Cincinnati Reds Rumors: Reds Shopping Kearns

Word out of Cincinnati is that the Reds are hoping to ride an early season Austin Kearns hot-streak, to a trade for more pitching. Kearns is a more polished player than Wily Mo Pena, who the Reds traded in spring training for Bronson Arroyo, but he still does have loads of un-realized potential and has been very injury-prone during his 3+ years in Cincinnati.

Kearns could be attractive to a number of contending teams looking for a young, righthanded power-hitter to play rightfield. In fact, there were rumors that the Cleveland Indians had offered Jake Westbrook for Kearns before spring training began, but the Reds were still working on hiring their new GM, and declined. This was probably a mistake for Cincinnati. Groundball pitchers can have success in Cincinnati's homerun friendly, Great American Ballpark. If you looked up "groundball pitcher" in the dictionary you'd probably find a picture of Westbrook next to it.

Now that the Indians have their outfield set with Jason Michaels, Grady Sizemore, and Casey Blake, I would be very surprised if Cleveland still had interest this trade... especially with C.C. Sabathia injured. This doesn't mean that the Reds couldn't make a deal with a team like the Cubs or the Nationals who have shown a lot of past interest in Kearns however.

Such a trade could only strengthen a weak Cincinnati pitching staff and give more playing time to Ryan Freel and Chris Denorfia, the latter of which Reds executives are very high on. Wayne Krivsky has already shown that he's not afraid to make trades. Even if the Reds do hold onto Kearns for the foreseeable future, it looks like this season is going to be full of trade rumors. I wouldn't be surprised if the Reds became major sellers on the trade market when the trade deadline approaches.