A certain kind of optimism for the 2023 Cincinnati Reds

The lockout imposed by Major League Baseball owners during the winter of 2021-2022 ended just eleven months ago. The transaction freeze, the showing of asses, the bargaining, the finger-pointing did not come to a close until March 10th, 2022, at which point there was a scramble to get the 2022 season up and running with any semblance of normalcy.

Eleven months ago, the Cincinnati Reds still sported an on-paper starting rotation that featured Luis Castillo, Tyler Mahle, and Sonny Gray, among others. Eleven months ago, both Jesse Winker and Eugenio Suarez were lineup cogs, 55 dingers socked between them in Reds uniforms the year prior. There’s a very real chance that the combined total of 22…