No Homer Bailey. No Anthony DeSclafani. No Brandon Finnegan.
2018 will be a year of reckoning for the Reds; the final beta test for the rebuild that thinks it can. There’s nothing wrong with the rotation Jason Linden lists above, in fact that stable of arms has a good chance to be electric. Even Tim Adleman has proven he can be a decent Major Leaguer, if not particularly dominant. But still, the absences are glaring. Without Bailey, DeSclafani, and Finnegan, the Reds trade certainty for promise — injuries robbing the rebuild’s timetable of its definitiveness. But are the Reds actually worse off without their three top guys?