Reds' best trade acquisition this season came well before the deadline

The Cincinnati Reds had a rather mild trade deadline, didn't they? After the St. Louis Cardinals pounced on the Milwaukee Brewers' primary trade target, the Brew Crew were forced to pivot to former Reds' starter Frankie Montas.

The Reds also traded Lucas Sims to the Boston Red Sox for a minor league pitching prospect. To cap off of last Tuesday's deadline, Cincinnati parted with Austin Slater and Livan Soto while also acquiring Davis Wendzel.

But Nick Krall's best trade this season had nothing to do with last week's deadline. In fact, the Reds' President of Baseball Operations swung a trade with the Toronto Blue Jays just before the season started that was unquestionably Cincinnati's best trade in 2024.

Reds' best trade acquisition this season, Santiago Espinal,came well before the deadline

The Reds dealt right-handed pitching prospect Chris McElvain to the Blue Jays in exchange for Santiago Espinal about a week before Opening Day this season. The Reds had just learned that Matt McLain would miss several months after injuring his shoulder during spring training, and Cincinnati would also be without top infield prospect Noelvi Marte following his 80-game suspension for using performance -enhancing drugs.

Espinal, who was an All-Star in 2022, had been forced out of Toronto's starting lineup. The Blue Jays employed Bo Bichette and Vladimir Guerrero Jr. on the infield dirt, and were also in need of a roster spot for Ernie Clement. Dealing Espinal to the Reds helped them to solve their logjam.

While a .243/.283/.383 slash line and 83 OPS+ is hardly All-Star worthy, Esinal's performance over the past month has been stellar — especially when compared to Marte. Since June 1st, Espinal is hitting .291/.311/.476 with five home runs and 13 RBI in 35 games, including 25 starts. During that same span, Marte is hitting just .167/.228/.274 with two homers and seven RBI in 25 games.

Santiago Espinal was one of the Reds best players in July

While not an elite defender, Espinal's defense has been much better than what Marte's shown since returing to the active roster. According to Fielding Bible, Espinal is worth -1 defensive run saved, while Marte is worth -2 DRS in fewer than half the innings. Espinal has five errors on the season, while Marte has six miscues in barely over a month.

It's hard to get too excited when your best trade acquisition is worth only 0.2 fWAR and is little more than a platoon infielder, but that speaks to the additions, or lack thereof, that Krall and Co. have provided to the roster this season.

Espinal is under team control through 2026 and is arbitration eligible for the next two seasons. It's quite likely that Cincinnati retains the 29-year-old to fill a very similar to that of Kyle Farmer from 2021 and 2022. But moving forward, the Reds front office needs to make some more impactful trades than just adding a player like Espinal to the roster.

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