If you somehow missed the news that broke on Friday night, the Cincinnati Reds acquired right-handed starting pitcher Brady Singer from the Kansas City Royals in exchange for infielder Jonathan India and minor league outfielder Joey Wiemer. The deal, which had been rumored about a week earlier, came as a bit of a surprise as there was speculation that after Nick Martinez accepted the qualifying offer that Cincinnati was stepping back on looking to add Singer. WRONG.
Both Singer and India are under team control for both the 2025 and 2026 seasons. Weimer is under team control through at least 2028 – but it could be further into the future depending on how much time he spends in the minor leagues in 2025 (he will be 26-years-old at the start of the baseball season). How much money is owed to everyone is up in the air, as only India’s 2025 salary is set. He’ll be arbitration eligible in 2026, while Singer is arbitration eligible in 2025 and 2026. With all of that out of the way, let’s take a look at what some of the national media is saying about the deal.
ESPN
Bradford Doolittle got the assignment over at ESPN to grade the trade for each team. He favored the Reds in this one, giving them a B+ on the deal, while the Royals only got a C+. Doolittle wrote a lot of words, but he closed out the piece with this on Singer:
There is a risk: When Singer struggles, it’s usually because of the long ball and that’s not a great trait for Great American Ballpark. But there is a lot of upside to this deal for Cincinnati and it doesn’t feel like it has traded anyone that club officials can’t readily replace on the depth chart.
MLB.com
Over at MLB.com there were several writers who chimed in on the various parts of the trade – including the beat writers for reach club talking about why the deal made sense for the team they cover, but Mike Petriello was the one who looked at both sides of the deal.
With India, he notes that he has one elite skill – not chasing pitches out of the zone – and that skill helps him be a league average hitter and on a team like the Royals that’s a big help. He’s got some concerns about Singer’s platoon splits and how his game could play in Great American Ball Park.
The Athletic
Keith Law thinks that the trade could help both teams. Those are the best kinds of trades – not everyone has to “get the best” of the other side. With that said he favors the Royals side of the deal as it seems he’s got a few more concerns about how Singer will pitch in his new home ballpark and struggles against lefties – similar to what Petriello also had some concerns about at MLB.com.
While Eno Sarris did not write an article about his thoughts on the trade, he did post about it on social media a week ago when the rumors were flying. He didn’t seem like he liked the deal for either club.
The Singer/India trade is weird to me. I think both players would do terribly in their new parks. Mediocre stuff in Cincy? Meh batted ball metrics in Kansas City? Good luck.
— Eno Sarris (@enosarris.bsky.social) 2024-11-17T21:58:15.852Z
