Cincinnati Reds: Scooter Gennett trade is less likely after Senzel’s injury

The Cincinnati Reds lost their top prospect, Nick Senzel, to a season-ending injury on Friday. The loss of Senzel makes trading Scooter Gennett less likely heading into July.

The Cincinnati Reds have yet to publicly address it, but one of the potential trade candidates in the Reds’ clubhouse could be Scooter Gennett. However, after Nick Senzel’s season-ending injury last week, the prospects of trading Gennett have dramatically decreased. In fact, I might go as far as to say they’re off the table.

Scooter Gennett is having a career-year. He’s currently leading the National League in batting with .332 average. He has 13 home runs and 51 RBIs. Gennett’s slash line is .332/.363/.534. He’s absolutely crushing the ball.

With all the being said, the Reds have been dreadful this season. They are in the cellar of the NL Central and 10.5 games out of the Wild Card spot. They are 13 games below .500 with a record of 32-45. While the Reds have been on a nice roll of late, it’s not very likely that they’re able to climb back into the postseason race.

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So naturally, one would think the Cincinnati Reds would be “sellers” at the trade deadline, which is July 31st. The Reds still appear to be rebuilding and need as many ‘long-term pieces’ as they can find. Is Gennett a ‘long-term piece’? Maybe, maybe not.

Scooter Gennett had a great year a season ago, and he’s having an even better season this go around. The common thought is to sell high on Gennett and get as much talent back as you can. Gennett is under team control for another year and could be a valuable piece to a team that’s in contention this season.

Nick Senzel, Cincinnati’s top minor league prospect, is one of the biggest reasons that moving on from Gennett wouldn’t be the worse thing imaginable. Senzel, the Reds’ top pick in the 2016 MLB Draft, had been at Triple-A Louisville to start the season and occupying second base for the Bats.

Senzel’s bat and glove give the Reds front office reason to believe he can stake a claim at second base for years to come. Unfortunately, the 22-year old phenom suffered an injury to his right index this past week and will be out for the remainder of the season.

The injury to Nick Senzel now takes the pressure off of the Reds having to trade Gennett in order to make room for Senzel at second. In fact, trading Gennett may no longer even be an option. While the Reds have capable players such as Alex Blandino and Brandon Dixon who are able to play second base, neither carries the same potential Senzel does.

Next: Are these the Reds we expected to see?

While I’m sure the Reds will still listen to offers if someone comes calling for Scooter Gennett, they can now afford to be much more selective. Should an offer become a reality, Cincinnati will now be able to put their full focus on the assets rather than have a logjam at second base as part of the equation; for this year at least.