Very little has gone right for Cincinnati Reds in 2022. The club entered the season with hopes of competing, but those hopes were on shaky footing due to some cost-saving moves over the winter that softened the depth of the roster. Once the season began, the injury bug bit them hard, putting pressure on that depth, which the roster hasn’t been able to withstand. Their record is currently 23-39, ahead of just Washington among National League clubs. One small silver lining in all this, however, is that these injuries created an opening for Brandon Drury, who is having the best season of his career.
Drafted by Atlanta in the 13th round in 2010, Drury was sent to the Diamondbacks as a prospect, as part of the deal that sent Justin Upton the other way. He made his big league debut with Arizona in 2015 and showed some promise over his first few seasons. From 2015-2017 with the Snakes, he got into 289 games and hit 31 home runs, slashing .271/.319/.448. That wasn’t elite production, with his wRC+ actually coming in slightly below average at 95, but still encouraging for a player in his age 22-24 seasons. He also provided the Diamondbacks with defensive versatility, as he spent time at every infield position and the outfield corners.
There was enough there to intrigue the Yankees, who acquired Drury prior to the 2018 season. Unfortunately for them, this was the beginning of what would end up being a miserable three-year stretch for him. Drury dealt with blurred vision and migraines, which caused him to miss time and struggle to the point that the Yankees optioned him to the minors. While he hit well on the farm, he struggled mightily in the majors, hitting .176/.263/.275 in 18 games with the Yanks.
Despite those struggles, the Blue Jays decided to take a chance on him, acquiring him from the Yankees in the J.A. Happ trade, ending Drury’s time with the Yanks after just a few months. After just eight games with the Canadian birds, Drury faced another setback, breaking his hand and heading to the injured list again. In 2019, Drury was able to stay healthy but still struggled, hitting .218/.262/.380 for a 66 wRC+ in 120 games. In 2020, the struggles got even worse, with Drury hitting .152/.184/.174 in 21 games, producing a wRC+ of -10 and getting designated for assignment toward the end of the season.
Despite that abysmal three-year stretch, the Mets decided to take a flier on him, signing him to a minor league deal prior to the 2021 campaign. After the big league club suffered a pile of injuries to their position player mix, they called on Drury in May, who was having a nice showing in Triple-A. He would end up holding himself well in a utility role, playing 51 games while taking the field at first, second and third base, as well as the outfield corners. He hit .274/.307/.476 for a wRC+ of 114 in 88 plate appearances. Despite that solid showing, he was designated for assignment as the season was winding down in October.
A similar situation played out for Drury this year, as he signed a minor league deal with the Reds in March. A slew of injuries created a need for Drury, who has taken the opportunity and ran with it. He’s now played 53 games with the Reds, just beyond his total with the Mets last year. However, it’s clearly been a full-time role this time around, as his 218 plate appearances more than double his 88 from last year. In that time, he’s hit 12 home runs, a number bested by only 12 other National League hitters this year. His overall slash is .269/.335/.508 for a wRC+ of 129. He’s already produced 1.4 wins above replacement this year, according to FanGraphs, with almost two-thirds of the season still remaining. This doesn’t seem to just be good luck either, as his .297 BABIP on the year is just barely ahead of his .294 career mark, and his Statcast page has plenty of those healthy red hues. Defensively, Drury has largely played second and third, helping the club cover for extended absences from Jonathan India and Mike Moustakas, though he’s also made cameos at shortstop and first base.
Taking all of this into consideration, Drury’s true nature is very difficult to peg. A pessimist could point to his dismal stretch from 2018-2020 and dismiss this year’s showing as a small-sample hot streak. He’s also a mere rental, as he began this season with 5 years and one day of service time. Since he cracked Cincy’s Opening Day roster, he will just barely eclipse six years at the end of this season. But on the other hand, he showed enough promise earlier in his career for three different teams to trade for him, clearly demonstrating that this breakout was considered possible in the past. Now he’s delivering on that promise and should hold plenty of appeal to competing teams, especially those with budgetary constraints. The financials of Drury’s deal weren’t reported at the time, though his Baseball Reference page lists his salary as the $700K league minimum.
