I know. I'm excited when I start doing stuff
in October as opposed to maybe in January. There's a
good excitement there, and that's a good thing.

Speaker 3 (05:11):
Can compare it to last year? I know that it
takes some time to get to know the team, the players,
the organization, etc. And at times maybe even flying blind
last year. Now that you know this team, is it
easier to make those notes this year?

Speaker 5 (05:31):
Yes, I believe so.

Speaker 4 (05:32):
And one of the things you just brought up is
because there's familiarity, that doesn't mean we work less.

Speaker 5 (05:40):
It just means we.

Speaker 4 (05:42):
Should be able to get more done in an economical
period of time because they know what is expected and I.

Speaker 5 (05:51):
Know them, so it should be to our advantage.

Speaker 2 (05:55):
What are some of the things like when you break
down this past season, what what was it that stood out?
What was maybe at the top of the notes list.

Speaker 4 (06:05):
Well, I mean I thought some of our young pitchers
made really good strides, you know, like Abbitt Lodolo, you know,
because those guys hadn't made it really through a year
with complete health, you know, getting Chase Burns in the
mix and knowing that, you know, the gloves will kind
of come off a little next year. Get we need

(06:28):
a hunt We need Hunter Green to be healthy. That's
that's a must, and we got to keep him healthy.
You know, we're gonna have to redo our bullpen a
little bit. And I think there are some really bright spots,
you know. I got like Connor Phillips kind of burst
onto the scene and kind of looks like he might
want to be a little exciting. So you know there's something.

(06:51):
There's some things that we do have to replenish. And
I think for us to be as good as we want,
we got to get deeper. That's the biggest thing is
because you know, guys are going to get hurt and
we just got to find a way to get deeper.

Speaker 5 (07:07):
And that's not easy to do.

Speaker 3 (07:09):
How do you become more consistent offensively? If if everyone
in the world had that answer in baseball boy, it
would be an easy game, but it's not. How can
you guys as a group collectively be more consistent offensively?

Speaker 4 (07:26):
Well, I do think with Chris Valaka being here for
a year, just like I was saying a minute ago,
I think that's to our advantage because he's so he
gets everybody so well prepared.

Speaker 6 (07:39):
You know.

Speaker 5 (07:39):
Some of it sometimes, guys, I think.

Speaker 4 (07:42):
Is when you're not at full strength, and it shows
like when we would when Austin Hayes would be down
and it happened a few times. We weren't really deep
enough where we could we could handle that. So and
again that's why I keep saying, we got to get
deeper so we can handle when things come up during

(08:03):
the season, because you know they're gonna happen.

Speaker 2 (08:07):
You know, we talked earlier about the frustration, of course,
or maybe the steeing of the early exit from the postseason,
but you talked about the eagerness to get back to work,
and you talked about the excitement. Uh when you when
you look back at at last season, you make the
run to get to the postseason, and and look, we

(08:27):
talked about it at the time coming out of the
All Star break, this team had the hardest, hardest road
to the postseason. It was the toughest schedule in baseball
in the second half, and we talked about it where
it didn't matter how you did it, but if you
made the playoffs, you would have earned it. You did. Uh,
But how do you balance that with with the exit?

(08:47):
And then does it does it make you excited for
the offseason and next year, or or does the burn
kind of kind of fire you a little bit more
than the for next year, If that makes.

Speaker 4 (09:01):
Sense, Tommy, Yeah, I hope, I hope that it's both.
And I told our guys that after the last game,
I said, I'm glad we got to to open some
champagne and pour it on each other. And I didn't
want them to forget that. But at the same time,
I want them to remember how much it hurt when

(09:22):
you get eliminated before you want to, because you try
to use everything to your advantage.

Speaker 5 (09:28):
And I think we'll use both of those.

Speaker 2 (09:30):
On that day.

Speaker 3 (09:31):
I mean, that was a fun day obviously, pop in
the champagne, But you just mentioned it. It was the
high of getting in and then the low of going
out early. If you have the same nucleus back, and
there were even players that day that said that, hey,
we finally got to see what this is.

Speaker 2 (09:48):
Like, how far can that go?

