July 21st, 2027 The Cincinnati Reds Prepare for the Trade Deadline
Ok this is where we are at. We are 7 1/2 games out of the Central Division lead behind the St Louis Cardinals. We are also 3 1/2 games behind the Rockies in the Wild Card Race with the Mets and Brewers in between. The Reds are ranked 1st in Runs scored and Home Runs but are ranked 12th in Runs allowed and 12th in Starters ERA, 11th in Relievers ERA. So its clear we need pitching.
Here is where we sit with our starters.
| Starters | Team | Age | W-L | ERA | GS | IP | Whip | Injured |
| Manny Perez | Reds | 24 | 8-7 | 4.88 | 19 | 114 | 1.33 |
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| Hubert Lucas | Reds | 27 | 6-4 | 5.45 | 19 | 102 | 1.45 |
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| Bart Whinnett | Reds | 26 | 5-5 | 4.29 | 19 | 98 | 1.27 |
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| Kevin Walsh | Reds | 25 | 1-4 | 6.11 | 13 | 66 | 1.55 |
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| Thierry Brisset | Reds | 30 | 3-4 | 8.31 | 6 | 52 | 2.00 |
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| Aus Smith | Reds | 33 | 1-0 | 3.86 | 2 | 28 | 1.61 |
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| Larry Baker | Reds | 32 | 2-1 | 2.49 | 5 | 21 | 0.83 | 3 weeks |
| Pedro Martinez | AAA | 24 | 8-5 | 4.29 | 20 | 121 | 1.39 |
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| Octavio Salazar | AAA | 32 | 4-6 | 7.23 | 18 | 89 | 1.78 |
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Baker is still 3 weeks away, Brisset has clearly not helped us out what so ever but he has 3 years left on his contract and its gonna cost us some money to get rid of him. Martinez is an option from the farm, but we definitely need to upgrade Walsh and Brisset.
| Player | POS | Age | Team | W-L | ERA | Whip | Salary |
| Juanito Gonzalez | SP | 36 | MIA | 2-1 | 4.13 | 1.20 | $0.7M |
| Manuel Campos | SP | 32 | SEA | 4-2 | 4.20 | 1.24 | $1.2M |
| Curt Burgess | SP | 32 | ARI | 5-3 | 6.17 | 1.49 | $4.0M |
| Freddie Garcia | SP | 29 | OAK | 5-11 | 5.05 | 1.32 | $6.5M |
| Michael Raymond | SP | 30 | ARI | 3-5 | 3.68 | 1.43 | $7.5M |
There is not much help from the pending Free Agents list of Starters not on contending teams. We may have to throw some bait out their to capture a potential SP to help us out.
We have 2 very capable Catchers in Jesus Lopez and Stan Shelton. I certainly get enough offers for Shelton and this could be a possible trade bait for a starter. Plan A would be to attempt to move 1B Andrew Cooper, Roberto Cortez or Wayne Sheehan and convert Shelton to a 1B. Maybe even move a OF Cesar Bautista to get that other SP we need or prospect OF Steve Garc who is AAA.
The next 10 days should prove interesting.