New Reds' Regime Ready To Deal Kearns
[January 26th] - Ken Rosenthal of Fox Sports is reporting this morning that the Cincinnati Reds' new ownership and team general manager Bob Kullman wants to make a deal before spring training, and that Austin Kearns is the most marketable, most coveted player they have.
With the old guard still in power, their was no chance that they would discuss the weather with former Reds' and current Nationals' GM Jim Bowden, little alone discuss a trade. With that barrier now gone, something just may happen.
Kearns, 25, has been the odd-man out in the Reds' outfield for a while now and has yet to produce at the level the team hoped. The Royals, Cardinals and Cubs join the Nationals as teams interested in making a trade for Kearns.
The Reds had talked to the Royals in November about a possible trade, but Kansas City wouldn't part with pitcher Zack Grienke at the time. It isn't clear if the Nationals have anyone that would interest the Reds management at this time.
By folding Kearns' 1268 career at-bats into a 500 at-bat season, he would hit somewhere in the area of .266-22-88 with a .360 OBP and a .471 SLG average. He strikes out a lot, however. He struck out 107 times in just 387 at bats.
Here's the weird part. If you had to pick a current major league player whom he most resembles, a player with a low batting average, good power and tons of strikeouts, someone with a pretty good on-base percent for a heavy hitter, it would be Brad Wilkerson. And the Nationals just traded him because that mix of quality and deficiency wasn't what the team was looking for.
And just like Wilkerson, Kearns is from Kentucky.
Go figure.
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