Terry Francona's reaction to Ke'Bryan Hayes trade hints at possible Reds blockbuster

The Cincinnati Reds pulled off a trade deadline deal with the Pittsburgh Pirates to bring Gold Glove Award-winner Ke'Bryan Hayes into the fold, and unsurprisingly, Terry Francona is a big fan of the move.

"He might be the best defender in baseball, if not, right there," Francona told Cincinnati reporter Mike Petraglia. "He's that good. (We're) trying to find ways to get better, and sometimes it might not be the sexiest move...but we care so much about trying to play clean baseball, and this will be a huge step in that direction."

Did Tito just clue Reds fans in to the club's next move? Anyone who's watched the Reds this season knows that Francona values defense, or as he call it, playing clean baseball. It just so happens that another player who's rumored to be on the Reds radar fits that description to a T. Are the Reds about to pull off a blockbuster trade for Cleveland Guardians outfielder Steven Kwan?

Terry Francona's reaction to Ke'Bryan Hayes trade hints at possible Reds blockbuster for Steve Kwan

Few players in the major leagues play cleaner baseball than Kwan. The Guardians All-Star is known as a high-contact hitter with plenty of speed who also plays elite-level defense in the outfield. With Cleveland trailing the Detroit Tigers by 9½ games in the AL Central and three games back in the Wild Card, it's beginning to look as if the Guardians will be selling at the deadline.

This type of move is bold — so it's questionable as to whether or not the Reds would actually pull this off. Cincinnati usually takes a conservative approach at the trade deadline, much to the dismay of the fanbase.

But with Francona — who's familiar with Kwan from their time together in Cleveland — at the helm and lack of monstrous financial commitments while players like Elly De La Cruz and Andrew Abbott are still pre-arbitration eligible, perhaps the Reds will finally make a blockbuster move at the deadline.

Kwan is only making slightly more than $4 million this season and is under team control through 2027. This is exactly the type of move that would excite the Reds fanbase, and the question now becomes, do they have the guts to pull it off?

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