What Drury also has going for him as a trade candidate is his versatility. Since he can play multiple infield spots, there are potentially many teams who could fit him into their plans. The Angels have gotten very little out of their middle infield this year and could slot Drury in at second base. Josh Harrison and Leury Garcia have both struggled mightily, leaving the White Sox with the keystone as an obvious area to upgrade. The Dodgers love adding underrated bench players and have watched Justin Turner slouch through most of the season so far. Alec Bohm is still struggling in Philly, and since they’ve gone over the luxury tax for the first time, Drury’s low salary could be extra appealing to them. It’s also possible that an injury to an infielder creates a need on a team that didn’t previously have one, like when this week’s Ozzie Albies injury suddenly created a huge hole at second base in Atlanta. Though one team that almost certainly won’t be in the mix is the Blue Jays, as Drury is apparently unvaccinated and isn’t eligible to cross the border. Drury won’t complete remake any of these teams on his own, but role players like this can sometimes have huge impacts. Last year’s marquee deadline trade sent Max Scherzer and Trea Turner to the Dodgers, but the Braves won the World Series after acquiring lesser-known players like Jorge Soler, Adam Duvall and Eddie Rosario.
Even if Drury does garner interest at the deadline, it likely won’t lead to a massive return. Strong season aside, he’s got enough warts on his resume to prevent acquiring teams from shelling out any kind elite prospect package. Still, for the Reds to get any kind of trade return out of a player who signed a minor league deal when Spring Training was already underway, that’s one nice development in a season that hasn’t had too many.
If Aaron’s the Judge, then Brandon’s the jury.
I, the jury, find you guilty of one count of bad commenting.
Appeals denied. Jury verdict upheld.
“There was enough there to intrigue the Yankees, who acquired Drury prior to the 2018 season. Unfortunately for them, this was the beginning of what would end up being a miserable three-year stretch for him. Drury dealt with blurred vision and migraines, which caused him to miss time and struggle to the point that the Yankees optioned him to the minors.”
Maybe a bad batch of “vitamins”.
Why would he do that? He’s not vaccinated.
The Mets fan taking PED potshots when the last Yankees to be suspended for PEDs were A-Rod and Cervelli in connection with Biogenesis way back in 2013. Cano was busted as a Met in 2020, and Met pitcher Jenrry Mejia was busted three times between 2015 and 2016.
“Vitamins” could easily be actual vitamins or supplements or any number of ingestibles, it doesn’t have to be drugs. But there’s no question the Yankees do that sort of thing, they went completely bonkers over creatine. They established a pattern of rewarding cheaters on the field and off. They know how to turn marginal players into stars and then burn them out. That reeks of something chemical. Yankee fans live in a dream world where none of their players do anything wrong, in spite all the garish arrest records of over a dozen of their former players. So enhanced performance and criminal behavior may not indicate PED abuse, but something smells.
Perhaps that stench you smell is coming from your comments.
For the record, only three Yankees have ever been suspended for PEDs. Five Mets have been suspended, and one of them was suspended three times. A Mets clubhouse employee was one of the biggest drug dealers during the Steroids Era:
‘Radomski worked for the Mets for a decade, beginning in 1985, then used the contacts he made to go into business selling steroids and other drugs to ballplayers, according to his signed plea agreement.
‘”We are encouraged that the U.S. Attorney has insisted Mr. Radomski cooperate with Senator George Mitchell’s investigation as a condition of the plea agreement,” MLB president Bob DuPuy said at the time.
‘According to court documents, Radomski became a major source of drugs for baseball players after federal investigators shut down the Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative in Burlingame, Calif., the center of a massive drug distribution ring shut down by federal authorities in 2003.
‘Radomski used the money to pay the mortgage on his home, which served as his base of operations. He made the deposits to a New York-based bank and sold steroids in person, over the phone and by mail, according to the agreement.”‘
cbsnews.com/news/ex-mets-worker-steroid-dealer-dro…
Really, man — is this the subject you should keep returning to? Only the Mariners have had as many total PED suspensions — 7 — as the Mets. Your team has the worst PED record in the National League.
And now you don’t even show the honesty to admit that you were referring to PEDs when you put “vitamins” in quotation marks.
Maybe find something else to talk about. This isn’t a good look for you or for your team.
Don’t forget about the 1986 Mets, whose roster, by itself, supported the entire Colombian drug trade. They even brushed their teeth with coke….eye drops, ear drops, salve for abrasions… everything was coke. Bruised finger? Rub some coke on it. Dry feet? Lick some coke. Need some pine tar? Coke sticks much better. They replaced their rosin bags with coke bags on the mound too; fun fact, that’s when pitchers started licking their fingers after touching the rosin bags. Rumor was they argued to replace their baseball mascot with an 8-ball, but they were afraid he wouldn’t make it out of the Mets’ clubhouse.
