4 reasons the Reds should acquire Matt Harvey

Credit: Rich Schultz

Credit: Rich Schultz

The Cincinnati Reds are going nowhere fast this season.

Hopes of taking a step forward in their rebuilding process evaporated almost immediately, and it might get worse before it gets better.

Meanwhile, Matt Harvey is available after having a falling out with the New York Mets.

Here are reasons taking a chance on Harvey would make sense for the Reds.

1. They need starting pitching. 

Yes, this is the most obvious one so we had to get it out of the way.

The Reds have a lot of problems, but the most enduring is a lack of starting pitching at the major-league level.

Now is as good a time as any to take a flyer on a guy once thought to be a potential ace.

They are already wasting a spot in the rotation on Brandon Finnegan, and they don’t have anyone pitching well enough in Triple-A to justify calling up.

Plugging Harvey into that spot could hardly be worse.

2. He probably won’t cost much. 

The Mets designated him for assignment, so they would surely like to trade him for just about anything they can get to avoid having to pay him the rest of the season.

The Reds have plenty of so-so assets who haven’t done it at the major-league level and could possibly benefit from a change of scenery if they can work a trade, but he might just end up being released.

In the last year of his contract, Harvey is due to make a little over $5 million this season, though about 1/5 of that would already have been paid out.

If things go well perhaps he would be amenable to a “new hometown discount.”

3. They could use the public relations bump — badly. 

Many in the fan base were already convinced the Reds don’t care about winning before the disastrous start to the season.

I did not share that perspective, but nothing has happened since that would change anyone els'e mind.

Sometimes perception is reality, and that is reflected in the volume of empty seats at Great American Ball Park.

This type of move — even if there was a lot more to lose than there is — would at least be something that could create some buzz for a team desperately lacking it.

4. The organization needs a shakeup. 

Such an acquisition might ruffle some feathers of players who have been working to earn a spot.

Good.

The more the Reds can do to make some of their guys sweat out the futures the better as this is a team that has not shown much urgency since about the time they took that 2-0 lead in their National League Division Series against the Giants.

And that was almost half a dozen years ago.

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