In January 2014, on a wintry day in Ashland, Ky., a few
hundred Reds fans gathered at Fannin Motors to see the Cincinnati Reds Caravan
come to town.
Seated on the small stage in front of them was Reds pitcher
Homer Bailey, who many in the room half expected to not be there since he was
one of the hottest trade rumors in recent weeks. But there he was, seated next
to his new manager, Bryan Price, and just a few seats down from Reds owner Bob
Castellini.
The Q&A got off to an inauspicious start when a young
man in the audience asked Homer how much loyalty was worth to him. Homer
handled it in typical Homer fashion by answering, “I’m sorry. What was the
question?” But just a few moments later, Bob C. decided he needed to deal with
the elephant in the room head on and in answer to another question, took the
opportunity to praise Homer for the kind of guy he was on and off the field and
said he would do “everything in his power” to keep Homer in a Reds uniform.
Everyone—and I mean EVERYONE—in the room cheered.
What a difference a couple of years makes…
Bob C. was true to his word and did do everything to keep
Homer, signing him to a $100 million long-term deal. But the deal has not
panned out the way either side would have liked, and those cheers that filled
that building in 2014 would no doubt be boos today. And even worse, many Reds
fans have turned the whole deal into a Homer vs. Johnny Cueto situation,
complaining the Reds should have signed Cueto long-term instead of signing
Homer. That argument has been buoyed by Cueto’s success in San Francisco this
season and his success in Kansas City, leading to a championship.
But that argument is unfair to both Homer and the Reds.
Homer’s recent injuries and Cueto’s recent success, and the short-term memory
of many Reds fans, has made people forget why the Reds did what they did to
start with. So let me take a moment to remind you.
In the winter of 2014, Cueto was coming off two injury-mired
seasons and that epic playoff choke in Pittsburgh. There was zero indication
that he was going to be a 20-game winner the next year. ZERO. Meanwhile, Homer
was coming off two strong seasons and showing every indication he was only
going to keep getting better. It just made sense for the Reds to pursue Homer
instead of Cueto.
There are no crystal balls in sports, so the Reds had no
idea what was going to end up happening. They made the best decision they could
at the time and I believe it was the correct one. People have also forgotten
that when Homer went down with a flexor mass injury in August 2014, he was one
of the hottest pitchers in baseball with an ERA of less than two—an even better
ERA than, yes, Johnny Cueto.
To say that the Reds made the wrong decision just because
Homer has been injured and Cueto has experienced a great deal of success is
unfair. Injuries happen. Even the best pitchers in the business are affected by
them (Clayton Kershaw and Matt Harvey are just a few of the big names to go
down this year.). Tommy John surgery has almost become a right of passage for major
league pitchers. It happens and an injury is no reason to say that a guy is not
worth the contract he was given.
There are no guarantees with long-term contracts (Just ask
the Arizona Diamondbacks) and they are all risky. Who’s to say that if the Reds
had signed Cueto to a long-term deal that he wouldn’t have gone down with an
injury—as his track record over the previous two seasons indicated he would?
There is no argument that in doing “everything he could” to
keep Homer that Bob C. went too far moneywise. But that’s on the Reds, not
Homer Bailey. And it’s unfair for the group I lovingly refer to as the Homer
Haters to blame him for things that are completely out of his control.
And to say that he has been sitting around doing nothing but
cashing paychecks over the past 15 months? Don’t even get me started on that
one.
I was working the Caravan that day in January 2014, so I
didn’t cheer…out loud. But today, as Homer Bailey returns to the mound after 15
months, I am proud to cheer out loud in my home and here on the Internet. The
Reds signed him to a long-term deal because he proved his critics wrong and
finally became the major league pitcher the Reds had always hoped he would be.
I believe he will find a way to do it again, haters be
danged.
Photo by Angela Henderson-Bentley
