SAN DIEGO – Caleb Ferguson was traded at the deadline each of the last two summers.
Are the Cincinnati Reds about to make it three years in a row for the lefty reliever?
“You can’t focus on that as a player,” Ferguson said.
But the Reds front office may not have a choice the way the team has performed for more than a month.
It’s getting late fast for a team that has nose-dived from first to last since the end of April – a team hit hard by injuries and harder by underperforming pitchers and slumping hitters on the way to a losing record after getting swept by the Cardinals over the weekend.
It prompted a quick team meeting by manager Terry Francona in St. Louis.
The selloff might not be far behind at this rate.
That’s the next big decision the front office faces as it tries to plug gaping bullpen holes and comb over a rapidly thinning roster.
“We’re going to be a lot better when we get healthy, but we have to be able to compete when we’re not healthy, and that’s always been the case,” general manager Brad Meador said. “We have to be better.
“We have to be able to compete right now with the guys we have. And it hasn’t been good enough right now.”
Meador said the club hasn’t made the decision whether to buy or sell at the Aug. 3 deadline, much less what either tack might look like.
One thing’s for sure: If they go the seller route, Ferguson is on a long list of veteran Reds on short-term deals who could be trade pieces, including starter Brady Singer, relievers Brock Burke and Pierce Johnson (once back from the injured list), along with hitters such as Nathaniel Lowe and maybe even Eugenio Suárez.
That’s because for the third consecutive offseason since the Reds turned a competitive corner in 2023, they built a roster made for winning, or selling.
Will Reds be sellers at MLB trade deadline?
The window for decision time is fast-approaching, and the factors in the decision might seem obvious.
“The biggest factor is that we have to be in a position to feel like we can add,” Meador said. “Right now, we’re not focused on the deadline. We’re focused on getting guys here who can help stabilize our bullpen and throw the ball over the plate and compete in the zone.”
The Reds’ bullpen has been one of the worst performing in the majors since the end of April and leads the majors in walks, reaching embarrassing levels at times – a trend exacerbated by successive injuries in that span to closer Emilio Pagán and key setup guys Graham Ashcraft and Johnson.
“It’s very frustrating,” Meador said. “For everyone. … We have to be better.”
Compounding the Reds’ issues is a National League that appears to have more strong contenders this season than last year, including an improved-looking National League Central with four winning teams staring down at the Reds in the standings.
It makes the prospect of climbing out of a hole in the second half especially daunting, while at the same time creating what could be a relative seller’s market for teams with a lot of trade chips.
Meader reiterated what he said two weeks ago, that the front office is engaged in continual conversations with other clubs as standard operating procedure for this time of year – then reiterated the immediate focus of fixing the walks-hemorrhaging bullpen “anywhere we can, however we can.”
“As far as the trade deadline goes,” he added, “I think what most teams would tell you right now is there’s so many teams in the same spot that I don’t think there’s been a whole lot of movement one way or the other.”
That could change within two or three weeks for the league in general and the Reds in particular, considering an upcoming stretch that takes them to the halfway mark in the season just before the end of the month.
Reds schedule for rest of first half of MLB season
The Reds, who are just 2-13 against division opponents this season, face the Yankees in New York, then see the NL Central-leading Brewers for the first time in back-to-back series June 19-24, just ahead of reaching that halfway mark in Pittsburgh against the Pirates (who have blown out the Reds in four of six meetings this year).
“I think it’s way too early to be thinking of anything like that,” said the Reds’ Spencer Steer, who was traded by the Twins to the Reds at the 2022 deadline as a minor-leaguer. “(The deadline) is so far down the line, we have so much more to worry about right now than that.”
Ferguson, who went from Pittsburgh to Seattle at last year’s deadline and finished one game short of the World Series, echoed teammates when he said the team has plenty of time to fight out of its six-week slide – and even has time to influence the decision-making of the front office in the shorter term.
“What we sign up for is to be ready to play every single day, and that’s what we have to continue to do,” he said. “You’ve just got to make it about winning.
“I think everybody in here still believes that we’re a good team,” he said. “It’s just we’ve got to get a couple pieces back and things will look different.”
This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Will Reds be sellers? Deadline decision looms for frustrated brass
Reporting by Gordon Wittenmyer, Cincinnati Enquirer / Cincinnati Enquirer
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By Gordon Wittenmyer, Cincinnati Enquirer | USA TODAY Network
