C. Notes: Why is this year's Nick Castellanos so different from last year's? (2024)

The difference between Nick Castellanos in 2020 and the 2021 version, he said Monday, has little to do with mechanics or his swing or anything like that.

It’s something much more relatable.

“I’m a lot happier this year,” Castellanos said before extending his hitting streak to 17 games in an 11-1 victory over the Phillies. “Last year, with all of the restrictions and the state of the country and just the anger and everything, I was just an unhappy, depressed, trapped person. That usually is not a good remedy for success in anything you do.”

As soon as I heard that, it stuck with me. I think many of us can understand where he’s coming from. I know personally I haven’t had my best professional year over the past 12 months or so, but as we edge our way out of the pandemic, there are signs that things are getting better and we, in turn, can get better.

Castellanos started the 2020 season on fire, hitting .340/.411/.840 over the first 14 games of the season. He hit .190/.263/.381 the rest of the way. This season, he’s hitting .356/.413/.638 in 47 games, including Monday.

There was reason to believe that he’d rebound over 2020, when his overall numbers were disappointing, but underlying statistics said he should’ve been better.

Castellanos’ average exit velocity (91.1 mph) is in the 78th percentile in baseball, around where it was last season. His hard-hit percentage of 51.4 is better than it was a year ago (46.7). His barrel percentage is down, but so too is his strikeout rate (28.5 percent last season and 19.8 percent this season) while his walk rate (8.4 percent of his plate appearances) is the highest of his career.

“He has worked really closely and worked really well with our hitting coaches here at trying to get to the next level, and for him, he has the power, he has the bat-to-ball skills,” Reds manager David Bell said Monday. “He’s always been an aggressive hitter, and he doesn’t ever want to get away from that, but if controlling the strike zone, the ability to take a walk, we’re seeing him mature even at this point in that area. He knows if he can stay in that zone and think about hitting that ball hard, but also be willing to not chase and take a walk when it’s given to him, that allows you to be more consistent. You’re swinging at strikes.”

Is this all because he’s happy? That sounds silly on the surface, but being happier can lead to being more relaxed and pressing less. Hitting, like anything, can be tougher when pressing to do better or trying to do too much. So many great players will say they’re better when they’re not in their own heads, and are instead letting the game come to them.

In my experience, I’ve done my best work when I’m happy, when I’m relaxed and when I’m confident. That hasn’t been the case over the past year-plus.

This is probably too navel-gazey, but for me, nothing will be better than getting away from Zoom interviews. I recently got my first one-on-one, in-person interviews at Great American Ball Park and it was a shot of adrenaline. It was a taste of normal, a taste of me being able to do my job the way I’ve always known it, but with a little more wisdom and gratitude.

It’s hard to have real conversations on Zoom and it’s even harder to have nuanced, open conversations. None of my best work has ever come from a news conference nor a Zoom. Instead, it’s off to the side, away from other reporters where I can ask (or badger, depending on your perspective) people I’m writing about to understand better where they are coming from and why they’ve done what they’re doing.

I am sure there are many, many ways in which Castellanos and I differ. To start, I was driving when he was born. I do have a contract for my job, but it wasn’t quite for $64 million, and oh, I’m left-handed.

But Monday, we were of one opinion.

“Honestly, this is terrible,” Castellanos said of the Zoom news conference. “What am I doing? Talking to a camera and a screen. Screens, to me, like, are the worst possible things people can look at. I’m sick and tired of it honestly.”

On Monday, the Reds reached a huge milestone in their response to COVID-19, reaching the 85 percent mark as a team for Tier 1 individuals (players and staff members with direct contact with players like coaches and athletic trainers), and thus loosening some of the protocols on the team. Those Tier 1 individuals no longer have to wear masks in the dugout and they can dine together indoors or outdoors and gather in indoor spaces, among other perks.

It’s a step toward normalcy with another, full capacity at Great American Ball Park, coming Wednesday.

“Anything to get back to the good old days of 2019, I’m for,” Castellanos said. “I’m ready to just put everything that has to do with COVID in the rearview mirror and never look back at it.”

