Cincinnati Reds couldn’t decide whether or not to shutdown Homer Bailey

The Cincinnati Reds couldn’t decided whether or not to shutdown Homer Bailey, so they did neither.

Faced with a  difficult decision to make, the Cincinnati Reds did what they do best, nothing.  The decision was whether or not to shutdown Homer Bailey.  The decision was to pull him early from his second to last start of the season.

There is no telling what the Reds think they accomplished by pulling Bailey after 65 pitches in his last start.  It wasn’t a skipped start and it wasn’t a full start.  It was kinda a start.

Bailey went four innings against the Saint Louis Cardinals.  He allowed four runs including seven hits.  He walked two and struck out three.

It is possible that the Reds thought that this approach was in line with being competitive against a team in the playoff race.  Then again, maybe not getting swept would have been more competitive.  The Cardinals are not likely to make the playoffs, but that is no fault of the Reds.

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Bailey has made a heroic comeback the second half of the season and continuing to send him out there accomplishes nothing.  He needs to go through an off-season program so that he remains healthy for next season.  Even then his spot on the team is uncertain.

Homer Bailey’s uneven second half puts the Cincinnati Reds in awkward position for 2018.

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The Reds couldn’t decide what to do with Bailey at the tail end of the season.  They face an even bigger decision this off-season.  They have to decide the fate of Bailey for next year.

The Reds are great at passing the buck down the line.  They did it so well during this season’s trade deadline that they only traded Tony Cingrani and none of the pending free agents.  The Reds could do the same thing with Bailey.

That would mean that Bailey would be in the starting rotation to start the 2018 season.  He would start because no other decision is made.  That is the way the Reds operate.

He might belong in the bullpen in a role similar to what Joe Blanton has done for the past few years for various teams.  A role of pitching a couple of moderate leverage innings with the occasional start or save.  That is what a decision looks like.

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Instead, the Reds will continue on autopilot.  It makes the status quo the standard.  That would be fine if the standard was so awful the past few seasons.