July 23: Reds president of baseball operations Nick Krall pushed back on Morosis report, that hes had conversations with the majority of the league but has not gone down one road that specific. Kralls comments came on the heels of a Cincinnati victory over Atlanta last night. That win kept the Reds within four games of a Wild Card spot in the National League, albeit in an extraordinarily tightly bunched race. Though theyre only four games back, the Reds would need to vault past the Giants, Cubs, D-backs, Padres, Pirates and one of the Mets or Cardinals in order to move into Wild Card position. The Cubs are actually a half-game up on the Reds in the standings, and their own president of baseball operations, Jed Hoyer, publicly conceded just last night that his focus . The next few days will likely be pivotal for the Reds as they chart their course for the remainder of the season. They have two games left against the Braves, followed by three road games against the Rays. Theyll host the Cubs on the evening of July 29 their final game before the July 30 deadline. July 21: Back in early July, when the Reds were 41-45 and just a few games out of the NL Wild Card race, club GM Brad Meador suggested that the club was to a strategy for this years Marcus Morris Sr. Jersey trade deadline. Flash forward to today, and fallen to a record of 47-53 after getting swept by the Nationals coming out of the All-Star break. It appears that recent performance may have been enough for the club to officially set course, as reports that the club has begun to inform rival clubs that they are willing to part with players on expiring contracts. Its hardly a surprise that Cincinnati would limit any sell-off to rental pieces. After all, the club has an exciting core of young talent led by star shortstop and right-hander that figures to keep the Reds in the playoff conversation in the coming years, and this season has been complicated by injuries to key pieces such as , , , , and . By maintaining that core of players as well as veteran pieces under longer-term control such as and , the Reds can remain fairly well positioned to load back up for the 2025 campaign this winter and make another attempt at returning to contention. The Reds list of pending free agents is a relatively short one, but it nonethele s has some interesting names. Right-hander , whose $20MM mutual option for 2025 is all but certain to be declined, is perhaps the player with the most name recognition that the club could look to move. Righty has a $12MM player option for 2025 and could also be made available, while outfielder (who the Reds from San Francisco just two weeks ago), lefty , and right-handers and will each see their contracts run out at seasons end. According to Morosi, the Orioles are among the clubs to have interest in Cincinnatis rental pitchers, including Montas and Martinez. The fit between Baltimore and either of those two pieces is somewhat obvious, as the Orioles have lost starters , , and to season-ending surgery this year. Thats left them to put together a patchwork rotation filled out by and behind front-end duo and . At least one more playoff-caliber starter would make plenty of sense for the Orioles, and they would likely benefit from adding additional depth beyond that as well. Whether Montas, 31, constitutes a playoff-caliber starter at this point in his career is up for debate. The righty has struggled badly with the Reds in 89 innings (18 starts) this year, posting a 4.85 ERA and 5.04 FIP which are both roughly 15% worse than league average. While Montas has allowed three runs or fewer in 12 of his 18 starts this year, blow-up starts have been a fairly frequent occurrence for the righty, including a combined 12 runs allowed in 11 2/3 innings in his last two starts against the Nationals and Rockies. Bleak as his recent performance has been, Montas isnt far removed from a stretch of mid-rotation succe s with the As from 2018 to 2022 where he posted 3.70 ERA and 3.61 FIP in 99 appearances. With that being said, it cant be ignored that Montas underwent shoulder surgery back in February of last year. Since his return from going under the knife, his peripherals are those of a completely different pitcher. Hes struck out just 18.7% of batters faced after entering 2023 with a career 24.3% strikeout rate, and after allowing free pa ses to just 7.8% of opponents through the end of the 2022 season hes watched his walk rate balloon to 10% since undergoing surgery. Even with those flaws, however, Montass track record as a quality mid-rotation arm could still certainly attract interest from pitching-hungry suitors. Martinez, however, could prove to be the better fit for the Orioles needs. The right-hander has found a niche as one of the best swingmen in the game over the past three seasons with San Diego and Cincinnati, and this season the 33-year-old boasts a solid 3.88 ERA with an even stronger 3.15 FIP. While his 18.9% walk rate isnt anything to write home about, hes limited walks to a clip of just 3% this year while surrendering just six home runs in 72 innings of work. Martinez has been used primarily in relief this year, although he made five starts for the Reds early in the season and demonstrated the ability to move between the rotation and bullpen with relative ease during his time in San Diego. The veteran righty would offer the Orioles pitching depth for both the bullpen and rotation down the stretch, po sibly working out of the rotation for the remainder of the regular season before moving into the bullpen during the playoffs. Of course, Baltimore is far from the only club that could be interesting in the Reds available rentals. The Dodgers, Astros, Red Sox, and Padres are among the other teams known to be in the market for starting pitching, while virtually every contender is typically on the prowl for rental bullpen help this time of year and could have interest in either Martinez in a relief role or a rental bullpen arm like Wilson, Farmer, or Sims. Kawhi Leonard Jersey
