Reds Spring Training Notebook: What to Expect – Redleg Nation

Later today, the Cincinnati Reds will take the field for their first spring training game against the Cleveland Guardians. You’ve probably been a baseball fan long enough to know how spring training goes. You’ll see starting pitchers go 1-2 innings on the first start and then add about an inning on each subsequent start. Position players with secured jobs will only play a handful of innings at first, get days off from games earlier in the spring, and then start playing deeper into games and more often as you get closer to the end of spring.

One thing we saw last spring was that some games would feature the automated balls and strike challenge system. It was a bit of a trial run at the highest level and this year it will be implemented in the regular season, but we are going to see it in all spring training games this year with the possible exception of the exhibition game against Team Cuba as they prepare for the World Baseball Classic.

Major League Baseball has decided that now that the challenge system is in place, they will remove strike zone tracking from its television broadcasts. The “strike zone box” will still appear on the screen if the broadcast wants it to, but what will no longer be shown is the circle showing where the ball was when it hit the plate.

Many reasons are given why this is so. There’s everything from “players can’t be tipped off on calls” to “we don’t want fans to get confused and lose faith in the system if the TV call doesn’t match Hawkeye.” The first one doesn’t really pass the test for me. Players must take on the challenge almost immediately. There simply isn’t enough time for someone to get the TV feed and tip off a player on the field before he runs out of time to complete the challenge. The TV broadcast doesn’t travel from the ballpark to your device fast enough for that to happen.

The last reason makes more sense. The box on the TV isn’t exactly the same as the one you get on Gameday. It’s very close, but it’s not perfect (you can argue that Gameday’s coming from Hawkeye isn’t either, but that’s another debate). Because of the way everything is implemented in the broadcast, it is not precise and MLB wants to avoid the broadcast where a ball shows one thing, and then a challenge that shows something else.

But there is also another aspect to it. MLB wants fans to be “involved” in the call. Was it or wasn’t it? They believe that the unknown will lead to a better experience.

Gameday feeds will have a five-second delay, and broadcast feeds that choose to continue using the strike zone box will have a nine-second delay, as reported by The Athletic.

Many of the positions for the Reds are set or close, barring injury or just an unexpectedly terrible level of performance. But there are still spots up for grabs, including one involving this afternoon’s starting pitcher Chase Burns. The 2024 #2 overall draft pick will compete for the fifth spot in the rotation with Rhett Lowder and possibly guys like Chase Petty and Brandon Williamson. There are also spots available in the bullpen. The bank also seems a bit indecisive and there are a plethora of options to work through on that side of things.

That said, it’s possible that guys like Eugenio Suarez and Edwin Arroyo will play a little more often than usual, as they will both leave camp in early March to play in the World Baseball Classic. Suarez will join Team Venezuela in Miami for pool play and Arroyo will be with Team Puerto Rico in San Juan, Puerto Rico. They should be a little more game ready than the other players by the first week of March and as such could see a more advanced schedule early in camp.

Health

For the most part, everyone is healthy. Christian Encarnacion-Strand has been struggling with a hamstring problem for a few weeks, but it is expected that he will only have to miss a few games in the spring. Left-handed reliever Joel Valdez is dealing with a shoulder injury and is out for the time being. It wasn’t likely that he would join the team at this point in his career as a non-roster invite with no major league experience. Everyone else seems healthy and ready to go.

Who has run out of options?

One thing that often matters for bench players and center relievers is whether or not a player has options available that could send him to the minor leagues. Fair or unfair, sometimes that fact trumps performance when the difference is not expected to be much greater than another player. There is only one player on the 40-man roster who appears to be out of a job and out of options: left-handed reliever Sam Moll. This gives the Reds plenty of choices they can make without really having to worry about whether it’s worth keeping Player A over Player B to risk Player B to waivers.