Reds right-hander Julian Aguiar lately underwent Tommy John surgical procedure and can miss the whole 2025 season, per Mark Sheldon of MLB.com on X. Sheldon additionally relays that the membership has fired three coaches: hitting coach Joel McKeithan in addition to assistant hitting coaches Terry Bradshaw and Tim LaMonte.
Aguiar, 23, was in a position to make his main league debut this 12 months. Because the Reds handled a number of rotation accidents, he was chosen to the massive league roster in August. He made seven begins, permitting 6.25 earned runs per 9 innings, earlier than touchdown on the 15-day injured listing in September resulting from a proper elbow sprain. It now appears that the willpower was made prior to now few weeks that he would require surgical procedure. Lefty Brandon Williamson additionally required Tommy John surgical procedure final month, in order that’s two Cincinnati hurlers that at the moment are slated to overlook the upcoming season.
It’s an unlucky blow for him and the staff. Provided that Tommy John rehabs typically take 14 months or longer, Aguiar will miss the whole 2025 marketing campaign, depriving the membership of pitching depth and costing him a 12 months of improvement. Aguiar is at present listed because the membership’s #9 prospect at Baseball America whereas FanGraphs had him at #7 in April. Each shops think about him a attainable backend starter sometime, however that should wait till 2026 on the earliest.
A Twelfth-round choose from 2021, Aguiar has climbed the ladder since then. In 2024, along with his main league debut, he tossed 116 1/3 innings on the farm between Double-A and Triple-A. In that point, he had a 3.79 ERA, 19.7% strikeout price and 6% stroll price. If there’s one silver lining for Aguiar, it’s that he’ll gather main league pay and repair time not less than by the tip of subsequent 12 months, assuming the Reds maintain him on the roster by the winter.
Turning to the teaching employees, it was undoubtedly a disappointing 12 months for the Cincinnati offense. The membership had graduated a boatload of thrilling place gamers in 2023 and the membership had postseason aspirations going into 2024. However Cincinnati hitters put up a collective slash line of .231/.305/.388 in 2024. That manufacturing translated to a wRC+ of 87, placing them forward of solely the White Sox, Rockies, Pirates and Marlins.
It’s all the time robust to decipher whether or not credit score/blame must be assigned to coaches or gamers however that’s very true on this case because the Reds had been lacking a lot of their anticipated contributors for a lot of the 12 months. Noelvi Marté acquired an 80-game PED suspension in March whereas gamers like Matt McLain, TJ Friedl, Jeimer Candelario, Jake Fraley, Christian Encarnacion-Strand and others spent vital time on the injured listing.
Regardless, the membership has determined a major overhaul is required and is transferring on from three hitting coaches, who all joined going into 2023. McKeithan was a minor league hitting coach for the Phillies in 2019, regardless of being simply 26 years previous for a lot of that season. He additionally labored within the Tigers’ minor league system earlier than getting employed by the Reds as an assistant hitting coach on the main league employees for the 2022 season. One 12 months later, he was promoted to the highest hitting coach job however is now out after two seasons in that job.
Bradshaw performed within the majors within the ’90s however has been a coach for quite a lot of years now. He was working within the Royals’ group again in 2000 and received promoted to their massive league hitting coach job in 2018. He was fired in 2022 and got here to the Reds as an assistant to McKeithan. LaMonte was additionally employed as an assistant on McKeithan’s employees at the moment after working for the Astros and Mets.
The Reds lately fired supervisor David Bell and employed Terry Francona to interchange him. It’s not unusual for teaching adjustments to accompany managerial adjustments, so Francona will seemingly be seeking to shake issues up on the hitting aspect of issues not less than.
