Nick Senzel, the shortstop void, and the 2021 Cincinnati Reds

Spring sprang, and the Cincinnati Reds have thusly descended upon Goodyear, Arizona to get their 2021 baseballing business into gear. Pitchers are pitching, catchers are catching, and we’re now just a trio of days away from the first actual spring training game of the Cactus League season.

It won’t look like any other Cactus League season, but it’s baseball nonetheless.

The RR Podcast crew got together to cover the latest developments from Reds camp, including a focus on the current disheveled state of the shortstop position. Who’s job is it, really? Will Jose Garcia get a shot? Will they really try to shovel Dee Strange-Gordon into a position that he hasn’t really played in almost a decade? Just how many players can the Reds put on the field at the same time that are playing positions that aren’t, y’know, the positions they actually play?

From there we move to Nick Senzel, and what roadblocks the Reds have been putting up for his development this time around. Position changes, swing changes, service-time manipulation, and repeatedly signing players that play his positions have been the storylines over his first two seasons at the big league level, and that paired with his struggles to stay on the field make the 2021 season a pretty big year for him, the most highly decorated position player prospect the Reds have had in over a decade.

You can tune in to the latest episode by smashing that big orange play button on the embedded SoundCloud link below, or if you found this on a search engine that strips out such things, you can find it by simply clicking these very words.