Every Reds fan loves Nick Castellanos, but he is only under contract for this season, and the Reds will be left with nothing if they elect to not trade him this season. Castellanos is a hard-nosed, old-school ballplayer and he is playing out of his mind this year, currently hitting .340 with 16 home runs and 53 runs batted in. Plus he hustles and gets the rest of the team fired up. Dare I say he has a bit of Pete Rose in him? What's there to not like?
Well, the thing to not like is the fact that the Reds cannot afford to sign players like Trevor Bauer and Nick Castellanos, and it does not make sense to simply gift wrap them for the Dodgers and the Yankees. Get something for them!
There is this sick fan logic that says that the Reds are two games over .500, so there is a 1% chance that the Reds will win it all this season. Plus, Nick seems to be happy in Cincinnati, so perhaps he will re-sign at a price the Reds can afford, at about 10 cents on the dollar...
No, no, no. This is not Fantasy Island, this is reality. Castellanos is not leading a charge to the World Series and is not re-signing with the Reds. Instead, he will sign a huge contract with the Boston Red Sox or someone next off-season, and the Reds will have nothing, and the fans will be totally shocked and outraged. Well, let's break the cycle.
The Reds do not have to give Castellanos away. They can do what the Cleveland Indians do in this familiar situation. They do not just trade their players for minor leaguers, but instead deal for a combination of Major League players who can help now, plus prospects who can help in a year or too. So yes, they take a hit, but not a fatal one, and they can stay in the race. Get VALUE. Last season, they traded Francisco Lindor and they got back two shortstops. Amed Rosario is probably playing better than Lindor, and he can play outfield when Andrés Giménez is ready. They also got some deep prospects in the minor leagues.
The Reds have a fundamental problem that somehow they signed two very high priced third basemen in Mike Moustakas and Eugenio Suarez. They have to face the awful fact that Moustakas cannot play second base and Suarez cannot play shortstop. Nor can they move one guy to first base because Joey Votto has a no-trade clause. They also signed Shogo Akiyama, hoping he would learn to hit at age 33.
They need to unload some of these contracts. So here is what I propose.
Reds trade: Nick Castellanos, Mike Moustakas or Eugenio Suarez, and Shogo Akiyama. This package provides some major offense to a pennant contender and offloads some major payroll. Akiyama is in no way better than Aristides Aquino. It is preposterous to play a 33 year old ahead of a player who has 25 home runs in 286 big league at-bats. The front office is just playing Akiyama to justify a stupid contract, and they need to rectify their mistake and move on.
Reds get: A major league outfielder or perhaps a shortstop with one year remaining on his contract, two significant prospects, and a bullpen pitcher. This does not knock them out of the race. They can only play one third baseman at a time. They have other outfielders, though not like Castellanos, obviously. But bullpen pitchers are always needed. This offseason, the Reds will have reduced their payroll by like $30 million dollars and can sign a real ballplayer to replace Castellanos.
