Reds: 3 areas Cincinnati needs to clean up heading into May

The Cincinnati Reds have had a roller coaster month to begin the 2021 season. We’ve seen this year’s squad win six consecutive games and then lose seven in a row. Consistency is certainly lacking, but it’s still early and David Bell along with his coaching staff have plenty of time to figure things out over the summer.

That said, the Reds can’t just sit on their hands, and some areas of concern must be addressed as the calendar flips from April to May. As Cincinnati embarks on the second month of the 2021 season, what are the the three biggest issues that must be ironed out before the dog days of summer descend upon the Queen City?

1. Reds starter Luis Castillo must return to form.

One of the biggest issues during the first month of the season has been the disappointing play of Cincinnati’s ace Luis Castillo. Disappointing might not even be a strong enough word to describe the paltry play we’ve seen from La Piedra during the month of April.

Castillo has pitched in five games and owns a 6.29 ERA. The right-hander has struck out just 19 batters over 24.1 innings of work. His 32 hits allowed are the third-highest in the league behind Antonio Senzatela and Zach Eflin. Castillo has also surrendered five home runs. Castillo gave up just five homers all of last season.

The Reds are getting great production from Tyler Mahle and Wade Miley. I think it’s fair to say that Jeff Hoffman has exceeded expectations, and after Wednesday’s performance, Reds Country has to be happy with what they saw from Sonny Gray.

But, if this team is going to make some noise in the National League Central, Luis Castillo must play up to his ability. According to FanGraphs, Castillo’s strikeout-rate has dropped from 30.5% (2020) to 17.5% (2021). Castillo has reduced the usage of his fastball and relied more heavily on his changeup.

While his off-speed stuff is second-to-none, locating his fastball is key to Castillo’s success. There’s also been a drop in velocity, which may concerning if it continues. For the Reds to be competitive this season, Luis Castillo must return to form, and fast.

3. The Reds need better production from the cleanup spot.

Whether you want to blame the player, the manager, or the owner is irrelevant. The bottom line is, the Cincinnati Reds need better production out of the No. 4 hole in the lineup. Eugenio Suarez has been a mainstay at that spot for the majority of this season, but of late, we’ve seen David Bell try a different spot in the order for his shortstop.

I’d like to think that Suarez will eventually emerge from his slump and begin to crush opposing pitchers as he’s done over the better part of his career. Unfortunately, Geno is hitting just .125 on the season, has just one game in which he’s had multiple hits, and is 6-for-63 (.095) over the last 16 games. In that span, Suarez has struck out 28 times. That’s a 44.4% strikeout-rate.

On the season, the No. 4 hole in Cincinnati’s lineup is slashing just .143/.255/.319. The .573 OPS is the worst in the lineup outside of the No. 9 spot (.556 OPS) in the batting order. The only promising aspect of the cleanup spot in the Reds order is that the No. 4 hole leads the team in walks with 13.

Bell seems to be trying to coax Suarez’s bat along while not totally disabling his offense. We’ve seen Nick Senzel and Alex Blandino snag a few starts in the leadoff spot in place Winker, which has caused Geno to be bumped down in the batting order.

The Reds skipper has tried to find ways to alternate between left-handed and right-handed bats atop the batting order, and following Senzel’s 4-for-4 performance on Wednesday, it stands to reason that Bell might try the former first-rounder as the Reds’ leadoff hitter going forward.

The Cincinnati Reds cannot afford to take Eugenio Suarez’s bat out of the lineup all together. You have to think that eventually Geno will come around. But, for now, perhaps the best spot for Suarez to hit is No. 5 or 6 in the batting order.