Is Brady Singer the best addition to these Cincinnati Reds so far?
That’s what you think, at least!
Yesterday wasn’t exactly the greatest day in Brady Singer’s professional baseball life, though the defense behind him certainly wasn’t there to help. He allowed 4 runs (2 earned) in 4.1 IP, to date his shortest outing since being acquired by the Cincinnati Reds from the Kansas City Royals over the winter in the deal that sent Jonathan India the other way.
After a brilliant 7.0 IP of scoreless, one-hit ball in his season debut against the Texas Rangers, things haven’t exactly been smooth sailing for the veteran right-hander. He’s yielded 12 runs (8 earned) across 14.1 IP and a .780 OPS to the bats facing him, hardly the stuff of a guy brought in to help elevate this starting rotation to another level.
Still, when the poll went out earlier this week asking you to name which offseason addition by the Cincinnati Reds was the best so far, Singer ran away with the voting over the likes of Jose Trevino and Gavin Lux (with poor Taylor Rogers not even receiving a single vote).
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Lux, meanwhile, had a 4-hit day this week and raised his overall mark to .290/.371/.355 (104 OPS+), while Trevino has hit a rock solid .286/.342/.457 (120 OPS+) on the year.
Baseball Reference thinks both Lux (0.2 bWAR) and Trevino (0.1 bWAR) have been more valuable to the Reds so far than Singer (-0.1 bWAR), while Fangraphs thinks the complete opposite - Singer’s 0.5 fWAR is the second best of any Reds player (behind Hunter Greene) and more than Lux (0.2) and Trevino (0.1) combined.
Even with the incredibly small sample we’ve got to work with, it’s hard to truly argue that any of these have been a poor addition - the only thing you really could argue is that the Reds didn’t swing for bigger additions. So far, though, it’s pretty clear you value the position of starting pitcher a little bit more than that of position players, and despite the minor blip of late Singer looks the part of a valuable, dependable starter going forward.