Speaker 5 (09:52):
I think it goes a long way. You know, we're
really young.

Speaker 4 (09:55):
We're inexperienced in a lot of ways. Them living through that,
and I looked at guys like TJ. Friedel and Tony
Santeon that had been kind of grind and then fighting,
and I watched them hugging. That's meaningful and it's real
and we, like I said, we got to use it
to our advantage and we will.

Speaker 2 (10:18):
I want to talk about the outfield you mentioned TJ. Friedel.
A lot more to get to with you, Tito. You
got some time to stick around on your drive with us.

Speaker 5 (10:26):
Yeah, as long as you guys can.

Speaker 2 (10:28):
Hear me, I'm okay, Yeah, we got you loud and clear. Actually,
so we got to get to a break. But we've
got more with Tito coming up next. This is the
Budweiser Reds Hot Stove League, one of twenty one on
the year and it's presented by UDF. We're live the
bet MGM Sports Book inside Tom's watch Bar of the
Banks on the Reds Radio Network. Welcome back again to

(10:49):
the Budwives Reds Hot Stove League presented by UDF. We're
live at the bet MGM Sports Book inside Tom's Watch
Bar at the Banks. The twenty twenty six Reds Heads
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are the perfect gift for the young Reds fan and
your life. Membership includes exclusive gear, free tickets, and more.

(11:09):
Visitreds dot com slash Kids Club for details. We're visiting
with Red's manager Terry Francona. Phone lines are open. That's
one eight hundred, the big one locally five one, three, seven,
four nine, seven thousand. We'll get your phone calls to
the bottom of the hour. Tito, we were talking about
you mentioned some of the guys that were that you

(11:30):
could really see the pain the agony of getting eliminated
from the postseason. One of them you mentioned was outfielder
TJ Friedel. TJ is one of the guys when people
ask me who is a guy that's kind of part
of the heart and soul of this team? I think
he's He's pretty high on that list. But you know,
you look at the outfield production as a whole. That
was that was kind of a hole on this team.

(11:52):
When you look at getting better starting at beginning of
the outfield, how do you make the outfield better moving forward?
Because TJ friedel Uh had his ups and downs this year,
I still look at him and feel like he had
a pretty good year. The numbers are okay, But but
when you look at it, how does this get better
with him as a part of it.

Speaker 5 (12:12):
Well, and you make it, you make a good point.

Speaker 4 (12:15):
I do think noelve Marte being our right fielder.

Speaker 5 (12:20):
You know, when the season.

Speaker 4 (12:20):
Starts, if you have to platoon at like four or
five positions, it just gets really hard.

Speaker 6 (12:29):
You know.

Speaker 4 (12:29):
With TJ And again he played, he probably played too much.
You know, everybody made a big deal out of Li playing,
but TJ and it was out of necessity. But I
think if we have the ability to rest him a
little bit more, he won't get so banged up and
you'll see maybe a little better numbers.

Speaker 5 (12:48):
Than the second half. Like I said, I think I think.

Speaker 4 (12:51):
Marte's brighter days are all in front of him. You know,
he has some growing pains this year, but he also.

Speaker 5 (12:59):
Did some pretty good things. You know, left field, we
we mixed.

Speaker 4 (13:04):
And matched a lot because you know, with Hayes being
either dh only or on the I l a few times,
So we got to figure that one out. And maybe
that's a place where we can make a little bit
of a jump there.

Speaker 2 (13:18):
How do you You mentioned Ellie? Uh?

Speaker 3 (13:22):
And maybe playing too much, maybe some off days will
will do him good. You would know more about that
than me. But how do you have him improve defensively?

Speaker 5 (13:33):
Uh?

Speaker 2 (13:33):
And I know it seemed like it got in his
head a little bit. Is is he.

Speaker 3 (13:39):
A long term stay at shortstop? And if he is,
how do you make him more consistent defensively?

Speaker 5 (13:46):
Well, that's the that's the one hundred dollars question. And
I do believe.

