NEW YORK – As the Cincinnati Reds front office gets closer to choosing a trade deadline direction, it still seems possible they might choose to be neither buyers nor sellers.
It’s what they called their approach in 2024. And it’s a reality that starting pitcher Brady Singer, for one, was prepared to face since before the season started.
Whether the Reds decide to buy, sell or do anything in between by the Aug. 3 deadline, Singer could be in play as a trade chip in almost any scenario.
“I knew that from the beginning of the year, that it would be a possibility, just because of where I am,” said the veteran starting pitcher. “I understand what (the business of the game) entails.”
Singer, the highest-paid pitcher on the Reds staff at $12.75 million, is a free agent at the end of the season and is not a candidate for a $23 million qualifying offer, especially given the team’s relative depth of starting pitchers.
That means the only way for the Reds to secure any compensation for his departure is to trade him before the deadline.
“I know teams probably are looking for starters that are gonna get traded,” Singer said.
In fact, it may be more of a seller’s market than usual for teams shopping starters because so many teams consider themselves contenders this season – and so many of those teams have specific starting pitching needs.
The Reds have more than a quarter of their roster filled with players who can become free agents at the end of the season, none of whom look like candidates for qualifying offers.
That makes the process pretty straightforward for the front office if the team doesn’t turn the season around in the next 2-3 weeks: full-blown fire sale with a half-dozen or more players getting shopped in trades.
But they also could be incremental sellers in any other scenario, with Singer the poster boy for any outcome because of his contract status, potential market demand and that relative strength at the position that includes former All-Star Hunter Greene expected back from the injured list in early July.
Reds officials for weeks have said they want to be buyers at the deadline. They also say that their manager and frontline talent about to return from the IL (including Elly De La Cruz this week) provides more reason for faith in this team’s playoff vision than it might have otherwise.
But those recent weeks have produced mediocre results. The National League looks stronger, deeper than it has in the last few years. And a potential labor stoppage looming after this season only adds incentive to budget-conscious ownership to recoup some of the payroll they stretched to add Eugenio Suárez ($15 million) in the offseason.
“It’s wait and see. Let’s see how we play,” team president Nick Krall said when asked about a timeline for making deadline decisions. “Hopefully we’re gonna get some guys back in the coming weeks and see what we look like. We’ve gotta win some games though. We’ve just gotta play a little better and win some games.”
The Reds blueprint for the in-between scenario of selling without calling it selling came in 2024 when faced with exactly the same 75-game record (36-39) as this team, Krall and Co. traded that year’s Opening Day starter, Frankie Montas, a pending free agent, for since-departed Joey Weimer and Jakob Junis (and cash).
“It does look like a sell on paper,” Krall said at the time, suggesting both acquired players could help that season and Weimer potentially in the future, too. “It was more about trying to thread the needle and do both as opposed to just buy or sell.”
Meanwhile, Singer, a six-year veteran who was traded to the Reds before last season, has pitched well in recent starts with a 2.40 ERA in three June outings, and seems to be sticking with a businesslike approach to whatever comes next.
“We’ll see what happens,” he said.
This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Why this pitcher could be traded whether Reds buy or sell at deadline
Reporting by Gordon Wittenmyer, Cincinnati Enquirer / Cincinnati Enquirer
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Gordon Wittenmyer, Cincinnati Enquirer | USA TODAY Network
