{"id":97394,"date":"2025-03-15T12:09:31","date_gmt":"2025-03-15T16:09:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/?p=97394"},"modified":"2025-03-15T12:09:31","modified_gmt":"2025-03-15T16:09:31","slug":"cincinnati-reds-spring-training-standouts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2025\/03\/15\/cincinnati-reds-spring-training-standouts\/","title":{"rendered":"Cincinnati Reds Spring Training Standouts"},"content":{"rendered":"

We are halfway through the beautiful month of March, and spring training is at an all-time high. The training wheels are starting to fall off as teams gear toward the start of the 2025 regular season. Now is a good time to check out who on the Cincinnati Reds have stood out so far.<\/p>\n

Elly De La Cruz<\/h3>\n

No surprises here. Elly De La Cruz is slashing .448\/.543\/.926, for a 1.405 OPS. De La Cruz is looking to take a leap after a full 100-point jump in OPS from 2023 to 2024. While it is a 29-at-bat sample size, it is also a positive takeaway that he has walked seven times while striking out just six times. The biggest weakness in De La Cruz\u2019s game is his strikeouts, which he\u2019s been in control of so far in the spring.<\/p>\n

Santiago Espinal<\/h3>\n

Espinal is the Reds\u2019 ultimate utility infielder. He struggled at the plate to start the season, but caught a rhythm at the halfway point of the year, finishing the season with a .692 OPS. In 31 at-bats this spring, Espinal is slashing .290\/.333\/.548 for a .882 OPS. While he likely won\u2019t maintain an OPS in the 800s during the regular season, an offensive jump from him will be vital for the Reds\u2019 success. He has seemingly built on his late-season successes from last year, and Cincinnati hopes it will carry over to 2025.<\/p>\n

Austin Hays<\/h3>\n

First impressions aren\u2019t everything, but they are important. Newcomer Austin Hays<\/a> has made a good first impression, slashing .276\/.344\/.655 for a .999 OPS in 29 at-bats. He\u2019s been an RBI machine, driving in a team-leading nine so far. The former All-Star was brought in to improve Cincinnati\u2019s poor outfield group, and he\u2019s certainly proved the front office right so far in the spring. The Reds outfield group is among some of the weakest in MLB. If Hays can tap into his offensive side a bit more, the Reds lineup as a whole will be much stronger from top to bottom.<\/p>\n

Jacob Hurtubise<\/h3>\n

The 27-year-old left fielder has been spraying the ball all over the field this spring. He\u2019s slashing .391\/.548\/.652 for a 1.201 OPS. This offensive onslaught is obviously not sustainable, but again, any offensive help from the outfield position is needed in this current Reds roster.<\/p>\n

Chase Petty<\/h3>\n

The flame-throwing top prospect Chase Petty<\/a> has been solid in 10 innings in spring, where he\u2019s posted a 1.80 ERA. He has struck out seven and walked six, as he\u2019s struggled with command a bit. Despite this, his stuff looks nasty. Darting from one side of the plate to the other, he is still just 21 years old. After struggling a bit in 2024 between Double-A and Triple-A, Petty is looking for a breakout season in the minors. He hopes to crack the big league roster in the upcoming seasons.<\/p>\n

Expectations<\/h3>\n

The positive performance can also be good for the player\u2019s psyche, as they hope to carry over their spring training successes into the next 162 games that matter. So far in spring, the Cincinnati Reds camp is roaring with success, and the fans are excited to see what 2025 holds for them.<\/p>\n

Main Photo Credits: Frank Bowen IV\/The Enquirer \/ USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images<\/p>\n

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We are halfway through the beautiful month of March, and spring training is at an all-time high. The training wheels are starting to fall off as teams gear toward the start of the 2025 regular season. Now is a good time to check out who on the Cincinnati Reds have stood out so far. Elly […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5447,"featured_media":97535,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[3368,4934,5899,3310],"class_list":["post-97394","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-reds","tag-austin-hays","tag-chase-petty","tag-elly-de-la-cruz","tag-santiago-espinal"],"modified_by":"Evan Mazza, Site Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97394","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5447"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=97394"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97394\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":97539,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97394\/revisions\/97539"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/97535"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=97394"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=97394"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=97394"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}