Rick Scuteri-USA TODAY Sports
The Cincinnati Reds have a lot of minor league talent. Their best Triple-A player is Neftali Soto. Soto has put up pretty decent numbers for the Louisville Bats this season. He is hitting .274 with 12 home runs, and has knocked in 49 runs. The only problem: he is a first baseman.
As everyone knows, the Reds have a great first baseman in Joey Votto. There is no way Soto would ever start over Votto. There is really no other place the Reds could put Soto — anywhere he could start at least.
A lot of teams would love to have a guy like Soto, he is a good hitter, decent at defense and he is only 24-years-old. The future is very bright for him, but just not in Cincinnati. Soto could be a good guy to trade, and the Reds could probably get a good player in return for him.
The Reds could use some depth at shortstop. Besides Zack Cozart, they really don’t have a good shortstop. Cesar Izturis and Jack Hannahan have both entered ballgames to play shortstop, but that’s not the position they are best at. The Reds could put together a trade with the Chicago White Sox and trade Soto and another player in exchange for a guy like Alexei Ramirez, one of the best shortstops in baseball.
As far as anyone knows, the Reds have not talked with any teams about trading Soto, but it would not be a crazy idea at all. The Manati, Puerto Rico native is a great young player that could help a struggling team win. He could be someone that a team would end up building around. The Reds should try to trade Soto in the near future.
Coop Ledford is a Cincinnati Reds writer for www.RantSports.com. Follow him on Twitter @CoopLed.
