Reds fans will lose their minds over Bleacher Report's 'unpopular' trade idea

Bleacher Report has had some doozies over the years when it comes to bizarre, over-the-top trade proposals. But this one might just take the cake. The outlet recently released an article titled 'Proposing Unpopular Offseason Trade Ideas for Each MLB Team' that explores some trade scenarios that would ruffle the feathers of fanbases throughout the league.

It would certainly do just that for the Cincinnati Reds fans if the front office follows Bleacher Report's line of thinking. Their 'unpopular' trade candidate for the Reds is none other than Spencer Steer.

Reds fans would lose their minds if Cincy traded Spencer Steer

Now, to be fair, Bleacher Report isn't just blindly picking a name out of hat. As is correctly pointed out, the Reds have an abundance of talented infielders. In fact, Cincinnati's depth was so great heading into last spring that Steer was moved off the infield dirt and onto the outfield grass.

However, what Bleacher Report is missing are some important facts that have already been shared with the Reds fanbase. Outside of Elly De La Cruz and Tyler Stephenson, every player on the Reds roster will be fighting for a job in 2025. The Reds intend to give both Steer and Jonathan India an opportunity to earn a starting spot at one of the two corner infield spots.

There seems to be a prevailing thought that Christian Encarnacion-Strand will automatically be inserted into the Reds' lineup as the team's starting first baseman in 2025. While there's a ton of potential in Encarnacion-Strand's bat, the 24-year-old missed all but 29 games last season and even when he was in the lineup, the infielder posted a measly 39 OPS+ and 33 wRC+. Encarnacion-Strand will not only have to come into camp healthy, but he'll need to be more effective if he hopes to find a spot in the Reds starting lineup.

The Reds have a vacancy on the other side of the diamond as well. You wouldn't have thought that Noelvi Marte's 2024 season could have started much worse after he was busted for PED use during spring training, but then he finally took the field in June. What Reds fans saw from Marte was nowhere close to how the infielder ended his 2023 campaign. Marte was out of sync all season and ended the year with the fourth-worst fWAR (-1.5) among all major leaguers with at least 240 plate appearances. Marte should start next season in the minors, perhaps even as low as Double-A.

Steer also had a down-year in 2024. While the 26-year-old started out hot, his bat cooled rather quickly. Steer hit just .225/.319/.402 with 20 homers and a 96 wRC+ after slashing .271/.356/.464 with 23 round-trippers and 117 wRC+ in 2023. Even if the Reds wanted to trade Steer, it would make no sense to do so with him coming off a poor performance.

Steer is under team control through 2028 and isn't even owed a raise until after next season. Given that there's so much uncertainty on this Reds roster, trading one of your most versatile players seems sorely misplaced. Bleacher Report was right about one thing, trading Steer would be unpopular. Few players on the current Reds roster are as well liked by both the fanbase and his teammates.

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