CINCINNATI — It was only a season ago that fans came to this park with paper bags over their heads in futile protest of their team’s yo-yoing payroll and steady mediocrity, just a year ago that Cincinnati Reds President Phil Castellini heard their frustrations and asked, callously, where else those fans were going to go.
So it was striking Friday afternoon, as Taylor Swift was drawing thousands to the football stadium down the street, to see families charging down the stairs toward their seats at Great American Ball Park, hollering the names of players whose names they did not know this time last year. Nearly 32,000 people could have been just about anywhere else at the start of a holiday weekend, yards from the greatest musical show on Earth. But they chose to be here, drawn to one of the more surprising and endearing upstart bunches anyone around here can remember.
The fans are here because good young rookies emerged in concert, joining a core of pleasant veterans in an unexpected charge through one of baseball’s weakest divisions. They are here to see Elly De La Cruz, the 21-year-old giant with incomprehensible speed, who sat chewing on a Popsicle in the first base dugout during batting practice Friday, only to laugh himself silly when he dropped the melty mess all over a T-shirt that bore his face. They are here to see Matt McClain, another rookie who is De La Cruz’s opposite in almost every physical way, generously listed at 5-foot-11 and with stunning power — a 23-year-old who thought he was fast until he saw De La Cruz round first.
And they are here to see Joey Votto, the beloved Reds veteran whose career was teetering on the verge of an unceremonious end after a few unproductive seasons and a serious shoulder surgery that could have rendered him incapable of being anything like he once was. But on Friday, days after starting his 2023 season with three homers in four games, Votto became just the fourth active player to play his 2,000th game — and unlike so many June games he has played here over the years, he played it with his team in first place.
“We had some unknowns coming in. We had some unknowns on the major league roster coming out of spring and in the minors,” Reds General Manager Nick Krall said. “We’re trying to find out how we can continue to piece this together. But the energy itself has been created by the guys who are here.”
That energy has come despite the fifth-lowest payroll in the majors, despite their biggest free agent splurge — Wil Myers — being designated for assignment by late June. It has come despite a starting rotation relying almost exclusively on pitchers 25 and under who have yet to make 40 starts in the majors. And it has come largely on the back of three players with rookie eligibility intact — De La Cruz, McLain and 2022 trade deadline acquisition Spencer Steer, who is quietly hitting .283 with an .871 OPS.
“I can’t say it’s not surprising. To come up and affect the team as much as they have, I can’t really recall the last time guys have contributed the way they have contributed,” said infielder Kevin Newman, who spent years experiencing a similar budget in Pittsburgh for an organization that has been waiting for prospects to turn into big leaguers and turn the franchise around with them, only to settle for annual disappointment.
The Reds did not take this leap because of an uncharacteristic payroll splurge or a change in attitude at the top. Instead, they are experiencing a near best-case-scenario manifestation of the blueprint smaller market teams such as the Baltimore Orioles, Cleveland Guardians and, to some extent, the Tampa Bay Rays have used to build success in recent years: Get the bulk of production from young players who are not yet due big free agent payouts. Fill in as necessary. Cross your fingers the young guys produce enough.
“That was the hope,” said Manager David Bell, who explained that when the Reds broke camp, management hoped the big league team would continue to improve enough that they could call up the young guys when they were ready. “We have a long way to go. Our goal from Day One of spring training was to get better every single day. That has to continue. But, yeah, the timing has been good. We were playing well when we brought those guys up, and they’ve added a lot.”
Though it has not mattered much to anyone in the stands for the past month or so, the Reds do, indeed, have a long way to go. Sudden success does not necessarily foretell sustained success.
The more experienced Milwaukee Brewers sit just a game behind them in the National League Central. The most promising Pirates team in years is not out of it, either. And the St. Louis Cardinals lurk in the cellar, with a roster loaded with plenty of talent to make a charge, though it has not looked emotionally equipped to do so. Perhaps the Reds’ fate, like those of their competitors, will be determined as much by what they do at the trade deadline — when a willingness to add payroll often becomes crucial — as it has been by those young stars.
“Do I want to be a buyer? Sure I do. That means you’re in it. That’s what everybody’s goal is,” Krall said. “But I think we just have to let some of this play out. As we let it play out, we’ll see where we are and see what makes sense.”