Two weeks before the trade deadline, with Bob Nightengale reporting that the Blue Jays, Mariners and Yankees have all checked in on him, Spencer Steer hit two home runs in a game for the second time this season. The second one never left the field.
Steer went 2-for-4 with three RBI and two runs in the Cincinnati Reds‘ 7-2 win at Coors Field. His 15th homer, a two-run shot to left in the sixth off Jimmy Herget, scored JJ Bleday and broke a 1-1 tie. His 16th, in the eighth off Jeff Criswell, was an inside-the-park drive to right-center — the kind of play Coors Field produces a few times a summer and almost nowhere else.
The two swings left him at .250 with 16 homers, 40 RBI and a .771 OPS. Those are not numbers that make a contending front office call on their own. What draws the calls is the flexibility: Steer has started games at first base, third base, left field and designated hitter this season, which is a profile a buyer can slot almost anywhere on a roster. Cincinnati is 44-52 and 15 1/2 games back in the NL Central, which settles the question of whether the Reds will listen.
Eugenio Suarez and Elly De La Cruz also homered, Suarez his 12th and De La Cruz his 16th in a 4-for-5 night. Brady Singer worked seven innings on four hits and two earned runs with six strikeouts and no walks — the second time in his last six starts he has finished without issuing one. The only damage against him was Willi Castro’s solo homer in the seventh.
The Reds have 15 games left before Aug. 3, and a stretch like this one is worth more to the front office than to the standings. A player hitting his way into a bidding war in the last two weeks of July is a familiar shape for a selling club, and Cincinnati is running out of reasons to be anything else.
For fantasy managers, the multi-homer game is less relevant than where Steer lands. A trade to Toronto, Seattle or New York would likely mean a more consistent everyday role in a better lineup, which raises his floor in runs and RBI even if the raw rate stats stay flat. Hold him through the deadline rather than selling into this spike.
