Later today the Cincinnati Reds will take the field for their first spring training game as they take on the Cleveland Guardians. You’ve probably been a baseball fan long enough to know how spring training goes – you will see starting pitchers go 1-2 innings the first start then add about an inning from there in each subsequent start. Position players with secured jobs will only play a handful of innings early on, and get days off of games earlier in the spring, and then begin to play deeper into games and more often as you get closer to the end of the spring.
One thing we saw last spring was that some games would include the automated balls and strikes challenge system. It was a bit of a test run at the highest level and this year it’s going to be implemented in the regular season, but we’re going to see it in all of the spring training games this year with the possible exception of the exhibition against Team Cuba as they get ready for the World Baseball Classic.
Major League Baseball has decided that with the challenge system now in place that they will remove the strikezone tracking on the television broadcasts. The “strikezone box” will still appear on the screen if the broadcast wants it, but what won’t be shown anymore is the circle that represented where the ball was when it reached the plate.
There are a lot of reasons being stated for why that is. You’ve got everything from “players can’t be tipped off on calls” to “we don’t want fans to be confused and lose faith in the system when the tv call doesn’t match up with Hawkeye”. The first one doesn’t really pass the test for me. Players have to make the challenge almost immediately. There simply isn’t enough time for anyone to get the TV feed and tip off a player on the field before they’ve run out of time to make the challenge. The TV broadcast doesn’t go from the ballpark to your device fast enough for that to happen.
The latter reason makes more sense. The box on the TV is not exactly the same one you get on Gameday. It’s very close, but it’s not perfect (one can argue the one for Gameday, which comes from Hawkeye, isn’t either, but that’s another debate). Because of how everything is implemented into the broadcast, it’s not precise and MLB wants to avoid the broadcast showing a ball being one thing and then a challenge showing another.
But there’s another aspect to it, too. MLB wants fans to “be engaged” with the call. Was it or wasn’t it? They believe the unknown will lead to a better experience.
Gameday feeds will be on a five second delay and broadcast feeds that choose to continue using the strikezone box will be on a nine second delay as reported by The Athletic.
A lot of the positions for the Reds are set or close to it barring injury or just an unexpected terrible level of performance. But there are still spots up for grabs, including one that involves this afternoon’s starting pitcher Chase Burns. The 2024 #2 overall draft pick will be battling for the 5th spot in the rotation with Rhett Lowder, and possibly guys like Chase Petty and Brandon Williamson. There are spots that could be available in the bullpen, too. The bench seems to be a bit undecided as well and there’s a plethora of options to work through on that side of things.
With that said, it’s possible that guys like Eugenio Suarez and Edwin Arroyo will play a little more often than they normally would as they will both be leaving camp in early March to play in the World Baseball Classic. Suarez will be joining Team Venezuela in Miami for pool play and Arroyo will be with Team Puerto Rico in San Juan, Puerto Rico. They will need to 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 dealing with a hamstring issue for a few weeks but he’s only expected to miss a few games to begin the spring. Left-handed reliever Joel Valdez is dealing with a shoulder injury and has been shut down for the time being. He wasn’t likely to make the team as a non-roster invite with no big league experience at this point in his career. Everyone else appears to be healthy and ready to go.
Who has no options remaining?
One thing that often matters for bench players and middle relievers is whether or not a guy has options available that would allow them to be sent to the minor leagues. Fair or unfair, sometimes that fact supersedes performance if the difference is not expected to be much over another player. There’s only one player on the 40-man roster who doesn’t seem to have a job locked in who is out of options: Left-handed reliever Sam Moll. This does give the Reds plenty of choices that they can make without really having to worry about if keeping Player A over Player B is worth risking Player B to waivers.