Reds Beat: Chemistry Abounds, Playing It Safe With Matt McLain, Elly De La Cruz Plays Foul With Hunter Greene

GOODYEAR, Ariz. — David Bell feels he’s in a good spot heading into Saturday’s Cactus League opener with the Cleveland Guardians at Goodyear Ballpark.

The Reds believe they have the best of both worlds. At 26.8 years, they were the fifth-youngest lineup of position players in the Majors in 2023. Now, 40-year-old Joey Votto is gone and that number go down even further with an infield that could potential start all rookies and second-year players.

Those young players have young leaders in Jonathan India, Jeimer Candelario, Tyler Stephenson and TJ Friedl.

On the pitching staff, you have have three third-year hurlers in Hunter Greene, Nick Lodolo and Graham Ashcraft, with second-year pitchers Andrew Abbott and Brandon Williamson potentially filling out the rotation or roles on the staff.

This is one of the youngest and most talented teams in baseball. All eyes are on Cincinnati to see if Bell can push the right buttons to put them all in a position to succeed.

“To me, there’s just great people throughout our clubhouse and the kind of players you want to be around and the kind of staff you want to be around,” Bell said. “That doesn’t get you anything necessarily, but it’s a great place to start. I think the relationships that have been built have really carried over. People are just really close in our clubhouse. So that is different. It’s a different level of that that I’ve experienced probably in 30-some spring trainings. And lot of that is like offseason, the end of last season, the beginning of everyone getting here and everything. As far as that goes we have a lot going for us, but the character (is what stands out).”

Observations this week:

Cactus rotation:

Bell has announced the rotation for the first several Cactus League games, beginning with Cleveland on Saturday. Carson Spiers will face the Guardians, Hunter Greene (vs. Dodgers Sunday), Andrew Abbott/Nick Martinez (split squad vs. Seattle, Milwaukee) and Frankie Montas (vs. Cubs). Nick Lodolo has thrown two successful bullpens but isn’t quite ready to move up to Cactus League games. If live BP work goes well, he could see action in the second week, the same goes for Graham Ashcraft, who is hopeful to make his spring debut on March 7 vs. the Cubs in Goodyear.

“They’ll be fully ready,” Bell said. “A lot of that has to do with the work they did before we actually started camp. Lodolo is a little bit behind that, but he’ll be ready. He should be built up to at least be able to get close to that by Opening Day.”

Noelvi closer:

Noelvi Marte has been taking ground balls and live batting practice and is hopeful to make his spring debut March 2 vs. Colorado.

McLain working through:

Matt McLain is still working through the oblique soreness that cropped up this week and forced him to sit out the first few days of full squad workouts. The good news is that the MRI did not reveal a significant strain and indicated the issue should resolve on its own with treatment and rest.

“Matt McLain had a little bit of aggravation in his oblique near near where he had it last year, but not the exact same spot,” Bell said. “So he had an MRI and showed that showed nothing actually, it just showed that the previous injury had healed. But they were not able to find anything on the MRI which is great news. But it doesn’t change the fact that he had a symptom. So we’ll back him down for five to seven days and treat it and so a couple other protocols and then hopefully get him back out there.”

Glove work:

Reds senior advisor Barry Larkin lent some help to Elly De La Cruz, who struggled a bit on Tuesday with ground balls using a white glove. The hall of fame shortstop gave De La Cruz his glove during fielding drills while India also had some misses during individual fielding work as well. De La Cruz and Jonathan India were the double play combo taking grounders during team infield work and looked smooth together.

Tony Kemp signs:

Apparently the Reds are trying to stockpile candidates to battle for a utility outfield spot to challenge the likes of Will Benson, Spencer Steer and Jake Fraley at a corner outfield position. On Friday, the team signed veteran outfielder Tony Kemp to a minor league contract with an incentive – like infielder Josh Harrison – to make the major league roster. The 32-year-old has been in the bigs since 2016, including stints with the Astros, Cubs, and Athletics. For the last four seasons he played in Oakland, but his production has dropped off significantly since slashing.279/.382/.418 in 2021. In the last two seasons with Oakland he’s slashed just 224/.306/.321 over 271 games. The outfielder was a star on the mid-2010 teams at Vanderbilt, including the 2014 College World Series title team. Kemp is likely to get a lot of playing time in Cactus League as he battles to prove he’s still of value to a big league team, if not in Cincinnati then somewhere else.

Smashing:

Hunter Greene had the rear side window of his luxury SUV smashed during live batting practice Tuesday when Elly De La Cruz, facing Greene, fouled off the second pitch he saw. De La Cruz was the first batter Greene faced and eventually struck him out. Greene fanned the first four batters he faced in two simulated innings. Jonathan India recorded a double to the left-center gap. As for the foul ball, Greene didn’t actually know about the damage until India pointed it out to him as Greene was doing conditioning on a grass field adjacent to the player parking lot. Greene then saw EDLC and yelled, “you’re paying for it.” The star slugger, without missing a beat, replied, “you make more than me.”

Latest 26-man Opening Day roster projection for 2024:

Regulars (9):

C: Tyler Stephenson
1B: Christian Encarnacion-Strand
2B: Matt McLain
SS: Elly De La Cruz
3B: Noelvi Marte
LF: Spencer Steer
CF: TJ Friedl
RF: Jake Fraley
DH: Jonathan India

Bench (4):

C Luke Maile
INF Jeimer Candelario
OF Will Benson
OF Stuart Fairchild

In the hunt:

INF Josh Harrison
INF Jose Barrero
INF/OF: Nick Martini
OF: Rece Hinds
OF: Tony Kemp

Starters (5):

RHP Hunter Greene
LHP Nick Lodolo
RHP Graham Ashcraft
LHP Andrew Abbott
RHP Frankie Montas

In the hunt:

LHP Brandon Williamson
RHP Carson Spiers
RHP Connor Phillips
RHP Lyon Richardson

Relievers (8):

LHP Sam Moll
RHP Lucas Sims
RHP Tejay Antone
RHP Ian Gibaut
RHP Alexis Diaz
RHP Emilio Pagan
RHP Nick Martinez
LHP Brent Suter

In the hunt:

LHP Alex Young
RHP Casey Legumina
RHP Fernando Cruz
RHP Buck Farmer