Reds' infield logjam presents thorny decisions

This story was excerpted from Mark Sheldon's Reds Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.

CINCINNATI -- First baseman Joey Votto may no longer be with the Reds, but their 2024 infield picture remains crowded, especially with several young players in need of at-bats.

Cincinnati's infield group has Jonathan India, Elly De La Cruz, Matt McLain, Spencer Steer, Christian Encarnacion-Strand, Noelvi Marte and Nick Senzel. During the General Managers Meetings in Arizona this past week, MLB Network's Jon Paul Morosi noted multiple teams have inquired to the Reds about India's trade availability.

Moving India would enable the Reds to use McLain at second base and would allow De La Cruz to play shortstop regularly. But it would remove a clubhouse leader and a more veteran player.

In previous offseasons, president of baseball operations Nick Krall has been willing to hear reasonable offers for any player. However, it didn't appear that Krall was overly interested in dealing from his infield depth -- including India -- to acquire help in other areas.

“I think we could, but I don’t think there’s a reason to do it at this point," Krall told reporters, including MLB.com's Scott Merkin. "You have injuries. I want to make sure we have enough quality depth to withstand some of that stuff. That’s going to help our club at the end of the day.”

Krall cited the young infielders needing playing time when the Reds moved on from Votto by not picking up his $20 million club option on Nov. 5. Another decision is coming this week with the non-tender deadline on Friday. The Reds will have to decide whether to offer the arbitration-eligible Senzel a contract. If they don’t, he becomes a free agent.

Also lurking in the infield mix is Jose Barrero, who endured anemic hitting over 46 games in ’23 before spending the rest of the season at Triple-A Louisville. Barrero is out of Minor League options going into next spring.

“All good players. Lucky Cincinnati that they have that kind of talent," agent Scott Boras told reporters, including MLB.com's John Denton. "Most teams don’t have two [of that] level of players on the infield, let alone four or five. We met with the Reds and talked a lot about their future, which certainly included India in that plan.”

Boras not only represents India, but he has De La Cruz, McLain and Senzel in his stable of players.

Krall noted last month that all of Cincinnati's young infielders would have to earn their spots on the 2024 roster at Spring Training. That includes De La Cruz, who struggled mightily in the second half after an explosive first 30 games following his June 6 promotion to the big leagues.

Although it's certainly not his decision to make, Boras doesn’t expect the switch-hitting De La Cruz to open 2024 in the Minors.

“Yes, I would be very surprised," Boras said. "He had 250 at-bats in the Minor Leagues right-handed and now you’re playing in the Major Leagues -- wow. For those of us who played Minor League ball, to think about how many at-bats we needed in Double-A -- we asked a lot of him.

"He’s working obviously [on] strength, getting ready to play a full 162-game schedule. He’s not come anywhere near that prior to this year. There was a big fatigue factor for him late in the year. [He's] getting his strength, durability there and also getting more focus on how to work on his technique for the right-handed at-bats.”