By Steve Adams | at
It was a relatively quiet trade deadline in Cincinnati, with the Reds dealing away veteran righties Frankie Montas and Lucas Sims while acquiring Jakob Junis (in the Montas deal), young outfielder Joey Wiemer (also for Montas), veteran first baseman Ty France (for minor league catcher Andruw Salcedo) and pitching prospect Ovis Portes (for Sims). President of baseball ops Nick Krall and his staff generally dealt from the fringes of a contending roster and brought in some complementary veterans. Via Gordon Wittenmyer of the Cincinnati Enquirer, Krall said after the deadline that he didn’t want to sell “just to put younger players on the roster” and cited the team’s run differential and looming returns (e.g. Matt McLain, Emilio Pagan) as reasons to be optimistic of a run down the stretch.
That said, it seems Krall & Co. took at least one more substantial buy-side swing. Barry Jackson and Craig Mish of the Miami Herald report that the Reds, Mets and Orioles all made offers that the Marlins liked in exchange for left-hander Trevor Rogers. The Mets’ interest in Rogers was already known, and the Orioles of course acquired the lefty in exchange for what many considered a surprisingly strong package of second baseman Connor Norby and outfielder Kyle Stowers. Jackson and Mish report that the Reds offered “one of their top pitching prospects” to the Marlins, but Baltimore ultimately topped that offer by agreeing to part with a pair of MLB-ready position players. The Mets also made a formal offer, per the report.
The level of interest in Rogers is reflective of the lack of pitching that was available on this summer’s market. Though the 26-year-old southpaw finished second in NL Rookie of the Year voting back in 2021, he’s since dealt with shoulder and biceps injuries that have greatly reduced his arsenal and his effectiveness. Rogers’ fastball has dropped about two miles per hour since that rookie showing, while his slider has flattened out and misses far fewer bats than it did in ’21.
After finishing the ’21 season with a 2.64 ERA, 28.5% strikeout rate and 8.4% walk rate in 133 innings, Rogers has combined for a 5.02 ERA, 20.3% strikeout rate and 9.6% walk rate in 234 2/3 innings. He was sitting on a 4.53 ERA with a career-low 18% strikeout rate at the time of the trade and has since been tagged for five runs through 4 1/3 innings in his lone Orioles start.
Cincinnati’s reported interest in Rogers comes at a time when in-house arms like Graham Ashcraft and Brandon Williamson are facing notable injury concerns. The former has been out since early July with an elbow strain. The latter hasn’t pitched in the big leagues this season and only has 10 2/3 minor league innings on the year. He last pitched on June 2 and has been down since due to a shoulder strain. Both are on the 60-day injured list.
The Reds aren’t lacking when it comes to high-end pitching prospects — particularly not after selecting Wake Forest righty Chase Burns with the No. 2 pick in this year’s draft. Burns isn’t eligible to be traded until the offseason, and fellow top prospect Rhett Lowder (last year’s first-round pick and a consensus top-50 prospect in the sport) surely was off limits. Prospects Connor Phillips, Lyon Richardson and Chase Petty have all struggled to varying extents in the upper minors this season, but all are still generally well-regarded even if their respective values are down from peak levels. Righty Julian Aguiar has notably upped his stock this season as well and likely isn’t too far from a big league look.
Rogers is controlled by the Orioles for another two seasons, so this isn’t a case where their deadline interest could portend offseason free-agent interest (although Cincinnati could certainly take a run at prying Rogers from the O’s this winter if the interest remains strong and/or the Orioles sour on the lefty). But it’s still a relevant footnote to keep in mind, both when Rogers is next available via trade/free agency and because it could foreshadow a Reds pursuit of some controllable arms this offseason.
Right-hander Hunter Greene and lefties Nick Lodolo and Andrew Abbott are all generally locked into long-term rotation spots. Twenty-six-year-old righty Carson Spiers is attempting to solidify his own rotation status down the stretch. Even with a decent stock of upper-level arms, the Reds could look to deepen that group via the trade or free-agent markets this winter.
