One of the free agent names that is still looking for a job this season is 11 time gold glove winner Omar Vizquel. I started thinking if he would be a fit with the Reds and thought why not? Right now there's still uncertainty whether Gonzalez will be able to start the season healthy, and I'm just not sold on Hairston as an everyday shortstop right now. Vizquel played 92 games with the Giants last year, a part time role, and I think he could do the same very well in Cincinnati. Start the season as the everyday guy until Gonzalez gets back and then play the role of defensive replacement or fill in when Alex needs a day off (which might be good to have since he's coming off the injury). Basically he would be insurance...a very good defensive insurance. His hitting has gone down in recent years, but he was never known as a hitter to start with. He reminds me of someone we carried for a few years named Juan Castro, anyone remember him?
I'm not saying that this would solve the Reds problems for this year, this signing would be far from the hard hitting righty that we need for left field. I am saying that it would be a insurance, and possibly cheap signing for this year.
Keywords: Cincinnati Reds, MLB, Omar Vizquel