The Yankees just can’t keep their hands off people who get arrested:
John Wetteland
Jose Canseco
Shawn Chacon
Joba Chamberlain
Chad Curtis
Dwight Gooden
Mel Hall;
Steve Howe
Hideki Irabu
Andruw Jones
Chuck Knoblauch
Jim Leyritz
Esteban Loaiza
Raul Mondesi
Michael Pineda
Darryl Strawberry
Brien Taylor
Mason Williams
A couple of former Mets that the Yankees couldn’t wait to get on their roster. Who cares about character if you can play baseball?
Certainly not the Yankees.
Your team’s malfeasant former owners invested in not one but two Ponzi schemes and funded the team on the backs of those crooked investments instead of using team revenues to fund the team like all responsible owners.
Then the Wilpons lied about having lost money to Madoff when they’d actually made money, and the victims’ trustee had to take their crooked asses to court to retrieve some of their ill-gotten gains.
Imagine the morality of multimillionaire team owners trying to double-swindle people, some of whom had lost their life savings to Madoff.
The Wilpons and their sleazy in-law, the Mets President Saul Katz, claimed not to know Madoff was a con man, yet they somehow knew enough to bail out before he was exposed, taking a fortune in profits with them.
But how could they have known it was a Ponzi scheme? Oh, maybe because it was the SECOND Ponzi scheme they invested in. The first one, only about a year before, was run by one Samuel Israel III, who faked his suicide, leaving his car on a bridge with a suicide note, trying to escape the law when his scheme was exposed. He was the first Ponzi scheme felon the Wilpons invested with.
As if that weren’t enough, the Mets pocketed $10,000 of taxpayer money to host a “patriotic” swearing-in ceremony on Citi Field:
static.politico.com/98/a4/d61b3cae45f0a7b79256cf1d…
You’re so clueless and/or hypocritical that you mention two players who were Mets before they joined the Yankees — Gooden and Strawberry — as if the Yankees’ acquiring them later absolves the Mets who had both on their roster far longer than the Yankees did.
Of course you didn’t mention Ron Darling, Tim Teufel, Bobby Ojeda, Rick Aguilera, Wally Backman, Jeurys Familia, Luis Castillo, Pete Walker or Jose Reyes, all of whom were Mets and were arrested. And I guess self-confessed cokehead Keith Hernandez slipped your mind.
Then there’s the champion Mets arrestee, Lenny Dykstra: “In 2011, he was arrested and charged with bankruptcy fraud, followed by grand theft auto and drug possession charges on an unrelated case, as well as indecent exposure. He served 6+1⁄2 months in federal prison.”
It’s still early to expect a major return, maybe it’s better to stick with him at 3B for the time being since closest prospect (Hinds) has an ETA of 2024.
I agree the Reds should extend him, he’d be cheap, and at the very least a good role player going forward. Hinds was moved to the OF this season.
Or Farmer slides over to third to make way for Barrero
Reds have Farmer, Barrero, McLain, and De La Cruz all currently playing SS and possibly could be knocking on the door at some point in the next two years
If the Reds have to find playing time for all of them somewhere, maybe 3B, it’d certainly be a nice problem to have
Aside from the Blue Jays themselves, anyone in the AL East may be hesitant to pick him up since those teams will have a bunch of games down the stretch in Toronto.
Things are starting to turn in Canada, I’d be surprised if these mandates were still in place come august.
Braves are suddenly in need of a stopgap at second…
ATL doesn’t need Drury at this point. Let Arcia play and see if there is a need. He has a high floor with that defense, but his bat has played in limited time in the majors and consistently at AAA. He’s earned the shot before going out and getting someone. By the Deadline, there could be a need.
It depends on the price.
Correct, ATL does not need Drury. The way the Braves are playing now, they could put Biden at second base & still win. It might inflate Braves ticket prices but who cares? Arcia deserves a shot & it may turn into a career year for him.
Dude has a career WRC+ of 72. He’s a career bench piece for a reason, and most certainly not a starting hitter on a team with playoff aspirations in 2022. Trade for a short term 2B and use him as utility as planned.
I think I would prefer to give Braden Shewmake a shot rather than trade for Drury.
