If you’d said in April to anyone who’d seen the Cincinnati Reds play baseball in 2023 that on any given late-summer night they’d have Jeimer Candelario, Christian Encarnacion-Strand, Matt McLain, and Noelvi Marte as their starting infield, you probably wouldn’t have had too much pushback.
That’s an infield devoid of Elly De La Cruz, of course, but given the way he struggled down the stretch last year, it would’ve at least been somewhat plausible to see a scenario where he wasn’t one of the four best options, I suppose. Anyway, the reality of a Candelario/CES/McLain/Marte infield right now draws a deep sigh and some inner reflection on why we do this to ourselves every summer of every year.