Jose Barrero must be in the Cincinnati Reds lineup every day for the rest of the 2022 season

Enough is enough. It's finally time to see what the Cincinnati Reds have in Jose Barrero. According to C. Trent Rosecrans of The Athletic, Barrero will join the team in Miami for their series finale against the Marlins on Wednesday.

This has been a long time coming. Barrero was sidelined to begin the 2022 season because of wrist surgery and has been at Triple-A Louisville for the past several weeks rehabbing from his injury and getting his timing down.

The talent is there. That's not the question. The Reds owe it to themselves to get Barrero into the starting lineup every day. This is the perfect time for Nick Krall, David Bell, and the Reds scouts to evaluate what they have in Barrero going forward.

Jose Barrero must be in the Reds lineup every day for the rest of the season.

All we've heard about for the past few seasons is how talented Jose Barrero is. If you look at his minor league stats from last season it's easy to see why so many Reds executives are so high on the 24-year-old.

Barrero ripped through Double-A last season to the tune of .300/.367/.481 and then after being promoted, did the same thing at Triple-A. Barrero hit .306/.392/.594 with the Louisville Bats and received a call-up to the bigs in August of last season.

But Barrero has scuffled since returning from his injury. The infielder is hitting just .200/.286/.320 in 54 games at Triple-A this season. But, it appears that the youngster has finally turned the corner and has hit .290/.333/.548 in the last eight games.

Should Jose Barrero start at SS over Reds incumbent Kyle Farmer?

Should Jose Barrero start over Kyle Farmer? Eh, yes, but there's a catch. Farmer can't be "benched" in favor of Barrero. Farmer has done nothing to deserve losing his spot. In fact, he's done everything he can to maintain it.

Farmer is a team leader. You don't just take a player like Farmer and immediately replace him with an unproven player who has fewer than 150 major league at-bats. But, Barrero needs consist ABs and shouldn't be shuffled all over the diamond in order to get his bat in the lineup.

The simplest solution would be to shift Kyle Farmer over to third base and allow Jose Barrero to become the Cincinnati Reds everyday shortstop. The opposite (Farmer at shortstop and Barrero at third base) could work as well, but Barrero has better range and is the better athlete. Your team's best athlete should either be at shortstop or in center field.

The DH also allows David Bell to consistently keep Farmer and Barrero in the Reds lineup. While some may question the idea of Barrero starting over Farmer, there can't be a single fan throughout Reds Country who would question Barrero starting over Mike Moustakas as Cincinnati's designated hitter.

No matter how it gets done, David Bell has a responsibility to the organization, the fans, and the players to get Jose Barrero in the lineup every day. If it doesn't work out, the Cincinnati Reds have a plethora of shortstops coming up through the minor leagues.