Cincinnati Reds: Jesse Winker is thriving at his spot in the batting order

The Cincinnati Reds moved Jesse Winker down in the batting order recently after having him hit leadoff earlier this season. The results have been astounding and Winker is showing more power and scoring more runs.

The Cincinnati Reds chose Jesse Winker to hit in the leadoff spot to start the season. The rookie outfielder got off to a sluggish start this season, but a change in the batting order has led to Winker’s numbers being on the rise in recent weeks.

Winker primarily batted in the leadoff spot earlier this season, and the results were not very positive. In the first 50 games Winker played in, 39 of which he started, he slashed .239/.350/.316. During that same span, Winker had only 1 home run and 12 RBIs.

Manager Jim Riggleman turned to Scott Schebler to be his new leadoff hitter on June 7th against the Colorado Rockies. As a result, Winker was moved down a bit in the batting order. He found himself most often No.6 hole, but on rare occasions, he fell all the way to No. 7 in the order.

The manager’s move worked. In the 19 games Winker’s played since moving back in the batting order he’s slashing .310/.437/.569 with 5 home runs and 18 RBIs. The Reds are also 5 games above .500 during those games.

Looking deeper into Winker’s numbers really shows how well he’s hitting after being moved out of the leadoff spot for the Reds. Winker has an OPS of 1.006 and aside from his 5 home runs, none of the remainder of his hits (13) has all been for extra bases.

The move to the leadoff spot has worked well for Scott Schebler as well. He’s hitting .314 with a .913 on-base plus slugging. Schebler has 2 home runs and 9 doubles during that span and is drawing a walk about once every 10 at-bats.

Jim Riggleman seems to be pulling all the right strings right now with this ball club. Since taking over as interim manager after Bryan Price was fired, Riggleman is 32-33. By no means is that earth-shattering, but given where this team was after the start of the season, they’ve shown great improvement.

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Winker’s play of late has helped the Reds win 13 of their last 18 games and move out of the National League cellar. The Reds are currently 35-48 and still 9.5 games out of the Wild Card, but it’s a far cry from where they started the season at 3-18. I don’t see Winker or Schebler moving out of their spots in the lineup anytime soon.