Cincinnati’s dwindling odds of making the playoffs

Oh? What’s that?

Your team hasn’t been swept at all in 2025?

Well, congratulations to the Cincinnati Reds on almost pulling that feat off. Last night’s loss to the Los Angeles Dodgers put that Hallmark to rest, finally – the Reds have now officially been swept once in 2025.

Congrats, I guess?

The Reds simply cannot hit, and it’s killing them. Their team’s leader in dingers (by a large, large margin) has hit precisely one (1) dinger in his last 54 games played, and nary another person in the lineup is even threatening that number. The team’s overall wRC+ in the month of August is down to 75, better than only the Cleveland Guardians in that regard, and their second-half wRC+ of 85 is tied with Cleveland as the worst mark by any team in all of baseball.

Good thing they prioritized [/checks notes] defense at the trade deadline.

Anyway, FanGraphs has updated their playoff odds, and the Reds are now down to just a 3.3% chance to make the postseason.

Baseball Reference is far more bullish on the Reds, giving them a robust 12.9% shot to make the playoffs.

This front office was an epic failure at the most critical of times during an otherwise promising 2023 season, and the moves they made (and, more importantly, failed to make) in 2025 are now punishing this roster, too.

The Reds need something of a miracle at this juncture. Instead, they get their perennial nemesis (St. Louis), the best team in the American League (Toronto), and the team pulling away from them in the Wild Card chase (The Mets) coming up back to back to back. If ever there were truth to Terry Francona’s ‘pixie dust,’ well, I’d suggest that now would be a fantastic time to actually use some of it.

Or maybe it all got used up in the season’s first half to even get to this point.