Cincinnati Reds links - Playoff racin’ with the Cardinals and Padres, Jesse Winker nears return

The Good News - The Cincinnati Reds woke up this morning in sole possession of the second Wild Card spot in the National League, thanks to yet another San Diego Padres loss.

The Bad News - The Cincinnati Reds are 16.5 games back of the Los Angeles Dodgers for the right to host the one-game Wild Card playoff, a number that’s indicative of just how much better the Dodgers have been throughout the course of this season.

The Concerning News - While the Reds lurched in the standings on a day where they didn’t even play, the number of sharks in the water is growing. The St. Louis Cardinals, fresh of their series victory over the Reds over the weekend, won yet again, and they’re now tied with the Padres and just a half-game back of the Reds in the standings.

Over at FanGraphs.com, Jay Jaffe breaks down the entire NL race, noting just how likely it is as that each of these clubs actually squeaks into the postseason and the path it will require to get them there.

The Reds and the Pittsburgh Pirates go to work against one another next, which I blogged a blog about just yesterday. I cannot explain to you just how antsy it makes me to anticipate watching an incredibly sub-par Pirates team with so many chances to foil the Reds entire season over the next 3 weeks.

Joey Votto has been named the Reds nominee for the 2021 Roberto Clemente Award, which is a tremendous nod to Votto’s continuous efforts off the field to Be A Good Person.

Brad Brach was designated for assignment by the Reds yesterday when they needed a spot on the active roster for Kyle Farmer, who rejoined the team after he and his wife Courtney welcomed a bebe to this wild and crazy world over the weekend. Thank you for the exciting, game-winning double over the weekend, Jose Barrero, we’ll see you again in lineups next year (I assume).

Here are 10 ‘Big Name Players’ that Leatherpants hears could maybe be potentially talked about as maybe being potentially maybe traded this winter, maybe. My sources tell me they could actually, y’know, just be 10 players who play baseball whose names were picked by a random number generator. There are no Cincinnati Reds listed, though there are some interesting names that could be of interest to the Reds on the acquisition end of things, if they were so inclined. Something to keep an eye on going forward [TM].

The Reds have officially sent Jesse Winker to a rehab assignment with AAA Louisville, meaning he could well be back and activated for the homestand that begins over the weekend. That’s a major, major, super duper big deal to this struggling offense, even if he does very little to solve their years-old issues against LHP.

Longtime Reds nemesis (and bogus MVP winner) Ryan Braun* officially retired today. I hope he enjoys watching the Brewers finally win a World Series the year after he hung up his cleats.

Finally, after having cooled off from his molten-lava-hot streak to open the season’s second-half, Joey Votto’s season OPS has sunk back to just .909. Because of incredibly irrational reasons, I hope like the dickens he can keep it over .900 at season’s end. Hell, maybe even go on a three-week ripper and up it back over .950 for old time’s sake.