Check out latest Reds trade-chip report after late loss in Seattle

[ASFN Admin]

SEATTLE – As the baseball calendar crept inside the two-week mark to the MLB trade deadline, the Cincinnati Reds crept another game closer to matching their three-year low-water mark of 10 games under .500.

For anyone who doesn’t already sense the correlation, get a load of the National League Central standings where all four of the Reds’ division rivals entered the week in playoff position.

Even the Pirates.

It’s no wonder that everybody in the clubhouse from Brady Singer and Eugenio Suárez to Tyler Stephenson and Spencer Steer are sweating how far flung from Cincinnati their baseball addresses might be when the dust settles on the Aug. 3 MLB trade deadline.

The Reds are one of the few certain sellers in a baseball landscape in which 20 teams opened the week within 2 1/2 games of playoff position, and three more were within 4 1/2.

With that in mind, the daily trade-chip report for their 8-0 loss to the Mariners late Monday night, July 20, looked like this:

• DH Eugenio Suárez: After a rousing video tribute before his first at-bat and standing ovation from fans celebrating his two popular tours with Seattle, Suárez went 0-for-3, including a line drive to left in the fourth and a double-play grounder to third in the seventh..
• Right-handed reliever Pierce Johnson: After Andrew Abbott allowed just one unearned run in six innings, Johnson let a 1-0 game unravel in the span of five batters faced in the seventh, four reaching on hits with a sacrifice fly mixed in. All four who reached scored.
• Left-handed reliever Caleb Ferguson: He replaced Johnson with runners at second and third, and after signaling an intentional walk to load the bases watched season-long-struggling Cal Raleigh hit his first pitch over the left-field wall for a grand slam. And the rout. It was just the 10th homer of the season for Raleigh, who hit 60 last year. This is likely to be Ferguson’s third consecutive move at the deadline.
• Right fielder Spencer Steer: The versatile, heady player being pursued by teams more than being shopped by the Reds, reached when he was hit by a pitch leading off the seventh and finished the game 0-for-2.
• Catcher Tyler Stephenson: The pending free agent went 0-for-3 the day after slugging two homers and a double. His errant throw into center on Victor Robles’ fifth-inning steal of second sent Robles to third and led to Abbott’s unearned run.

As for those who figure to be part of whatever the Reds try to do next year and/or beyond, Elly De La Cruz led off the game with a walk and nabbed his 15th stolen base of the season.

And All-Star Chase Burns (11-1, 2.54 ERA) was poised to make his first post-break start Tuesday against former Reds ace Luis Castillo (3-8, 4.93).

You must be registered for see images attach

This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Check out latest Reds trade-chip report after late loss in Seattle

Continue reading...