Speaker 4 (13:53):
I think Freddy Benavidez is one of the better coaches
I've ever been around. And Freddie lives and dies. He's
trying to get these guys better. You know, part of
part of Ellie makes some airs. I think that that
can be fixed. I also think with with such a
long leverage guy like Ellie, like every time he throws,

(14:16):
he's got to pay attention because he's just got such long,
long arm action and that's never gonna change. But you know, again,
he led the leg of airs. That's not one of
our goals. So we got to clean that up, and
and and we're gonna we're gonna spend a ton of
energy on trying to do it. I, Ellie, doesn't short

(14:37):
change you on on on effort. That's the one really
good thing.

Speaker 2 (14:41):
I want to get to your coaching staff a little bit,
uh before we have to let you go. H obviously
Brad Mills retiring. Uh, let's start there. How much has
has Milsey meant to you? I mean, he's been with
you every stop along the way. He has been on
your staff at some point each of your four managery stop.
So so how how important is it? How important is

(15:05):
he to you and your life?

Speaker 4 (15:09):
Well, he's been like my big brother for forty years,
forty five years, and you know, I think I think
it was really important for Milsey that he was able
to say that he could come back after everything he
and his family have been through. And then I also
think it was time for him to say, Okay, I
did it.

Speaker 5 (15:29):
Now I can go home.

Speaker 4 (15:30):
And and I wouldn't doubt if we find a way
to keep him in the organization because he just add
so much value to anybody he talks to, you know,
myself included.

Speaker 5 (15:44):
So I'm hopeful and.

Speaker 4 (15:45):
I know Brad Better's already talked to him about maybe
trying to carve a way out to keep him around.

Speaker 5 (15:51):
A little bit.

Speaker 2 (15:52):
Well time, I want to I want to talk about
that for a second, because you know, when you get
somebody that kind of has a thirty thousand feet view
of everything, especially when it's somebody that you trust as
much as you do Milsey, how valuable can that be
somebody that's actually a little bit more removed from everything
than somebody that's right there in the trenches on a

(16:12):
daily basis.

Speaker 6 (16:14):
Wow?

Speaker 4 (16:14):
I mean, can you take it a step further? Can
you imagine some kid that just signed and he shows
up in Goodyear and Brad Mills is there for a
week to mentor him and kind of give him some
of the dues and don'ts I just think that's so valuable.
Milty has a way about him where he's kind of
like your grandpa and he never raises his voice, but

(16:36):
he has a really good message, and I think there's
there's still value there that we can find even if
he's not with us every day.

Speaker 2 (16:45):
We only got a couple of minutes left.

Speaker 3 (16:47):
I want to go through the rest of his coaching staff,
You've got that Mike Napoli that's moving into that sistan
bench coach role, and you've got some new faces as well.
You excited about their group you put together.

Speaker 5 (16:59):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (16:59):
You Willy Harris is gonna be our third base coach.
And will you know, WILLI was a major league third
base coach with the Cubs.

Speaker 5 (17:07):
Things happen.

Speaker 4 (17:08):
He takes an e ball manager's job with us, and
I think it impressed everybody, like nothing was too small
for him. And he even when I was scouted the
Dodgers before that series. So I think his energy, his enthusiasm,
I think will fit right in. He's gonna be fine.
We also hired Bill Hasselman, who I've known are catchers,

(17:33):
and he's also gonna be a really positive addition to
our staff.

Speaker 2 (17:40):
Well, Tito, certainly appreciate the time. Good catch it up
with you. I hope the healing process with your leg
goes well. How much time left you got on the rehabit?
Are you gonna be one hundred percent by the time
pitchers and catchers report.

Speaker 4 (17:54):
Tommy, I haven't been one hundred percent since nineteen eighty two,
But I think I'm gonna be fine, and I think
I got some work ahead of me another week or
month or six weeks, but I'm gonna be just fine.

Speaker 5 (18:06):
I'll be rare to go.

Speaker 2 (18:07):
I promise you go on to Tucsons.

Speaker 3 (18:10):
So the stock on the food delivery services has gone
up right.

Speaker 2 (18:14):
Well, just as long as you're able to get to
your seats at the Arizona basketball games. That's the main thing.
I mean, that's that's starting up.

Speaker 4 (18:21):
You know what, guys, guys, there's a game Friday, and
I can't go yet because I just can't sit like
that for two hours and it's killing me.

