DENVER – Brady Singer is getting hot just in time for the Cincinnati Reds.
Just in time to secure a stronger return at the Aug. 3 MLB trade deadline.
Singer, the veteran right-hander and pending free agent, helped the Reds reach the playoffs last year with a team-high workload of starts and innings, backing up the durability reputation he brought over in that offseason trade with the Kansas City Royals.
With the team buried deep in the standings of a more robust National League this season, Singer is paying off in one more potentially valuable way for the Reds by putting a few early bumps, bruises and blisters behind him to head into trading season pitching as well as he has as a Red.
In the Reds’ first game out of the All-Star break, Singer retired the first 12 Rockies he faced and gave up just four hits in seven strong innings to beat the Rockies 7-2 in the series opener, with scouts from at least five deadline-buying clubs on hand to document his prowess.
After a rough two months to open the season, Singer has lowered his ERA since then to 2.76 in eight starts. That includes going at least seven innings in three of his last five.
“I think he’s finding his level,” manager Terry Francona said, lauding a cleaner delivery and better command. “Like we say with hitters all the time, it happens with everybody.”
“I just like how he’s a bulldog out there. He’s competing his butt off,” said teammate Spencer Steer, who delivered the rare combination of a traditional home run to left field in the sixth, followed by an inside-the-park home run in the eighth.
Singer and Steer both have been circulated in trade rumors this month, among several Reds in play for possible new locales in a couple of weeks.
Both say they’re not thinking about it, even though both are aware of the possibility. Both also have been traded before.
“I’m going to show up and play my butt off every day, wherever that is in the field and for whatever team it is,” Steer said. “It’s so out of my control that I’ve got to focus on where my feet are.”
Singer hasn’t missed a start for an injury since joining the Reds – the only Reds regular starting pitcher in that span who can say that.
“It’s something I take pride in,” he said. “I like pitching. It’s my job. It’s real fun to go out there and throw a ball for a living, so as much as I can do it, I’m going to do it.”
That has included spending much of the first month getting past a blister that developed on his index finger at the end of spring training and later taking a ball off his shin and staying in the rotation, fighting through struggles until finding his way back to the productive starter he’s been most of his career.
“Even when he wasn’t pitching like he wanted to, he takes so much pride in being available and taking his start, that’s important,” Francona said. “Now that he’s throwing the ball well, it makes it even better.”
One start after setting a Reds rotation benchmark for the season with 7 1/3 innings against the Phillies, Singer nearly matched that season-high mark for the staff with seven more impressive innings at hitter-happy Coors Field.
He gave up a single run in the fifth on a sacrifice fly and a one-out solo homer in the seventh to Willi Castro.
By then he was working with a 5-1 lead – thanks in large part to Steer’s two-run shot in the sixth, followed by Eugenio Suarez’s fourth home run in his past seven games.
Steer added an inside-the-park homer in his next at-bat, in the eighth — the Reds’ first since Noelvi Marte last September against the Pirates.
It was the first time a Red had both an inside-the-park and an over-the-fence home run in the same game since Elly De La Cruz did it against the Brewers in April 2024.
Did somebody say Elly De La Cruz?
The two-time All-Star shortstop singled three times and homered in the ninth in the second-half opener in Denver.
This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Brady Singer trade stock rises with win over Rockies as Reds near selloff
Reporting by Gordon Wittenmyer, Cincinnati Enquirer / Cincinnati Enquirer
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Gordon Wittenmyer, Cincinnati Enquirer | USA TODAY Network