I was saying all last year how Drury should of gotten more playing time then Conforto but the Mets never gave him a chance. Drury got more clutch hits than Conforto in about 30 games than Conforto had in 7 years with the Mets. I don’t understand to this day why the Mets DFA’d him when it was clear he was a great player. Everytime I would post on here about Drury, I’d get tons of backlash from the people on here saying stuff like “your an idiot” or “its a small sample size” or even “clutchness doesnt exist”. Hope those people can finally admit they were wrong (they know who they are).
He’s having a nice season so far, but “great player?” Really?
Yea there’s a bit of delusion here. The idea that Drury is better than Conforto is absurd. I doubt those “clutch” stats are even real. The Mets got rid of Drury because they understand how baseball works. Drury is nowhere near great and isn’t as good as Conforto talent wise.
@Cosmo2 Do you know what the difference between this years team and last years team is? They are actually getting hits when they matter. Last year with Conforto in the 4-hole, he struck-out almost every time we had a guy on 2nd or 3rd with 2 outs. This has been going on for a couple years already. We are better because hes not in the lineup everyday getting out when it matters. Even last year when he got hurt, the Mets were winning enough to build a lead in 1st-place, and once he came back around the Dodgers series, they lost almost every game. I don’t think that is coincedence
At dome point you are going to offer us some stats to back up your completely absurd viewpoint? Then you can explain how this concept of clutch, which EVERY expert agrees is not an actual thing but rather a result of statistical randomness, is such a relevant thing. (and what you mention IS DEFINITELY a coincidence.)
Keep up the Drury-to-Braves speculation and Arcia will keep hitting and playing above-average 2B for pennies on the dollar.
Reds fan: partiality wondered myself how Drury might fit into out shi*y ownerships plans on their feckless rebuild.
The Braves have Orlando Arcia to fill in for Albies.
Has to be performance enhancing drugs. The only possibility for a player who has been as bad as he has over the past years. Now all pf sudden he is hitting like w god.
Great American Ballpark can’t be it. It’s regularly in the top-5 in most runs and this year it’s currently #1. Also helps that CIN’s pitching has gotten worst with the pseudo-rebuild. He has a .991 OPS (home) vs. .687 (away) — more in line with his career marks. He’d hit well at Truist, but I wouldn’t give up a top-20 player for him unless Arcia’s offense bottoms out (even then you still have above-average defense with a better arm than Albies).
GABP is #1 in runs scored because the Reds pitching staff plays there
RunDMC is right, though. Great American is a launchpad.
Or maybe, like the article stated, he was dealing with concussion related symptoms. He was good before he started dealing with them so his performance/skills aren’t popping up out of nowhere. His numbers are right in-line with his pre-Yankee days.
Yep, he’s displaying owned-talent. Happens when a player gets right from a medical issue…vision, concussion, etc. If they flash the talent they own it.
Well, we know if/when Hicks & Gallo leave they’ll likely say they had concussion symptoms.
Reynolds and Drury are ‘sell high’ trade candidate for the Reds. Lots of middle infielders are getting healthy: India (back on the active roster), Shrock and Selano (both on rehab assignments). All three, like Drury and Reynoolds are right handed hitters and not long term options except as bench pieces. Reynolds can play SS but Barrero is getting his stroke back in AAA; 1st round pick McClain is doing well in AA.
Best case, trade Drury soon for a couple controllable bullpen arms or more (low salary helps,) Give those AB’s to Selano. Hopefully he can barrel up some balls and be an attractive trade candidate by the deadline, if nothing else so they can dump the remainder of his 6 million salary.. Reynolds and Shrock likely to be shopped as well (both are inexpensive.) I don’t think they’ll trade Farmer unless someone overpays.
Milwaukee is another contender that could use some middle infield help, especially vs. LHP.
oops, Shrock hits LH
One would definitely think Stearns is combing MLB and AAA rosters looking for some kind of gem to boost the offense for the Crew. This is the time of year he likes to strike – before the rest of the league starts trading their bigger chips.
Wouldn’t mind seeing him back in pinstripes but I have a feeling TB is going to snag him.