Speaker 5 (18:30):
No, that's my favorite thing in life.

Speaker 2 (18:34):
Tito, Thanks for the time, really appreciate it, and I'm
sure we'll chat plenty more of this offseason.

Speaker 5 (18:40):
Oh thanks, guys. Good to talk to.

Speaker 2 (18:42):
You all right. That is Red's manager Terry Francona joining us.
It is the first Budweiser Hot Stove League of the Season,
presented by UDF. We are live the bet MGM sportsbook
inside Tom's watch bar here at the banks. We've got
plenty more to get to, including your phone one eight hundred,
the Big one, five, one, three, seven, four, nine, seven thousand.

(19:04):
Your phone calls are next. This is the Reds Radio Network,
Welcome back in to the budweis the Reds Hot Steve
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(19:26):
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Let's go to the phone lines and check in with

(19:46):
Pat in Indiana. What's up Pat?

Speaker 5 (19:50):
How you doing?

Speaker 2 (19:51):
Hey? We're great, great, ready, we are. We are excited
to be talking Reds baseball before the weather has even
had a chance to get cold.

Speaker 6 (20:00):
I'll tell you what I'm excited for, the whole hot
Stove leg and hopefully we make a few moves and
hopefully the guys that had off years will have a
better year next year. And man out on the on
side of that, I got one of the things short
off base here in Seymour, Indiana. We have an October
Fesh first weekend of October every year and Bronson a

(20:23):
Roro played his band there, and I'm gonna tell you
besides the band was great, he's a great ambassador for
the Cincinnati Reds and he was very pleasant and easy
to talk to, and I just wanted to pass that
on too.

Speaker 2 (20:37):
I appreciate that, Pat, thanks for the thanks for the
phone call, and glad you're excited for some Reds baseball
play Bronson. If you haven't seen him play, he is
pretty good.

Speaker 3 (20:47):
He has come really Listen, Yeah, you know there with
Bryn's a long time friends with him and we both
played guityrole plays wells in but he has come a
long way. He just came out with an album a
few weeks back, and I got to tell you the
last two that he's put out.

Speaker 2 (21:04):
Just download them.

Speaker 3 (21:05):
They it will Uh, You'll be surprised at how far
he's come as a song They're all originals the show.
It's not covers, they're all originals. And he has come
a mile as a songwriter.

Speaker 2 (21:17):
You know. I I guess it was last Thanksgiving, maybe Christmas,
I don't know. It was one of the holidays. I
was back home in Missouri and uh, a football game
had ended and the masked singer came on next. Never
seen the show once in my life, and this guy
is performing. We I don't know why we kept it on,

(21:38):
but we did. And the guy that was performing in
this ridiculous outfit. Do I think it was a dog?
I think he was a dog. So he's singing dressed
up as a dog, and then they start guessing who
it is, and uh, somebody guessed Bronson Arroyo and I thought, oh,
you know what, I think that it was Bronson. So

(21:58):
then we had to wait to see and it was
and it was awesome. But I watched that.

Speaker 3 (22:02):
Show a few times and I love how they're guesses.
They'll like, guess these people that would never do that show?

Speaker 2 (22:08):
Yeah, is it Taylor Swift?

Speaker 1 (22:10):
Is it?

Speaker 2 (22:12):
No, it's State Tech. Let's let's go back to the
phone lines. Get this thing back on the rails. Ernie
in Bellevue, restore order to this program. What do you got, Ernie?

Speaker 7 (22:23):
Well, I want to compliment everybody over there because I
really had a fun time listening to the Reds this year,
and I, you know, I hadn't done it in a
long time.

Speaker 5 (22:34):
It was really good. Uh.

Speaker 8 (22:36):
The one thing I want to criticize a little bit.

Speaker 5 (22:39):
I don't want to be negative.

Speaker 8 (22:41):
But I think we need to have a little bit
more guts from the booth. And what I mean by
that is I don't know how contracts work, so I
need Jim to explain to me.

Speaker 5 (22:53):
Like Espinal, was he just up?

