Can they climb into the playoff chase again?
The Cincinnati Reds enter the final week of the first ‘half’ of the 2025 Major League Baseball season at 46-44, a pair of games over the .500 mark, and mired in 4th place in the National League Central division.
They’ve had some moments throughout the first half, to be sure, but after dropping back to back series on the road against the Boston Red Sox and Philadelphia Phillies, it’s hard not to notice they’re both 8 games back of the Chicago Cubs within the division and 2.5 games back of the final NL Wild Card spot, too – with the need to jump three teams to claim even that.
As the Reds barrel towards the All Star break, the schedule gods have, in theory, given them a gift.
This week presents the Reds with a 7-game homestand against the lowly Miami Marlins and Colorado Rockies, the latter of which is giving a run at the title of ‘worst team of all time.’ If ever there were a time to get on a bit of a heater before hitting the brakes for most of a week, it’s right now, where ripping off a run of good form could go a long, long way towards the decision-making processes immediately after the break when the July trade deadline inches ever closer.
The wins, as they say, need to start stacking up right now.
The week ahead isn’t just limited to the near-term for the Reds, either. The All-Star Futures Game will feature the likes of Sal Stewart and Alfredo Duno on Saturday at 4 PM ET, while the 1st round of the 2025 MLB Draft will be held the following day (with the rest of the draft coming on Monday). So, while the big league Reds and manager Terry Francona will be doing everything they can to squeeze the most out of the active roster, Nick Krall & Co. will be both manning the trade phones and hunkering down in their draft war room to make improvements to the future of the roster, too.
Big times around these parts, these are, so much as you can consider ‘a 4th place team not currently in one of the dozens of available playoff positions’ big, I suppose. Perhaps the better way to phrase it is that it’s perhaps the final big, big chance to turn this season to anything ‘big’ at all.