Shy of the cycle

Max Schrock and Kyle Farmer were each one hit shy of the cycle on Monday — Schrock a single and Farmer a triple.

Schrock left the game in the seventh after pulling up with a calf injury on his double, but neither got a chance to complete it with another at-bat.

Five years to the day on Monday was the last time a Reds player finished a single shy of the cycle, when Jay Bruce did it. Castellanos was a triple shy of the cycle on May 15 and on Opening Day. Jesse Winker was a triple shy of the cycle on April 27.

“I’m running,” Farmer said when asked if he’d have been thinking about a triple with another plate appearance. “Better throw me out, I’m gone.”

He then admitted he didn’t realize he was a triple shy of the cycle until Jim Day asked him about it on TV after the game.

“It would have taken a lot,” Farmer said about the triple. “It would have had to have a lot of ricochets come off the fence. I think it would have had to hit off four different walls.”

Schrock’s spot in the lineup didn’t come up again in the game.

Bell said he expects Schrock to go on the 10-day injured list on Tuesday. The team has only two position players on the 40-man roster who are not either on the active roster or the injured list. Because of the COVID restrictions, Jose Barrero (who recently changed his name from Jose Garcia — more on that later) can’t be called up from Double A without going to Triple A first. The other is catcher Beau Taylor, who is at Triple-A Louisville. Taylor, a left-handed hitter, could give the team a little insurance with Tyler Stephenson playing so much first base in Joey Votto’s absence.

None of the players currently on the injured list are ready to come off.

The team also has an eight-man bullpen, so another reliever could be added. The Reds have carried nine in the bullpen at times this season.

Garrett booed

Amir Garrett was not surprised — and even said he was flattered — when he was booed in both of his appearances at Wrigley Field this weekend.

“You don’t get booed if you’re a nobody. Know that,” Garrett said before Sunday’s game. “I know a lot of people over there, a lot of fans here, they envy me. I expect the boos and I appreciate the boos. It’s a sign that obviously they know I’m a guy. I appreciate the boos.”

Garrett walked two of the three batters he faced, including one with the bases loaded, in Saturday’s loss. He walked one in his scoreless inning on Sunday.

Garrett, who had a tough start to the season, has been better this month, allowing fewer runs and giving up fewer hits. In April, batters were hitting .333 off of him and in May, they’ve hit .130. He’s seen his strikeout rate jump from 10.8 percent to 44.4 percent. His walk rate has also dropped, but it’s still higher (14.9 percent in May) than it has been in any season of his career.

Garrett walked a batter Sunday, but he got out of the inning unscathed. Bell put him in specifically to bounce back.

“You always look for that opportunity,” Bell said. “That’s really the best thing when you’re dealing with a good player, a good pitcher, to get them right back out there. It’s really important. Obviously, Amir is an important pitcher on our staff and knowing his mindset, it was nice to be able to do that and not go another day with even thinking about (Saturday).”

Quick Q&A with Mark Kolozsvary

Former Reds players Todd Frazier, Homer Bailey and Matt Kemp are playing for Team USA in the Olympic qualifier this week in Florida, but it’s current Reds minor leaguer Mark Kolozsvary who made the biggest splash Monday with a solo home run in Team USA’s 7-1 victory over Nicaragua.

Bye-bye, ball 👋

⬆️4
🇺🇸: 3
🇳🇮: 1pic.twitter.com/QXmq6ljrju

— USA Baseball (@USABaseball) June 1, 2021

Just a couple of weeks ago, Kolozsvary got a call from Reds farm director Shawn Pender saying Team USA had asked about him and asked if he was interested. Kolozsvary jumped at the chance.

I talked to him on the phone Sunday before the start of the tournament on Monday.

You look at the roster and there’s a lot of veteran guys, and even a former All-Star catcher in Matt Wieters, so how did they come up with Mark Kolozsvary?

I guess they talked to people around baseball and my name popped up. And they saw I had a good fit for them.

What was it like when you got that call?

I was definitely super excited for the opportunity. It’s always kind of been something I’ve wanted to do. I was sad when baseball wasn’t in the Olympics for those couple years that it wasn’t. When I got the call, I was just ecstatic. I’m really excited for the opportunity to put on the USA uniform.

