How electric, young Cincinnati Reds turned into MLB’s worst-hitting team in 59 days flat

Nobody can blame Elly De La Cruz or Spencer Steer.

They’ve played every game for the Cincinnati Reds and performed at much better than league-average levels offensively ‒ Steer perhaps most consistently and De La Cruz putting together an All-Star resumé so far.

Jake Fraley’s been a bright spot in the lineup. Even .190-hitting Jeimer Candelario’s numbers suggest he has played to $45 million expectations over the last 3 1/2 weeks. (You could look it up.)

So how did the Reds go from the most electric young lineup in the National League with playoff expectations to the worst-hitting team in the majors a week into May?

“Hopefully, we’re coming out of it,” said team president Nick Krall, who activated lineup catalyst TJ Friedl from the injured list Tuesday.

“If you look at it, to come into the season with three of your best on-base guys not here, it takes a toll,” he said. “Because it doesn’t just take those guys out of the lineup and put other guys in, it also pushes other guys to spots where they’re not used to producing in, whether it’s leadoff or middle of the order.”

With Friedl out, Stuart Fairchild and Will Benson were pushed at times into the leadoff spot, rotating with Jonathan India, and producing a .237 on-base percentage in their 13 combined starts there.

Fairchild (hitting .179 this season) was a bench guy last year; he’s been a regular with Friedl out. Santiago Espinal (.169) has started 25 games with Matt McLain injured. Bubba Thompson (.111) started five games in a two-week span.

Nick Martini (.177), a good matchup depth guy and bat off the bench, was pushed into the fifth spot in the order five times − and cleanup once − over the past three weeks as the team dealt with a flu bug taking regulars out of the lineup three and four games at a time.

Martini and Thompson were optioned to the minors Tuesday.

“Some guys are here because their best role is a pinch hitter or defensive replacement, not because they’re trying to be offensive guys,” Krall said. “You’re just playing out of roles. I know four years ago we didn’t have a closer, and not having a closer pushed everybody towards the back, which was out of their role. It’s kind of the same thing offensively (now).”

Krall, who has his ear to the ground on a possible early-moving trade market this season, isn’t panicking, especially with Friedl back and that flu bug that left the Reds entirely without a bench during several games on the recent road trip on its way out.

“It’s been a constant ‒ the sickness was real for the last month,” Krall said. “Hopefully, that’s behind us, and we’re trying to work through that.”

Meanwhile, here’s a timeline and summary of how the Reds went from one of the more promising lineups in the league to the worst-hitting group in the majors (.210) in 59 days flat, entering the week (also second-worst NL OBP, .289, and fourth-worst NL OPS, .645):

March 8

Infielder Noelvi Marte, considered a Rookie of the Year candidate after a promising, .316-hitting, six-week career, gets suspended 80 games by MLB for a positive steroid test. He is ineligible to play for the team before June 27 and will have only a 15-day minor-league “rehab” assignment allowed to tune up in games before that eligible date. Until then, the hope was that he would be the club’s primary third baseman and a lower-half piece of an upper-tier lineup.

March 13

Top minor-league hitting prospect Edwin Arroyo, considered by many the best shortstop in the organization severely damaged his left (non-throwing) shoulder sliding back to first on a pickoff attempt in a Cactus League game and one week later underwent season-ending surgery.

Arroyo, 20, was having an impressive spring and was expected to open the season at Double-A Chattanooga with a chance to debut this season. It’s a big dropoff after that to the kind of minor-league depth that might have impacted the lineup this year the way last year’s rookies did in their debuts. He was a consensus top-100 prospect in baseball.

March 16

Centerfielder Friedl, the top-of-the-lineup catalyst of 2023, broke his right (non-throwing) wrist trying to make a diving catch during a Cactus League game and missed the first six weeks of the season.

March 18

Second baseman Matt McLain, the best player on the team as a rookie when healthy last year, suffered significant damage to his left (non-throwing) shoulder on a diving play in practice and had surgery nine days later. McLain and team officials cling to an optimistic timeline of a return to the lineup in August but acknowledged the injury could yet be season-ending.

March 28-April 10

Christian Encarnacion-Strand, with 63 games of big-league experience before this year, and Jeimer Candelario, the $45 million switch-hitting free agent, batted third and fourth in the lineup for the first 12 games of the season before Candelario was moved down in the order. They combined to hit .153 (.474 OPS) in those 12 games. CES stayed in the No. 3 spot for five more games until taking ill. Neither has an average higher than .195 yet nor an OPS higher than .634 (entering Tuesday).

April 21-26, April 30-May 1

Jake Fraley, who hit .362 with a .934 OPS through April 20, took his turn catching one of several flu-like bugs going around the clubhouse and missed six games until he was cleared to play, then missed two more because of a lingering cough. The Reds went 3-5 in those games, getting shut out twice and scoring two or fewer in two more games he missed.

April 21-24

Jonathan India, already battling wrist and thigh pain from day-to-day injuries, missed time for flu-like symptoms. After a hitless performance in his return, the 2021 Rookie of the Year has hit .344 with four walks and an .886 OPS in nine games since.

April 21-May 5

Will Benson, who opened the season producing well for more than two weeks, began to move up in the order in mid-April and got his first leadoff assignment on India’s first sick day. He entered the Arizona series as the Reds’ leadoff man in nine of the previous 11 games ‒ hitting .200 with just two walks in 10 games overall in that spot (.238 on-base percentage). He was a trendy pick for Reds' breakout player this year after a strong four-month finish following an early season demotion in 2023.

April 28-May 2

Tyler Stephenson, one of the hottest hitters in the lineup for more than a week, got hit on the wrist by a pitch and missed four games. CES was hit in the wrist in the same game, too, and missed the same four games. The Reds lost three of the four.

This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: How Cincinnati Reds became MLB’s worst-hitting team in 59 days flat