Tommy Pham made one Reds mistake much bigger than it needed to be

Baseball fans in Queen City undoubtedly remember Tommy Pham's brief, albeit contentious, run with the Cincinnati Reds in 2022. The outfielder signed a one-year deal with the Reds during the 2021-22 offseason and was the team's Opening Day left fielder that year. He hit 11 home runs with a .694 OPS in 91 games that season before he was dealt to the Boston Red Sox at the trade deadline.

Pham is never one to shy away from controversy — I think every Reds fan remembers when he slapped Joc Pederson across the face over a fantasy football dispute — and he inserted himself into the online discussion following Dane Myers' dropped fly ball against the St. Louis Cardinals on Thursday afternoon.

In a response to a Reds fan on X (formerly Twitter), Pham wrote, "What’s going on is we have cf’s today who know the value of stealing catches to help their ooa numbers go up bcuz it improves your war so you have this, a game that is lost bcuz the cf didn’t want the lf to catch the ball bcuz he wanted the points"

Who hurt you, Tommy Pham? His opinion seems grossly over the top given the situation. Though Myers went a long way and was calling off the left fielder in an attempt to make the grab, TJ Friedl appeared to be battling the sun and may not have had a clean read on the ball. No one is suggesting Myers shouldn't have secured the catch, but to insinuate that he was greedily trying to pad his stats feels like a bridge too far.

Maybe Pham should be more concerned about the lack of playing time he's had this season rather than criticizing players like Myers. Teams had little interest in Pham this offseason, so he settled for a minor-league deal with the New York Mets just before the season began. He went 0-for-13 with seven strikeouts and was DFA'd a month after he signed. He's since latched on with the Philadelphia Phillies, but is toiling away with the Lehigh Valley Iron Pigs.

Tommy Pham's criticism of Reds outfielder Dane Myers was unwarranted

As a Reds fan, you can be like Pham and just pile on top of Myers — who looked absolutely dejected after Thursday's loss — or you can support him and the rest of the team through the end of the season.

Goodness knows the results haven't been there in 2026. Almost every single Reds fan truly believed this year's team was ready to compete for the NL Central crown, and maybe even make a deep run in October. But for a myriad of reasons, the team has struggled and trip back to the postseason looks like a pipe dream.

So you can pile on Myers (and Friedl) if you'd like, but I'm sure he feels worse about that missed catch than you do. He let his teammates, the coaches, and the fans down. But he was also the same player who led the Reds to a come-from-behind victory on Monday thanks to his pinch-hit home run in the ninth inning that gave way to an Elly De La Cruz walk-off.

Being a baseball fan has it's highs and lows, and right now, the Cincinnati faithful are struggling to see light at the end of the tunnel. Thursday's loss was one of the worst of the season, but the best thing about baseball is, there's another game today. Go win one, Redlegs.

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