What was it like to put it on?

We played two exhibition games against Canada and Venezuela. I got the uniform on then. And yeah, it was pretty cool. And just being around all the guys we have in the locker room, it’s just so much experience there. I’m just listening to them talk and listen to how they look at the game. I’m trying to pick up little things from those guys.

You were able to be around some veteran catchers in Wieters and Tim Federowicz, what’s that like?

I’m just trying to listen to them and just kind of pick up little things that they’re doing and things that they’ve had success with in the past. I watch how they go about their business every day and just picking up on those little things and learning from them. It’s just been a great experience for me so far. Something I’ve definitely enjoyed, for sure.

You’re younger than many of the players — what’s it like for you to be in the same locker room with someone like Matt Kemp? How old were you the first time you heard of Matt Kemp?

Yeah, pretty young. I remember watching him on TV when I was in Little League or something.

And now he’s your teammate.

All those guys have been like, super inviting and have been really open to us and kind of accepted the younger guys in their group. They’ve been really helpful to everybody. I’ve been really, truly grateful for them. They’ve totally accepted us in and they’re just kind of taken us under their wings. They know we’re all good players. But then at the end of the day, there’s so much to learn from them.

Did you know Homer Bailey before?

He came to Dayton one time when he was going to rehab thing there and I remember catching a bullpen for him.

Have you really thought about the fact that you could be an Olympian?

Sure. It’s something I watched on TV as a kid. You think about that being a possibility, but then not trying to get too far ahead of myself. I just have to take it one game at a time—we still have to qualify. It’s definitely something that could be a very cool experience.

You mentioned earlier that you’ve had a good start at the plate in Chattanooga (.349/.417/.674 with two homers in 12 games). Is there anything you’ve done differently this season?

I was fortunate to go to the alternate site last year and I was able to work with CJ Gillman, our minor-league hitting coordinator. We were able to go over things and tweak some different things. I made those adjustments and this offseason, I was able to take those things we worked on at the alternate site and make them my own, kind of just get more comfortable with them. Then this year during big-league camp, I was able to bring those back to CJ and we just refined things.

You’ve always been known as a glove-first guy — something that’s not a bad thing as a catcher —but you’ve been showing you’re more than that.

It’s definitely something I’ve always heard. I’ve kind of always tried not to get caught up in people saying ‘you’re only a catcher.’ I feel like I can definitely bring something to the table with my bat and something that I’ve been working on extremely hard. So to finally see some progression has been really, really cool.

It seems like Tucker Barnhart is a guy who has always been known as a glove-first guy, but he’s having a great start. I’ve heard you compare to Tucker, so how much has it helped getting to work with him?

He was definitely a guy that during spring training when doing our catcher drills I would definitely really lock in on him. Like you said, our body types are pretty similar. And I feel like he goes about things in ways that I can kind of mimic. He’s someone I’ve always looked up to. So going through camp and listening to him, how he talks and how he looks at things, it’s just kind of something that I really locked into during camp this year, for sure.

Since the season started, you’ve caught Hunter Greene and Nick Lodolo, what have you seen from those two guys early this season?

From both of them, I’ve seen they both have a plan going into games. It’s different for each one of them, it’s not the same plan, but they know how they need to pitch to get guys out, and I just see them executing that plan. They’ve made mid-game adjustments that they’ve needed to make and it hasn’t taken them long to make those adjustments. They’re able to be very flexible and adjusting on the fly and making things work. So it’s been really, it’s really been really fun to catch those guys back-to-back days for sure.

Name change

The former Jose Garcia has changed his name to Jose Barrero in honor of his late mother, whose surname was Barrero.

Garcia returned to the Double-A Chattanooga lineup on Saturday after a week away from the team on bereavement leave.

The Reds prospect has had a good start to the season for the Lookouts, hitting .300/.383/.586 with four homers.

Injury updates

If Schrock goes on the injured list, the team will have eight players on the IL, six on the 10-day IL and two on the 60-day IL.

