What to watch for as the 2024 Cincinnati Reds play out the string

As another season without playoff baseball nears its conclusion, what’s still worth tuning in to see?

The back to back victories put together by the Cincinnati Reds the last two days have helped them climb back out of the cellar of the National League Central division and into a commanding (/checks notes) one game lead over the Pittsburgh Pirates for said cellar.

Sadly, they’re still buried 15.5 games back of the Milwaukee Brewers in the division and sit 9 games removed from the final Wild Card spot. With an overall record of just 66-73 and with a mere 23 games left on their 2024 regular season schedule, this season is effectively kaput, a sensation we’re all too familiar with here as September after September comes and goes.

Is there anything still worth watching from this club for those 23 games, though? It took a bit of digging, but here’s a handful of nuance you can follow as the Reds once again play out the string on a season.

Can Brandon Williamson stake a claim to the 2025 starting rotation?

Williamson’s balky shoulder cost him the bulk of the entire 2024 season, but he returned over the weekend for his season debut. His 3.1 IP outing was far from stellar, but he does have the 3.79 ERA/4.03 FIP run of form he posted over his final 15 GS of 2023 already on his ledger, and if he can replicate that over a couple more starts in 2024, he may well have pitched himself onto the Opening Day rotation radar for 2025 once again.

Graham Ashcraft was ineffective and banged up this year, Frankie Montas is already gone, and Nick Martinez seems poised to re-enter free agency at season’s end. There’s going to be an opening in the rotation unless the Reds - rarely free-spenders on anyone, let alone big ticket pitching - choose to address that from outside the organization. Williamson, therefore, might well be pitching for a permanent big league job in 2025.

Can Hunter Greene return to the mound?

All signs point to Greene doing his best to get back on the mound again before season’s end, his arm injury thankfully not nearly as damning as it once seemed. He’s got reason for doing that, too:

Given that he still leads all NL pitchers in bWAR (5.4) despite his absence, he’s going to 100% finish somewhere down-ballot on the NL Cy Young Award voting, and another start or two of excellence may well earn him an extra million bucks. It would also go a long way towards entering the offseason on a high note for a guy who has emerged as a legitimate ace for the Reds this year.

Can Rece Hinds get back into the lineup and mash?

Hinds famously hit the ground running in a way never seen before, socking 5 homers and 3 doubles in 6 days to win the NL Player of the Week Award in his first week as a big leaguer. Of course, he’s gone just 1 for 18 with 6 K in abbreviated action at the big league level since then, action that bridges being optioned back to AAA (where he homered just once in a month).

Given that the Reds finally DFA’d Dominic Smith and Spencer Steer can spend some time at 1B to finish the year, there should be pretty regular time in the OF to see if Hinds can channel that hotness once again. If not, what are we even doing here?

Is this the end of the Jonathan India era in Cincinnati?

You know the story by now. The team’s former NL Rookie of the Year and presumptive ‘leader in the clubhouse’ was on the trade block all last winter, with the Reds preparing to usher in an entirely new infield mix around Elly De La Cruz, Noelvi Marte, Matt McLain, Christian Encarnacion-Strand, Spencer Steer, Jeimer Candelario, and eventually Edwin Arroyo. That went sideways in spring with devastating injuries and suspensions, however, and India ended up sticking around (and even signing a contract with guaranteed money through another arb year in 2025).

While a lot of those guys got hurt and underperformed in 2024, they’re still around. If they’re still around, the same storylines will continue to percolate this winter, with India another year older (and with another year of poorly reviewed defense on his ledger). And despite being healthier this year than he’d been in each of the last two seasons, he’s still the owner of just a 100 OPS+ since the start of the 2022 season with said iffy defense.

He’ll make $5 million for the 2025 season with team control through 2026. With so many younger (cheaper) options in-house, will the Reds really pay to keep that around? Or will they choose to once again field offers for him?

If it’s the latter, well, this marks the final three-plus weeks of Johnny India in Red.

Can Elly finish strong?

Elly De La Cruz has already joined the 20/60 club, owns an impressive .819 OPS (124 OPS+), and his 5.9 fWAR ranks him as the 8th most valuable player in all of baseball so far in 2024. It’s been a truly remarkable breakout for the 22 year old burgeoning superstar, but it does feel as if things have hit a bit of a wall for Elly.

With just 4 dingers and 10 steals over his last 36 games, the pace needed for the elusive 30/80 season seems now unattainable - over a 162 game pace, that’s only an 18 homer and 45 steal pace. His last 24 games have been even slower, with just 2 steals, 2 dingers, and a .657 OPS.

The grind of a full 162 game big league season is no joke, and it’s hard not to see a guy who has played almost every single day this season (and run his butt off in the process) lose a little bit of steam. Still, it would be a welcome addition to offseason dreams if he found a way to shift into one more gear for the final few weeks, hit a few moonballs, and race around the bases like roadrunner with opposing fielders the Wile E. Coyote fodder.