Speaker 8 (22:55):
I mean, that's a utility player. Wasn't playing a lot.
It seems like you could utilize him. And uh, you know,
I'm not supposed to comment on the Bengals, but much
like the Bogan Wilson guy, you know, I mean, I'm
not blaming anybody, but what I'm saying is I just
wish I knew and Jim could do this. I'm glad

(23:18):
all these contracts work.

Speaker 3 (23:20):
Uh, he was on the he was on the final
year of a contract, and I don't expect him to
be back with the Reds.

Speaker 5 (23:29):
Uh.

Speaker 3 (23:29):
Once you reach that type of veteran status, you make
a little more money for so for someone that's not
going to play as much, you you kind of want to.
That's where you kind of pench pennies a little bit.
Now as far as him not playing, he was really valuable.
Those first couple of months of the season, he really
had it going on. Terry fra He's a perfect Terry
Francona utility player in that he can play so many

(23:52):
positions and that for.

Speaker 8 (23:53):
A manager and how I feel like Francona really kind
of alluded to the fact that the guy's invaluable. And
you know, I meant he.

Speaker 3 (24:02):
Got a little exposed offensively when he started playing every day,
he got exposed offensively and the numbers went down dramatically.
So he just turned into that defensive utility option later
in games. And there were times that he just didn't play,
you know, for periods at a time, and that makes
it even tougher on a guy going to the plate.

(24:23):
But what he put together in those first couple of
months particularly, he was really valuable, but just went downhill offensively,
so that made it tough.

Speaker 2 (24:31):
Appreciate the car, Andy, thank you so much. You're welcome
by all right, take care. But going back to to
what he was talking about with a guy like Espinal,
keep in mind, this guy was an All Star a
few years ago. He was one of the Reds best
offensive players two years ago. Over about him two or
three months stretch. He's very reliable defensively. Now he's not

(24:53):
going to be a guy that's gonna wind it up
with a bunch of home runs and drive the ball
out of the ballpark. Can hit for a lot of power,
but he puts the ball in play pretty consistently. And
you talk about him being like the perfect Terry Francona
type player. He likes guys off the bench that have
versatility defensively and are not a huge strikeout liability. He

(25:15):
checked both of those boxes. I thought Tito really used
him well. And the other part about it too, I
think he also gives you gives Tito a little bit
of flexibility of what he can do decision wise managing
the game late, because you can put him in somewhere defensively,
maybe when you're when you're batting somebody that that's hitting
for a guy that you know they can't play that
position that the guy they're hitting for play. So I

(25:38):
like the roster flexibility that brought to the table. I'm
curious to see if he's going to be back like you.
I just think once you get to a certain point
we've been around a little longer, it gets a little
harder to keep some of those guys that are kind.

Speaker 3 (25:51):
Of I'm sorry it's too much to explain the contracts
and how they go up, but for a veteran like that,
they're not going to make the minimum sound if you
go to with with a deal with them. So I
expect him to still be in the game. He's that valuable.
Not sure he's going to be with Cincinnati.

Speaker 2 (26:09):
Reds have made some roster moves. The roster spots have
opened up because some guys are free agents. We'll talk
about that and much more to get to It's the
first installment of the offseason of the Budweiser Reds Hot
Stove League presented by UDF. We're live the bet MGM
sports Book Inside Nation or inside Tom's Watch Bar at
the Banks on the Reds Radio Network. Welcome back into

(26:37):
the Budweiser reds Hot Stove League presented by UDF. We
are live at the bet MGM Sports Book inside Tom's
Watch Bar at the Banks with Jim Day on Tommy Throw.
Phone lines are open five one, three, seven, four, nine seven.
The Big One talking some Reds Baseball mentioned that there
are some free agents already from last year's Red's roster.

(27:01):
Some moves. Actually that just happened about an hour ago,
hour or two ago, and that is the fact that
Scott Barlow. The club declined the option on Scott Barlow,
declined the mutual option on Austin Hayes, and also declined
the club option on Brent Souter, making all three of
those guys free agents. The Reds also had a group

(27:22):
of guys that were that became free agents just basically
because their contracts. Miguel and Dujar, Zach Lttel, Nick Martinez,
Wade Miley, and Emilio Pagan. No real surprises there, Jim.
But when you look at the list of those guys,
and some of those guys were pretty big contributors. Emilio Pagan,
you could argue was the MVP of the bullpen last year.

