Trading Frankie Montas shows a tough reality as the Reds take a step back

The music was pulsing in the Cincinnati Reds’ clubhouse on Monday night after a win over the Chicago Cubs, and the lights were flashing. The Reds were supposed to be celebrating.

Instead, the reality set in that the Reds were a below .500 team that probably isn’t making the playoffs this year. The Reds traded Opening Day starter Frankie Montas to the Milwaukee Brewers for outfielder Joey Wiemer and reliever Jakob Junis.

While Wiemer and Junis could both help the Reds this year and while Montas wasn’t having a consistent season, the move signaled the Reds taking a step back and pivoting toward selling at this year’s trade deadline and changing the focus to competing in 2025.

“It’s tough, especially to (have him traded to) an in-division rival that’s winning (the division). I’ve been around a lot of trades,” Reds second baseman Jonathan India said. “This is a tough one. We’re going to face him next week now. That’s a part of it, I guess. It’s the trade deadline. That stuff happens. It’s not our call. We go with it and have to win tomorrow.”

Montas had a 5.01 ERA this season dragged down by two recent poor starts. But he was the Reds’ only veteran starting pitcher, and he showed flashes of the upside that made him a top-half of the rotation starter during his career.

Montas will fill that role for a Brewers team desperate for frontline pitchers and sees the potential for Montas to start a playoff game for them.

With the Reds, Montas was the leader of a young pitching staff. He gave Hunter Greene advice on his splitter, Nick Lodolo tips on staying healthy and Andrew Abbott perspective on pitch sequencing.

“His impact has been tremendous in such a short period of time for us,” Greene said. “I shed a couple of tears. I know I wasn’t the only one. He has brought so much value off of the field and then when we’ve been together having conversations. He has brought a lot of value to the Reds.”

Four weeks ago, the Reds swept the New York Yankees and looked like they were trending in the right direction. The Reds were heading home for a 10-game homestand against bad teams. They went 5-5.

After the All-Star break, the Reds embarked on an eight-game road trip against two bad teams and a very injury-riddled Atlanta Braves team. The Reds went 3-5.

Following a crushing 2-1 loss to the Tampa Bay Rays on Sunday, the Reds’ front office decided the team would be willing to be sellers.

“Coming out of the break losing to Washington like that and not having the best road trip is tough,” India said. “No one swung the bat well. Elly did really well. You can’t just win with one guy. We’ve got to turn it around and start winning.”

The Reds don’t have a clear way to replace Montas in the rotation. Graham Ashcraft and Brandon Williamson won’t return from the injured list until September at the earliest. Prospect Julian Aguiar doesn’t have much experience in Triple-A, and Lyon Richardson has had an up-and-down year.

Junis, 31, has a 2.42 in 10 appearances this year. The eight-year veteran has spent most of his career as a starting pitcher, but he moved to the Brewers’ bullpen after dealing with injuries early in the season.

The Reds could also do more selling before the trade deadline. Relievers Lucas Sims, Justin Wilson and Buck Farmer are on expiring deals, and reliever Nick Martinez has a player option for 2025.

India is under team control through 2026. But executives around MLB have wondered about his availability since Matt McLain is expected to return and take over at second base.

India doesn’t know what to expect heading into Tuesday’s trade deadline.

“I have no idea,” India said. “There’s always rumors out there. Strong rumors. I have no clue. We’ll see.”

Montas had value on a trade market that was light on veteran starting pitching, and several teams were interested in trading for him. Wiemer has the tools to be a solid big leaguer, and the former University of Cincinnati Bearcat is an aggressive swinger, a strong defender in center field and makes hard contact at a good rate.

Wiemer, who's under team control through the 2028 season, fills an organizational need as a right-handed hitting center fielder. He was a top-100 prospect in MLB heading into the 2023 season and spent nearly all of last year as a regular in the Brewers' lineup.

Wiemer didn’t have consistent results and didn't provide as much power as the Brewers expected. This year, he was optioned to Triple-A as a part of a logjam in a very deep Brewers’ outfield. It's to-be-determined whether Wiemer reports to Triple-A or immediately joins the Reds' big league roster.

When he's in the big leagues, Wiemer will add depth to the Reds’ lineup, and they’re hoping to develop him into a regular that can join their young core in the outfield. Wiemer is younger than Reds outfielders Will Benson, Jake Fraley and TJ Friedl and Reds outfield prospects Blake Dunn and Jacob Hurtubise.

While Wiemer and Junis can both still help the Reds this year, the Reds’ plan entering the season wasn’t to deal their Opening Day starter at the deadline. The goal this year was to win the NL Central.

The Reds punted on that goal by trading Montas to the Brewers, who have a 10-game lead over the Reds in the division. The Reds are also five games back in the NL Wild Card race.

“We’ve got a long way to go,” Reds manager David Bell said. “Ask me at the end of the season when it’s over. We’ve got a lot of baseball to play. We have a lot to look forward to. That’s our focus. Not to get ahead of ourselves. One pitch at a time. It doesn’t change a thing about what our goals are and where we believe we’re heading.”

The Reds being in this position as sellers started in spring training. McLain tore up his shoulder diving for a ground ball in practice, Friedl fractured his wrist diving for a line drive in a spring training game and Noelvi Marte got suspended for testing positive for a performance-enhancing substance.

The injuries and the suspension revealed a lack of organizational depth in Triple-A. The Reds didn’t have a second wave of prospects or impact minor league free agents, which led to at-bats for players like Mike Ford, Levi Jordan, Austin Slater, Bubba Thompson and Conner Capel.

Fraley and Benson have also taken a significant step back at the plate this season. The Reds entered Monday with the third-worst team batting average (.218) and the 12th-worst team  on-base-plus-slugging percentage (OPS) (.696) in MLB. They also rank sixth in the big leagues in strikeouts.

“It has been frustrating at times,” Reds president of baseball operations Nick Krall said. “It hasn’t been one area here or there. We’ve lost games in a lot of different ways. We’ve lost 20 one-run games. We’ve just fallen short. Our run differential is plus-41 right now. At plus-41, we should be a lot better than we are. But at the end of the day, we haven’t banked the wins. Hopefully, who knows, we can get on a run and get back in this thing.”

The Reds’ base running has been an overall strength, but they’ve run into too many outs this year and cost themselves potential wins on the bases. They’ve also been a subpar defensive team and lost several games due to mistakes in the field.

The Reds have a terrible 9-20 record in one-run games. Stuart Fairchild lobbing a throw to home plate against the Red Sox, Elly De La Cruz jumping in front of Fairchild on a fly ball in St. Louis, a dropped catch at third base by Noelvi Marte against the Nationals and plenty of other costly plays loom even larger now.

So does Tyler Stephenson running for third against the Rockies, some costly pickoffs where the Reds got fooled by the pitcher and a whole bunch of contact plays.

“It’s trying to figure out how to get better every day,” Krall said. “We made a mistake here or a mistake there. Everyone has to look in the mirror and say, ‘How can I get better?’ That starts with the front office all the way through the clubhouse. We all have to figure out how to continue to get better and get on the other side of those one-run games.”

The Reds’ pitching staff has been the area the team has been able to count on, and now that group takes a hit by losing Montas.

“We’re continuing to handle our business,” Greene said. “That’s all we can do. I feel like we’ve been able to do that as best as we can. But we’ve obviously come short results- wise.”

This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Trading Frankie Montas shows a tough reality as the Reds take a step back