I\u2019m old enough to remember Jonathan India being sidelined for what, at the time, was considered a ridiculous amount of time while letting his hamstring recover. I, too, remember Donovan Solano missing roughly half of his Reds career while on the shelf with a similar soft-tissue injury.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s one thing if they\u2019d let Elly play through this and he was still producing, but offensively he fell from the aforementioned level reached by Hall of Famers to levels I\u2019ll detail a bit below.<\/p>\n
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Doug Flynn, \u2018The Glue\u2019 of the Big Red Machine, hit 7 dingers across 11 years in the big leagues, in which time he racked up an impressive -6.9 bWAR over the course of his career. Just 7 dingers, though, in some 4085 career PA, 411 of which came with the Reds across 1975-1977. His slugging percentage during that stint with the Reds, you ask? It was .341.<\/p>\n
Sparky Anderson, who\u2019d tell anyone who\u2019d listen that he got into managing because he couldn\u2019t hit, hit .218 with a .282 OBP in his lone season in the bigs in 1959.<\/p>\n
Paul \u2018Soft J\u2019 Janish, oft-used shortstop for the Reds from 2008 through 2011, hit .221 in his Reds career.<\/p>\n
The inimitable Corky Miller and his incredible mustache plied his trade across the game\u2019s highest level for parts of 11 years. In 616 career PA, he posted an on-base percentage of .277.<\/p>\n
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Juan Castro, \u2018Manos de Oro,\u2019 stuck around the big league game for 17 years, eventually plying his trade with five different franchises purely for his defensive prowess and key positions on the infield. Never a slugger by any stretch of the imagination, his production gradually fell off a cliff in his late 30\u2019s, but his mid-career run with the Reds across five seasons saw him hit .237\/.276\/.353 (.628 OPS) in 1469 PA.<\/p>\n
You may recall Paul Bako\u2019s illustrious stint behind the plate for the Reds back in the 2008 season. He hit .217\/.299\/.328 (.626 OPS) in 338 PA for them.<\/p>\n
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It wasn\u2019t just his offense that was struggling, either. He committed 11 errors across those final 52 games, and he swiped only 8 bases (while being caught twice). Elly, as we\u2019d come to know him, simply wasn\u2019t right at all, and it\u2019s really hard in hindsight to fathom that nobody within the Reds dugout or front office had the wherewithal to suggest he get himself right and healed for a little bit.<\/p>\n
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Hell, Matt McLain was right there capable of a) not hitting but b) healthily playing shortstop. Sal Stewart had bashed his way to AAA and could\u2019ve stepped in somewhere on an infield that could have also featured Spencer Steer and Gavin Lux in various capacities at 2B\/1B.<\/p>\n
In a separate vein, I admire the hell out of Elly\u2019s willingness to put this pain out of mind and show up ready to grind every single day. It\u2019s a stubbornness that I hope permeates much of the rest of his game, the rest of his life, a persistence that leads him to better at bats, better seasons, better victories. Still, there\u2019s a reason why the head of the dugout is called the \u2018manager\u2019 and not the coach, a \u2018manager\u2019 who has a \u2018general manager\u2019 sitting above him. It\u2019s their job to manage players who might otherwise do things in ways detrimental to both themselves and the team even in the name of good, something that sure seemed to be going on here even as the Reds backed their way into the playoffs with just 83 wins.<\/p>\n
UPDATE<\/p>\n