“His wRC+” “He’s produced 1.4 WAR” This article was painful to read with the author spewing nonsense that nobody can really explain. Carry on. Lol
Here are the explanations you said nobody can offer:
Weighted Runs Created Plus (WRC+) is a rate statistic which attempts to credit a hitter for the value of each outcome (single, double, etc.) rather than treating all hits or times on base equally, while also controlling for park effects and the current run environment. WRC+ is scaled so that league average is 100 each year and every point above or below 100 is equal to one percentage point better or worse than league average. This makes wRC+ a better representation of offensive value than batting average, RBI, OPS, or wOBA.
library.fangraphs.com/offense/wrc/
Wins Above Replacement (WAR) is an attempt by the sabermetric baseball community to summarize a player’s total contributions to their team in one statistic. You should always use more than one metric at a time when evaluating players, but WAR is all-inclusive and provides a useful reference point for comparing players. WAR offers an estimate to answer the question, “If this player got injured and their team had to replace them with a freely available minor leaguer or a AAAA player from their bench, how much value would the team be losing?” This value is expressed in a wins format, so we could say that Player X is worth +6.3 wins to their team while Player Y is only worth +3.5 wins, which means it is highly likely that Player X has been more valuable than Player Y.
Calculating WAR, especially for position players, is simpler than you’d think. If you want the detailed version with the precise steps and formulas, head to our page on Position Player WAR or Pitcher WAR. The short answer, though, is as follows:
● Position players – To calculate WAR for position players you want to take their Batting Runs, Base Running Runs, and Fielding Runs above average and then add in a positional adjustment, a small adjustment for their league, and then add in replacement runs so that we are comparing their performance to replacement level rather than the average player. After that, you simply take that sum and divide it by the runs per win value of that season to find WAR. The simple equation looks something like this:
WAR = (Batting Runs + Base Running Runs +Fielding Runs + Positional Adjustment + League Adjustment +Replacement Runs) / (Runs Per Win)
library.fangraphs.com/misc/war/
Thanks for copying and pasting that from the internet lol
You’re welcome. You do realize that I posted the links to the articles, so there was no attempt on my part to claim authorship, right?
@Fink
Some skulls are thick enough to hammer concrete with. All you can do is try. People don’t want to have their reasons to complain removed.
I know
author spewing nonsense that nobody can really explain.
=====================================
You’re making the classic of assuming no one else can understand, simply because you can’t understand,
Do what I do with FB. Understand what you can, and when it gets too complex, just acknowledge that you won’t understand everything and move on.
When you need material…..Let’s make it sound like Brandon Drury has trade value.
He does have moderate trade value. Where are you going to find a quality RH bat (.843 OPS as of today) who can play multiple positions for less that a million $?
Maybe you missed the last paragraph of the article:
“Even if Drury does garner interest at the deadline, it likely won’t lead to a massive return. Strong season aside, he’s got enough warts on his resume to prevent acquiring teams from shelling out any kind elite prospect package. Still, for the Reds to get any kind of trade return out of a player who signed a minor league deal when Spring Training was already underway, that’s one nice development in a season that hasn’t had too many.”
I take issue with the author’s premise that the Reds were expecting to contend this year. They weren’t acting like a contending team when they released Wade Mikey, fornex
I didn’t even see that when I first scanned it. some writers just add verbiage without looking to see if makes sense. No one in the world thinks a team can win 83 games, get rid of Castellanos, Barnhart, Miley, Gray, Suarez & Winker, and think the team will suddenly win 90 games.
This isn’t even a comment on what they did, but 83 wins less the combined WAR of 14.9 bWAR equals 68.1 wins, not 90. They came into 2022 with no chance of contending.
I think the Yankees should trade their 10 best prospects to reacquire Drury in a trade.
I, the jury, find you guilty of one count of bad commenting.
His value is at its highest right now and I think we all know he’s not worth what it will take to get him… no matter how much or little it takes to get him lol
Have you looked at his minor league stats? I think this year’s run could continue.
Never know what you’re going to get from him .. These hot and cold players from season to season are like a coin flip when it comes to being able to truly count on them. Not worth trading for unless an injury happens and don’t have much prospect capital where you can truly upgrade.
The Red’s FO wants players who produce for little money so why would they trade him?
I wonder who’s gonna get all that Drury?
Brett Boone still around ?
Luis Castillo to the Mets for Blake Baty, Khali Lee and Junior Santos. Get it done today
I keep getting mixed signals about RC Plus
Example: Anthony Rendon .228 / .324 / .383 RC Plus of 106
Brandon Drury .271 / .319 / .448 RC Plus of 95
Doesn’t make any sense!
“Even if Drury does draw any interest he won’t bring much in return”.
If you are saying it’s unlikely he will be traded and even if he is traded there won’t be much of a return. Then why even write the article then? Lol