Will Benson, Jake Fraley, and the Cincinnati Reds RF mix
Do the Reds already have their outfield set?
Will Benson smoked a liner into the right-field corner of Great American Ball Park on Sunday afternoon, a liner that scored the game’s winning run and gave the series victory to the Cincinnati Reds over the San Diego Padres in walk-off fashion.
The win moved the Reds to 4 games over .500 and just 2.5 games back of the final Wild Card spot in the National League playoff chase, continuing the premise that this Reds club will enter trade season as a club aiming to win playoff games in 2025 - not just some nebulous time in the future.
It’s the same right-field corner that Benson himself will be asked to cover more often than not going forward, as Jake Fraley - like Benson, a lefty-swinging right-fielder - recently landed on the 10-day IL with a torn labrum that he’s reportedly going to try to play through for the rest of the season, per Mark Sheldon of MLB.com. There’s ample optimism in Fraley’s quotes in said article about his ability to still contribute this season, but color me skeptical that he’ll be able to even replicate the meager .383 SLG he’s posted in 527 PA dating back to the start of the 2024 season if (and when) he works his way back.
Re-enter Benson, who was somewhat squeezed out of the overall outfield mix early on in 2025 when the likes of Austin Hays, Spencer Steer, TJ Friedl, Fraley, and Gavin Lux were worked into the mix. Even Blake Dunn and Jacob Hurtubise got run over him, at times, and the Reds even considered their outfield options thin enough for a time to seek out Connor Joe via trade.
While the Reds roster has often leaned too heavy into left-handed hitters this season (or, more precisely, hitters who hit RHP better than LHP), there’s a chance the injury gods have begun to ebb and flow that back the other direction. Hays, for one, returned last week, while Noelvi Marte is slated to make it back to the roster at some point this week in the infield mix, too. And depending on how much Terry Francona truly wants to stick to getting Christian Encarnacion-Strand as many PA as he can, those returns could begin to push Steer back into regular OF time (as he’s seen plenty at 1B of late).
That’s the jumble that the front office will need to sort through when presented with options heading into the trade deadline, which is at the end of the month that officially starts tomorrow morning. What’s clear at the moment, though, is that Benson has seen a pretty clear path to regular playing time against RHP for the near term, and if he can channel his 2023 exploits the way he did in yesterday’s 3 for 4 game (with aforementioned game-winner), there’s likely going to be a spot for him in right for the rest of the season.