Kirk Herbstreit became “kind of infuriated” with the tenor of a recent story in The Athletic about the Cincinnati Reds.
Herbstreit, who is the top color commentator on ESPN’s college football coverage and an analyst for Amazon’s “Thursday Night Football” package, grew up about an hour outside of Cincinnati.
He has stayed a fan of the Reds into adulthood and has been excited about their improved play that’s pushed Cincinnati just 2¹/₂ games out of first place in a bunched-up National League Central entering Thursday.
The saga began when national MLB reporter Ken Rosenthal and Reds beat writer C. Trent Rosecrans wrote a story in The Athletic about how the Reds have a “good problem” with an impending log jam at second base.
Jonathan India, the incumbent, is the “unquestioned leader” of the team, they wrote, but top prospect Elly De La Cruz plays the same position and is likely to be called up to the majors soon, and the writers hypothesized that India could be traded.
Herbstreit was aghast at the notion.
“This team hasn’t had a leader that pushed his teammates every day since Scott Rolen left in 2012 and we finally have that guy and you write this article???” Herbstreit asked on Twitter. “India’s value goes far beyond the numbers. As excited as we all are about the young talent coming up India needs to be the ROCK and catalyst for years to come. Put De La Cruz in the OF and move on.”
Rosecrans questioned if Herbstreit actually read the story.
“Kirk, did you read the article?” Rosecrans asked. “Half the article is saying this value is beyond the numbers.”
To this, Herbstreit responded,” Of course I read it and while that was covered why even address this as an ‘issue’?? What appears to be a logjam in the IF is an easy fix..guys learn to play other positions. As bad as they’ve been they’re FINALLY playing with an edge and India is the heartbeat to that.
“Now he’s answering questions from the media about potentially getting moved? Complete bulls–t. He’s the Alpha leave him alone-why create unnecessary drama??? Team is finally trending in a good direction!”
Herbstreit then gave an interview with the digital baseball show “Foul Territory,” in which he said that the Athletic’s story “kind of infuriated” him, repeating the reasons from his tweets.
He said he imagined India at his locker, reading this story, and opined that “there’s got to be room for all these guys,” which could be accomplished with positional changes.
Rosecrans responded to the interview that Herbstreit mispronounced Matt McClain’s name, and accused him of not understanding the job of a beat writer.
“Funny, @KirkHerbstreit says he ‘doesn’t know anything about Elly De La Cruz’ and says he likes Matt ‘McCain’ — but he knows how to do my job, which he seems to think is to promote the Reds and help them win,” Rosecrans tweeted.
Herbstreit fired back, “Never told you how to do your job-i don’t even know who you are. I’m a fan who loves his team you’re a troll looking for attention.
“Hustle back to creating clicks and causing trouble!”