Cincinnati Reds offense will come from the corner infielders in 2017

The Cincinnati Reds have a pair of corner infielders that will set the National League on fire in 2017.

With so much of the focus on the Cincinnati Reds’ pitching there hasn’t been much focus on how their offense will work.  Must people know that it will be decent because Great American Ballpark tends to be charitable towards surrendering home runs.  There is more hope and talent beyond that, though.

Everyone who follows baseball knows about perennial National League MVP candidate Joey Votto.  He is the second best offensive played in baseball behind Mike Trout.  He is having a Hall of Fame career and Reds’ fans should be enjoying the show.

The player that many people haven’t noticed due to Cincinnati’s lack of national exposure lately is third baseman Eugenio Suarez.  Suarez batted .248 with an OBP of .317 in his first year as an everyday third baseman.  He also had 21 home runs split 10-11 between the road and at home.  He also has gotten off to a great start inn 2017.

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Everything wasn’t perfect in 2016, though.  Both Votto and Suarez struggled defensively and on the basepaths.  While Suarez was able to cobble together an average defensive season at third, Votto had his worst defensive season as a full-time first baseman at the MLB level in his career.

After a good 2016, the Cincinnati Reds expect this duo to have an even better 2017.

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Votto created 130 runs last season.  Even if he falls back by 5, he will still likely have the most runs created in the NL.  His primary competition is fellow first baseman Paul Goldschmidt of the Arizona Diamondbacks.

There’s no reason to suspect that Votto will have another average first half of the season, despite another slow start.  He should be able to bat over .300 with more than 20 home runs without much consternation.  He’ll probably still play too many games, which will keep his OPS just below 1.000.

For his part, Suarez should be even better in 2017.  His home run total may not increase, but there is no reason that he shouldn’t be able to get his OBP higher than .325.  He should also be able to score more than 70 runs and drive in more than 70 runs even if he ends up batting in the five spot most of the season.

Suarez created 77 runs last year and like his home runs that number may remain about the same.  However, his defense should improve in his second season at third.  If he can save just a few runs defensively, his added OBP should drastically help the rest of the offense.

Next: Reds defense needs to support young pitchers

After two good seasons for Suarez and Votto last year, it will just take incremental improvements as a duo to have a great season this year.  Defense matters, but not as much as OBP.  Suarez and Votto can be the example for the rest of the batters in 2017.