Before Sunday’s game, Bell gave an update on several players on the IL:

1B Joey Votto (broken thumb): Votto is back taking batting practice and has been doing fielding drills, as well. He said Friday that he was still having pain when catching the ball. “I think is also maybe, from (Sunday), a week to 10 days from being back,” Bell said.

IF Mike Moustakas (right heel): Moustakas has been running in water as part of his rehab, but Bell said he doesn’t expect him to return before the next homestead.

OF Aristides Aquino (left hamate): Aquino will travel to Louisville this week to start his rehab with the Bats. He’s had at-bats in Arizona. “He’s physically fully healed and ready to go,” Bell said. “At this point, it’s just the baseball part. We’ll see. It hasn’t been determined yet how many games he’ll need.”

Aquino, on the 60-day injured list, isn’t eligible to return until June 13.

Shortstop watch

The Reds didn’t sign a shortstop on the free-agent market last offseason and instead pivoted to Eugenio Suárez there. Suárez has struggled both offensively and defensively and the Reds’ negative-1.3 bWAR is the worst in baseball at the position.

With Didi Gregorius back at GABP (albeit on the 10-day injured list with a right elbow impingement), it seemed like an interesting time to look at how the other free-agent shortstops whom the Reds didn’t sign are doing this season. These numbers are through Sunday’s games (so it doesn’t include Farmer’s homer):

Most trivial chart you’ll see today

I saw this tweet on Monday and it got me thinking:

The city of Cincinnati took no Brood X prisoners during the 1919 #cicada emergence. pic.twitter.com/dAAumj272c

— Joe Hoff*cker (@joehoff*cker) May 30, 2021

It started with noticing that it was from 1919 and connecting that with the team’s first World Series title. So yeah, I wanted to see how well the Reds performed in Brood X years. The answer is that they’ve averaged 81 wins and 72 losses and finished an average of third in their division or league. They’ve made two World Series in that time, winning in 1919 and losing in 1970.

Yep. This is pointless. But it’s how my mind works on certain days. (And as a side note, I love our chart builder tool at The Athletic — perhaps a bit too much, but shoutout to our behind-the-scenes people.)

ICYMI

•Votto joined the Reds’ broadcast booth on Friday.

• Ken Rosenthal talked to Reds pitching coach Derek Johnson, who said, “I feel, frankly, like I’ve failed,” when asked about Luis Castillo’s struggles.

•Keith Law’s first mock draft has the Reds picking a lefty out of Fordham.

• Dan Brown caught up with Greg Vaughn.

• Luke Bell, the son of Mike Bell, started Sunday’s Big East Championship game for Xavier. Mike Bell, a former Reds player and Twins bench coach, died in March. Luke Bell had pitched just 4 2/3 innings all season, but threw three scoreless in his start against UConn. The Enquirer’s Adam Baum has the whole story, which is well worth your time.

Minor-league roundup

• Triple-A Louisville Bats: The Reds released Cheslor Cuthbert and Nicky Delmonico on Monday. Cuthbert hit .203/.330/.338 with the Bats and Delmonico was hitting .221/.312/.382.

• Double-A Chattanooga Lookouts: Nick Lodolo left with a blister on his finger Sunday, but not before he pitched four innings with two runs on three hits with no walks and six strikeouts. This season, he has struck out 38 of the 102 batters he’s faced (37.3 percent) and walked just six (5.9 percent). His ERA skyrocketed to 1.01 with his last outing.

•High-A Dayton Dragons: OF Jacob Hurtubise is hitting .313/.464/.359 with 16 stolen bases.

The West Point graduate also made this catch:

OH MY HURTUBISE! pic.twitter.com/zRG0HwHioV

— Dayton Dragons (@DragonsBaseball) May 30, 2021

• Low-A Daytona Tortugas: 3B Rece Hinds had seven hits in 21 at-bats for the Tortugas last week, including two doubles, a triple and a homer, to increase his slash line to .231/.326/.474 with four homers this season. He also walked as much as he struck out last week (four each). This season, he has nine walks and 23 strikeouts.

(Photo of Nick Castellanos: Will Newton / Getty Images)