Cincinnati Reds: Four players who should be promoted to the active roster

4. It’s very surprising we haven’t seen Reds infielder Alex Blandino this season.

I was honestly quite surprised when Christian Colón made the Opening Day roster and Alex Blandino was reassigned to the Cincinnati Reds alternate site in Mason, Ohio. Sure, everyone raves about Colón’s presence in the clubhouse, but including him on the Opening Day roster over Blandino seems like a slap in the face to the former first-round pick.

Now, that’s not to say that Blandino set the world on fire during his early years in the bigs, but what we saw during spring training at Goodyear certainly was eye-opening. Blandino hit .423/.500/.731 with five extra-base hits and seven RBIs. That’s nothing to sneeze at from a middle infielder who typically offers more glove than bat.

For his career, Blandino’s .654 OPS doesn’t really scare anyone. However, Colón’s .622 OPS isn’t any better. With Colón no longer on the Reds 40-man roster, it would appear that the next time Cincinnati wants to dip into the player pool to snag an infielder, Blandino might get the call.

Kyle Farmer has filled in admirably at shortstop and second base when called upon, and in no way should Alex Blandino supplant him on the active roster. However, Blandino is a better defender than Josh VanMeter, and with the way last year’s rookie is swinging the bat, I’d argue that Blandino would be the better option in the batter’s box as well.

I didn’t include any pitchers in this list. I know, I surprised myself a little with that one. However, the Cincinnati Reds seem to have a bigger problem scoring runs than they do preventing them. Also, it sounds as though Pedro Strop and Robert Stephenson will be back soon enough. That alone should help the struggling bullpen.