Reds' final game a perfect microcosm of season
PITTSBURGH — The 2015 Cincinnati Reds season mercifully came to an end with a 4-0 loss to the Pirates on Sunday at PNC Park.
With the win, the Pirates are staying home for their third-straight Wild Card Game appearance, while the Reds finished 64-98 on the season. The 98 losses are tied for the third-most in club history, behind the 101 loss of the 1982 team and the 99 losses of the 1934 team, tied with the 98 losses of the 1937 team. The .395 winning percentage is the 11th worst in the team's long history.
"After a year like this, we have to make something of this season, to say this was a season to help move us toward better places," said Reds manager Bryan Price, who will return in 2016. "If not, it's just a failure, and it just can't be a season of failure, it has to move us to a better place."
The hope that it is a better place lies in the team's young pitching, which is exactly what doomed it in 2015.
When Josh Smith took the mound on Sunday in something close to a playoff environment, as the Pirates could clinch home-field advantage in Wednesday's Wild Card Game, it was the 64th straight game started by a Reds rookie, a Major League record. It was the 110th game started by a rookie this season for the Reds. That's not a record, the A's had 116 starts by rookies as recently as 2009, but it was a still a staggering number.
Those nine starters – Anthony DeSclafani, Brandon Finnegan, David Holmberg, Raisel Iglesias, John Lamb, Michael Lorenzen, Jon Moscot, Keyvius Sampson and Smith – combined to go 23-51 with a 5.04 ERA.
That includes Sunday, when Smith took the loss, allowing two runs over four innings in the start against the Pirates.
The streak began after Mike Leake beat the Cardinals on July 28 and traded him two days later, thus beginning what the team has termed a "reboot" and a "retooling" but not a "rebuild." No matter the nomenclature, it was difficult, and the fact Price went along with it and handled the young pitchers as he did, is among the reasons general manager Walt Jocketty said he'd return in 2016.
"Once we really decided to go all-in with this youth movement, we have to go through this stage in order to get better. That doesn't mean we had to struggle like we did, the pitching wasn't good," Price said. "The young starters that we are putting a lot of expectation on have to get a lot better between now and next season. This is that beginning, the beginning of seeing what we have and what we can do with this group.
"It also tells us where we need to shore up our pitching. Who do we feel like pitched well enough that we can count on them next year and which ones left more of a question mark where we feel like we may have to go out and get some accessory pieces?"
The biggest questions now become who else returns in 2016? Jocketty said there will be coaching changes, and there are inevitably roster changes every year. Closer Aroldis Chapman, entering his final year of arbitration, will likely be traded, so too could outfielder Jay Bruce.
"I'm looking forward to it immensely because we'll be coming out of spring training differently, obviously with a different club in many ways than we had coming out of 2015, just as far as a completely rebuilt starting rotation, probably a largely remodeled bullpen and just some new faces, which always happens," Price said. "There'll be some guys who may not be back or not, but if they're gone, I really miss. I'll leave it at this."
And the Reds left Sunday much the way they left many games, a rookie pitcher on the mound to start the game and earning the loss, the bullpen giving up a pair of runs, Joey Votto getting on base twice (with a walk and a single), a player leaving the game an injury (Jay Bruce) and a loss. The only thing missing was a rain delay.
"You think of team goals you had and individual goals you had, and if you're looking at team goals, we didn't make those, it's right there written in stone," said third baseman Todd Frazier. "It didn't start off well, it didn't end well."