A look at the Cincinnati Reds roster in a Gavin Lux world

How, exactly, will his versatility match the Reds needs?

You may have woken up yesterday, had a glance at the roster of the Cincinnati Reds, and thought man, they’d probably look pretty legit if only they could find a big-boppin’ corner outfielder.

Naturally, the Reds instead traded away a Competitive Balance Round A draft pick and prospect Mike Sirota for infielder Gavin Lux, instead.

Let’s establish one thing up front here: most everything suggests that, if deployed at all correctly, Gavin Lux will make this roster better than it was yesterday morning. He smoked the ball throughout the second half of 2024, an important distinction given that he missed all of the 2023 season with a torn ACL and looked rusty as heck to begin the year. He hits RHP reasonably decent, which is something the rest of the roster prior to his acquisition couldn’t exactly say, and it’s feasible to expect something akin to passable defense from him both at 2B and in LF.

That’s a decent piece, even if the career 96 OPS+ he owns at the time of his acquisition by Cincinnati matches exactly the 96 OPS+ owned by the versatile Santiago Espinal when he was acquired this time last year.

Roughly league-average bats who can play a number of different positions defensively have value in this game, no doubt. The problem is when you fill so many of the 13 position player spots on the active 26-man roster with them that you leave no place for a real, live acquisition of a player significantly better than that.

In Lux (2B/LF/other positions Nick Krall suggests he can play that he really can’t), Espinal (3B/SS/2B), Spencer Steer (LF/1B/3B?), Matt McLain (2B/SS/3B/OF?), and Jeimer Candelario (3B?/1B), the Reds have amassed a lot of guys who, in theory, can cover a lot of different positions when tasked. How good any of them are defensively at those positions is an incredibly valid question, as none truly projects as elite at them all, and it remains to be seen if any of them can actually post league-average offense while also shuffling through that much of the defensive ladder.

(None of that group posted an OPS+ above 99 last year save for Lux, who owned a 101 mark.)

Lux as a corner outfielder adds a left-handed bat to a mix that already includes lefties TJ Friedl, Jake Fraley, and Will Benson. That latter trio struggled mightily throughout the 2024 season, so I suppose adding Lux to that mix raises the floor - even if he’s only socked 23 homers in over 1300 PA dating back to the start of the 2021 season. It also adds an arm to the defense that has routinely rated as one of the worst in all baseball, with Baseball Savant ranking it in just the 7th percentile last year.

Lux as an infielder, particularly with that poor arm, really gets limited to just 2B work - that’s where he spent the vast majority of his Dodgers career, for what it’s worth. The infielder lowest on the pecking order right now is pretty clearly Noelvi Marte, barring a miracle spring turnaround, so Lux’s addition to the infield mix would in theory push Marte to AAA, though that would remove a primary 3B from the group to add a 2B. In theory, that would require one of Candelario, McLain, or even Elly De La Cruz to cover 3B duties, at times, a trio of decisions that seem questionable given Candelario’s foibles at the hot corner, McLain being tasked with playing somewhere he never has as a pro after already spending a year off, and given that Elly just established himself as a superstar shortstop just last year.

Regularly getting Lux starts at 2B could also, in theory, allow McLain to bring his bat to the outfield somewhere, an idea that got a little traction earlier in the offseason despite McLain going on record that he’d prefer to remain an infielder. He did get time in OF while playing in the Arizona Fall League, however, though that entire shuffle of Lux to 2B just to play McLain somewhere he’s not super experienced hardly seems like the best possible use of defensive resources.

It’s flummoxing, to say the least, and we haven’t even mentioned that the Reds entered the offseason desperately needing offensive upgrades and, to date, Lux’s addition as ‘guy who should probably just play 2B’ adds a guy who isn’t even as good offensively as Jonathan India, who the Reds traded away earlier in the winter.

As things stand currently, here’s my best guess at what the position player section of the Reds roster would look like if today was Opening Day. I’ll let you identify the areas where you’d still like them to upgrade, since there are definitely areas where I’d still like them to upgrade.

Catcher

Tyler Stephenson, Jose Trevino

Other

Christian Encarnacion-Strand (1B/DH), Jeimer Candelario (3B/1B/DH), Elly De La Cruz (SS), Matt McLain (2B/3B/OF), Gavin Lux (2B/LF), Santiago Espinal (3B/SS/2B), Spencer Steer (LF/1B/3B/DH), TJ Friedl (CF), Jake Fraley (RF/LF), Stuart Fairchild (OF), Will Benson (OF)