Greetings and welcome to my brand-spanking new Reds blog. We currently boast a readership of, well, let's not talk about that right now, but we're growing! That's the idea. GROW!
The Reds just finished their 400th miserable season in a row, and, as always, there's talk of competing next year, but the question is, is it possible?
Supposedly, the Reds are going to have a payroll of around $85 million next year. Currently, everyone under contract plus Encarncion's arbitration raise, brings things to $50 million dollars. Figure $5 million for roster fillers and you're left with about $30 million to play with.
The Reds are doing pretty well with starting pitching, and I'm not believer that you pay big money for relief pitching, so let's assume that most of that is going to beef up the offense (last year's big problem). Right now, the Reds are set at 1B (Votto), 2B (Phillips), CF/RF (Bruce), and 3B (Encarnacion). The leaves half the lineup to deal with.