(27:44):
I don't necessarily expect to see him back. Another guy.
I don't think Zach Lettel is going to be back.
I don't think the Reds are going to be able
to afford to bring back Nick Martinez either. And Nick
Martinez very well could have been the team MVP because
of his versatility as both the starter and a reliever.

Speaker 3 (28:01):
Yeah, none of those were surprises. I imagine the one
that was hanging in the balances. Are they going to
pick up Austin Hayes' option? I think in the in
the end, it was such a jump in salary. He
was not healthy, He did not stay healthy when he
was me Even Terry fran Cone in the first half
hour mentioned now important he was to their offensive club,

(28:25):
but when they were just in the increases in salaries,
same with Barlow. So I don't think any of those
were surprises. So I mean Barlow pitched himself into a
nice contract. Me Leo Pagan pitched himself into a multi
year deal, and for someone like Begone, this might be
his last multi year deal, So we understand that. So
there's gonna be some some holes to fill, particularly in

(28:47):
the bullpen.

Speaker 2 (28:47):
There's gonna be good competition down there.

Speaker 3 (28:50):
It's gonna be interesting to see what this front office
does in the offseason and with the budget that they have,
how they spend that month.

Speaker 2 (28:57):
Well, I'm curious to see how you put the bullpen together,
because you go out try to get a guy that's
going to be your ninth inning guy, or did you
see enough last year from maybe even Tony Santian to
make him your ninth inning guy moving forward? How does
that all play out? You know? I think the hope
was that Graham Ashcraft would start to pitch his way
into that role. He had flashes last year, but I

(29:21):
think he still saw some of the same things that
plagued him as a starter affect him out of the
bullpen as well. He just wasn't quite consistent enough to
be the lockdown guy at the back end of the
bullpen right now.

Speaker 3 (29:33):
Maybe the biggest question going into the season is who's
going to close. Who's going to close games? It could
be by committee. It's a whole different animal, and anyone
says it's just another ending is just wrong. So Santition
could work himself and he's probably still icing his arm
at that point. I concerned about the use that he had.

(29:54):
I mean, he pitched a ton of baseball. He'll take
the ball any time. In fact, he might be pitching
right now. Who knows. He's certainly going to be a candidate.
Terry Francona mentioned Connor Phillips. I don't think he's going
to be ready for that role yet, but boy did
he have closer type stuff. Graham Ashcraft has had a
taste of that, but he was inconsistent. So I think

(30:15):
that's gonna Unfortunately, it's going to be one of the
major question marks as we sit here now because we're
very early in the process. Obviously, it's going to be
one of the big questions not only who fills out
the bullpen, but who's at the back end.

Speaker 2 (30:29):
Certainly tough to see the Reds get bounced after two
games in LA where it was the pitching that failed
the red So we're sitting here, we're talking about the
pitching the bullpen going into the season. It was a
huge question mark last year. The bullpen and the starting
rotation turned out to be a string through this team
big time last year, and the bullpen in particular was

(30:50):
one of the best in the National League, surprisingly because well,
you lost your closer. He lost his job coming out
of spring training and Alexis he has so you had
to put that. You had to piece that together kind
of on the fly. And Emilio Pagan that's why what
he was able to do. He was far from perfect
as the ninth inning guy, but he was able to

(31:11):
pitch the ninth inning and he did a really good
job given that that's not what his role was expected
to be coming into the season. Some other guys filled
in nicely as well. So now now you've lost some
key pieces, can the bullpen get back to being a
strength of this team next year? And again, going back
to what I started to talk about getting bounced in

(31:32):
the postseason, I didn't expect that it was going to
be the pitching that was going to fail the Reds
against the Dodgers.

Speaker 5 (31:38):
No.

