Cincinnati Reds Fans Deserve Better

The pursuit of Kyle Schwarber is well documented from this past offseason. While the Reds got outbid by the Philadelphia Phillies, which is understandable, the Reds cut themselves off at a chance to bring the slugger back to his hometown team, and decided to reunite with Eugenio Suarez. A move that was celebrated, but their season trajectories are going in different directions, and it wasn't any more evident than it was on Tuesday night when Schwarber homered off of Andrew Abbott, and Suarez, although he did also homer in the game, struck out with the bases loaded chasing a horrible pitch way out of the strike zone.

Suarez is only the most recent of disappointing signings by the front office. He joins the lengthy list of players like Jeimer Candelario, Mike Moustakas, Shogo Akiyama, and so many more. The Reds have drafted fairly well, with the likes of Hunter Greene, Chase Burns, and a few others, but the player development is discouraging once you get past the bigger names.

The most frustrating part of all of this is the Reds consistently putting band-aids on their issues instead of going out and getting players who play their actual positions. Instead of holding onto guys like Will Benson, who, although he isn't exactly a star player by any means, they decide to take Matt McLain and put him into center field because, well, why not? Noelvi Marte volunteered to play right field to help the team out, and so the Reds said "sure", traded for Ke'Bryan Hayes, as Sal Stewart was being held hostage in Triple-A, and that has caused a monopoly of issues for the roster construction.

What Future?

After the wave of top prospects that have been called up over the last few years, the farm system is shot. According to Baseball America , the Reds are the 25th-best system in Baseball. Steele Hall, an 18-year-old first round pick, is very far from the big leagues and is listed as the Reds' 3rd-best prospect.

As Reds fans, we love this team, it's the franchise that has been passed down to us from our parents, and their parents before them, and the Castellini-Krall-Meador team have failed us all. There's no hope for this season, no hope for the future of succeeding, and they are now wasting the Elly De La Cruz era similarly to the way the Joey Votto era was destroyed after 2013.

This is unacceptable, we deserve better than what we have. If the Reds try to rebuild, they don't even have the pieces to begin, so they aren't in any position to take a step in the right direction. It's time to clean house and move forward with people who can give this franchise a chance to win, but don't hold your breath.