Cincinnati Reds Rookie Power Rankings: You'll never guess who's back in the top 5
How about this for extreme youth movements and rookie hazing:
Before the Cincinnati Reds’ COVID-19 outbreak this month, Carson Spiers was last seen toiling at Double-A Chattanooga, hoping his 3.69 ERA might earn a late-season taste of Triple-A — until the big-league club simply ran out of warm bodies to pitch in baseball games.
Then he joined a crew of minor-league starters called in quick succession for emergency big-league duty that included top prospect Connor Phillips and Lyon Richardson — the latter for a third round of emergency work a few months after opening the season in A-ball.
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This is extreme even by 2023 Reds standards. Extreme even for a team with a major-league-high 16 big-league debuts this year, a team that now has used an MLB-high 23 rookies — a team that has used a whopping 63 players overall to get this far (three short of the franchise record).
“I can’t imagine what the Triple-A team is going through right now, they’ve got to be so short,” manager David Bell said.
All of which makes that extraordinary sequence and that group of extraordinary gentlemen the defining moment of this extraordinary Reds season. At least until further notice.
Depending on how the next week or so goes, this past week might be defined as the tipping point that finally proved too much to overcome.
Or if it goes the other way, those pitchers and a few others could become key reasons the Reds survived to pull off the unlikeliest run to the playoffs since at least the 2021 Giants or 2017 Diamondbacks and Rockies — or maybe in recent memory.
“Just having the ability to have the depth in our organization to reach at a time of need for our team, to be able to put good, talented quality — young — but pitchers that are prepared to go out and give us a chance to win,” Bell said, “it’s saying a lot about them. It says a lot about our organization and where we are.”
Actually, it says as much about a front office that didn’t add enough pitching at the trade deadline. And it says even more about just how bad that deficit got at the big-league level for a team that struggled all year with its pitching (5.37 starters ERA through Friday).
What it says about those guys as big-league pitchers we might not know for another year or more. Same for what it says about the organization’s depth.
Spiers’ start on Saturday against the Cardinals marked the seventh straight game the Reds started a rookie (not counting a bullpen day in the middle of that stretch) — the second for Spiers, who’s not even on the 40-man roster because he’s allowed to be added as a COVID replacement.
The Spiers-Phillips-Richardson succession of emergency starts between Sunday and Tuesday wasn’t the stuff of Cy Young Awards (15 earned runs in 13 1/3 combined innings). But they covered at least four desperately needed innings in each of those starts.
In fact, Spiers pitched Saturday with an eye toward earning more chances to pitch down the stretch. Richardson continues to be an option. And Phillips is being discussed for a possible role as the stakes rise this month.
“It’s opportunities for us that we’re super thankful for,” Phillips said. “Obviously, I would love to stay up here for the rest of the year and help this team make a run and win some ballgames down the stretch, whatever that role is, whether it’s starting games or in the bullpen or bouncing back and forth.”
For now, the big question involved a couple of them did in their first week of eligibility in the Reds Rookie Power Rankings.
This week’s Power 5 (week of Sept. 2-8):
1. Spencer Steer (last week: 2) — The steadiest, most versatile of the rookies all season long, Steer is back in the top spot after a one-week absence on the strength of a 7-for-24 week in which he reached base 12 times and that included two big home runs and a .955 OPS. He reached base in the middle of one ninth-inning rally to beat the Cubs, hit a go-ahead homer the next day and continues to be one of the biggest factors in covering the loss of Matt McLain (oblique), both at second base and in the second spot in the order.
2. Christian Encarnacion-Strand (last week: 1) — The powerful first baseman from the Bay Area, who debuted in July, has heated up since that series in San Francisco with a big group of friends and family in attendance. He went 8-for-23 (.348) with a homer and .565 slugging percentage this past week at home, including a sixth-inning homer and the walk-off single in the ninth Wednesday to beat the previously sizzling Mariners.
3. Elly De La Cruz (last week: NR) — The Reds rookie with the off-the-charts speed-power mix returns to the rankings for the first time in three weeks, partly on the strength of an overall .273 (.429 OBP) week. But mostly because of game-changing moments that helped keep the Reds’ season alive with big comeback wins against the Cubs and Mariners. That included the tying single in Saturday’s big ninth-inning win against the Cubs and Tuesday’s manufactured speed run to beat the Mariners in the ninth — leading off the inning with an infield single, stealing second, then scoring easily on Encarnacion-Strand’s game-winner.
4. Noelvi Marte (last week: 4) — He reached his one-month mark in the big leagues during the week, just as his original team, the Mariners, came to town. He responded by scoring a run early in the series-opening win, then nearly hitting for the cycle in the second game: with a single, double, homer and walk. He went 7-for-21 (.333) with a .963 OPS for the week.
5. (tie) Lyon Richardson, Carson Spiers, Connor Phillips (last week: NR) — If this were a normal team in a normal season — never mind a contender in a high-stakes season — none of these guys would be in the big leagues. Instead, they’re all here because of that desperate need. And without them, the Reds might not be here — as in still in a playoff hunt with three weeks left.
Dropped out: Fernando Cruz (3), Brandon Williamson (5)
This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Look who's back in the top spot in the Reds Rookie Power Rankings