Speaker 3 (31:38):
I mean, listen, that Dodgers lab is crazy good, obviously,
so it's not surprising that they beat up on the
Reds like they did with that lineup. I think it
was to the the amount that they right, Yeah, that
was a little surprising. The games were not closer that surprising,

(32:00):
but hey, that gives you good taste, man. I mean,
Hunter Green got got beat up in that game, so
he's been there, done that. The experience of that is
really really gonna help. But you better have a good
bullpen in today's baseball, even if you do have a
starting pitching staff that they were one of the strengths,

(32:21):
if not the strength of this team last year in
the regular season. They went started going deeper in games.
That helped a little bit down the stretch, But you
better have a good bullpen. They've got some guys that
are gonna come back from an injury that's gonna help.
I think Brandon Williamson will help the depth of this club.
So we're gonna see that's that's gonna be the most

(32:42):
outside of trying to get some power in the middle
of the lineup, which everyone wants and they don't grow
on trees. Outside of that, who's going to fill out
that bullpen?

Speaker 2 (32:49):
Well, I think you bring up a good, good point
right there. It is hard to go out and get
a power bat. The Reds are not. Unless the financial
situation has changed, The Reds are probably not going to
be able to add a power bat through free agency.
Do they have the pieces to be able to trade
for an impact bat, we'll talk about that. It's the

(33:10):
Butterwise of Red's Hot Stove League presented by UDF. We
are live the BETMGM Sports Book inside Tom's Watch Bar
at the Banks on the Reds Radio Network. Welcome back
in the Butterwise of Reds Hot Stove Leak presented by UDF.
Coming to you live from the BEDMGM Sports Book. We're
inside Nation's Watch Bar down here at the Banks. Great menu,

(33:33):
by the way, if you haven't been down to check
that out, So come on down and see us. We're
here for just a little bit longer at Tom's watch
bar here at the Banks with Jim Day. I am
Tommy Throup wrapping things up, and we talked about this
team getting better and there's no doubt that this team
is going to have. The need is for there to

(33:57):
be more power in this lineup? How do you to
that point? We talked about the pitching depth that this
team has. Brandon Williamson being out for the year. Another
guy that missed the entire season is Rhet Louder.

Speaker 3 (34:09):
Now whom I failed to mention, And I think and
I think that's I think that is a big name.

Speaker 5 (34:14):
Now.

Speaker 2 (34:16):
I think he's gonna be really good when he returns.
Are you going to be able to count on him
to get through the whole season this year healthy after
missing all of last year? Can you rely on a
guy like Chase Burns to get you through the whole
season healthy? At the Reds did a good job to
get him to the finish line, using him some out
of the bullpen. He was hurt for a little bit.

(34:39):
But if you think you've got the depth there, that
might be your best option to acquire a power back,
you might have to move one of these prominent arms
in the rotation. We've seen the rumors, just like you
have that Hunter Green's name has been floated out there,
and I know the reaction would be, well, how do
you trade your best pitcher? Well, if he's going to
get you the biggest street turn and you feel like

(35:01):
you've got the organizational depth to cover that, it kind
of makes a lot of sense. And and he's got
to be a pretty enticing trade piece.

Speaker 3 (35:09):
If in fact, the Reds do go that route to
sign one of these big time free agents. You know,
I'm not sure I love it to happen. I'm not
sure it's gonna have to see Kyle Schwarburn. But I
think you make a good point. That's that's probably the
route they're going to have to go. If you're going,
it's gonna have to be via a trade. Now, if
they make a trade, what do you do? You trade

(35:30):
from strength? What is your strength? Your strength is starting
pitching and the depth who's gonna bring you the biggest
return those starting pitchers. You would mention Hunter Green, and
I you know, once we start talking about this, then
it's he does have a friendly contract, right, Okay, So
if you're gonna make a deal like that, don't be

(35:52):
surprised if all those names are floated out.

Speaker 2 (35:56):
Beyond Chase Burn no doubt and Louder. They're not going
to trade those young guys, but you gotta get a
good haul in return. If that's what the Reds are
gonna do, it's gonna be interesting this offseason, and that
is going to be one of the many things we'll
be keeping an eye on. We're back with you again
next week. That's all for this week's edition of the
Budweiser Reds Hot Stove League, presented by UDF for Jim Day,

(36:17):
David the Armbrusher, and Drew wester Heidi. Thanks to Terry Francona.
I'm Tommy throw good night.