Cincinnati Reds begin the great pitching purge of Great American Ballpark

Incoming reports show this year’s Purge will be the most successful purge to date, with the most pitchers leaving the Cincinnati Reds.

John Lamb was the first victim of the Cincinnati Reds’ purge.  He started more games than anyone else that arrived from the Johnny Cueto deal before a mid-season injury stopped him cold.  He had started 24 games between 2015 and 2016 seasons.

Now Lamb is headed to the Tampa Bay Rays in exchange for cash considerations.  The deal hasn’t been finalized, but it has been announced.  Lamb isn’t even ready to pitch with a recent back surgery holding him back.

Ross Ohlendorf, Alfredo Simon, and J.J Hoover are all free agent pitchers this fall.  Raisel Iglesias and Blake Wood could leave via the super heated relief pitcher trade market.  J.C. Ramirez, Josh Smith, and Steve Delabar have already left the organization.

There’s a litany of pitchers that are already on the Cincinnati-Louisville round trip shuttle.  Cody Reed and Robert Stephenson have both come and gone.  Stephenson was here at the end of the season.

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Abel de los Santos and Wandy Peralta both have huge hurdles to be on the Reds’ roster coming out of spring training, after horrible auditions in September.  Keyvius Sampson will be rotation insurance, but that could be in Louisville or Cincinnati.  The same is true for forgotten man, Tim Adleman.

Just remember all the good the Purge does. We’re gonna make it through the offseason and everything’s going to be okay.

Finally, let’s fast forward 12 hours ahead, or in our case ahead to opening day.  Anthony DeSclafani will be on the mound facing the Philadelphia Phillies.  Michael Lorenzen will be in the bullpen with two or three veterans around him as he continues his transition to a late inning reliever.  Tony Cingrani won’t pitch in high leverage situations after the seventh inning anymore.

“New” general manager, Dick Williams has already promised a purge for the bullpen.  Right now Cingrani and Lorenzen are the only two shoo-ins from the 2016 squad to return.  Jumbo Diaz will likely get one more chance rather than seeing a free agent enter the competition.

Next: Eugenio Suarez needs to touch the ball more.

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The Reds need to bring someone who has closed for a big league team over the course of a full season with more success than Lorenzen to show Lorenzen, and Raisel Iglesias if he survives the dark night of the offseason, how to close out games.  After that Williams needs to find more consistent low leverage pitchers and maybe a lefty specialist.  After all, it may never be right again, in Cincinnati.