This story was excerpted from Mark Sheldon’s Reds Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.
CINCINNATI -- Early on during Spring Training workouts, Reds manager Terry Francona shared that there might be sightings of everyday center fielder TJ Friedl playing some left field. He found his way out there in a few Cactus League games.
Why? The club had acquired strong defender Dane Myers from the Marlins over the offseason. Myers can play all three outfield spots, but he is best in center field. When told of the plan to give him some reps in left, Friedl didn't mind.
"If it’s going to help us win a ballgame and that’s what is needed that day, I will do whatever the team needs," Friedl said on Tuesday.
Over the first two series of the regular season, Francona gave Friedl one start in left field -- on Sunday vs. the Red Sox. In four games, Francona has brought in Myers for defense sometime in the later innings and moved Friedl to left field.
Francona has been pleased with the arrangement up to this point, and he compared Friedl's skills in left field to the Guardians' four-time Gold Glove Award winner Steven Kwan. Francona managed Kwan when he was Cleveland's manager (2013-23).
“I actually really like it," Francona said of the current arrangement. "Kwan, I know he might be playing center field a little bit for them now. We tried him in center but we just loved him in left. I look at TJ out there and it just reminds me so much [of that]. Like, he can change the game defensively out there.
"I don’t want to force it. That’s why we did it in Spring Training, because we didn’t want to just throw him over there during the season because I had a feeling the way things were breaking, he’d work his way over there.”
For Friedl, who last played left field in 2023 for 23 games, including 12 starts, the adjustment period wasn't very tough.
"In the beginning, it was kind of like a little different getting back there," Friedl said. "I would say I got a good amount of work in between BP, practice and then the game scenarios to where I feel comfortable out there now whenever I need to go out there. On Sunday when I played left, I got four balls out there and I felt good. Every angle it was coming at me, I felt good.”
What's the biggest difference for Friedl in left field compared to center field? That's easy: it's the angle of how the ball comes his way.
“It’s most different with right-handed hitters," Friedl said. "With lefties, you can see the swing. You can see where their point of contact is so it’s a little easier to pick up where it’s going. But off of righties, it’s just a little harder because that’s their power side -- and top spin and back spin, the gap. It’s a harder angle.”
When balls to left-center field are hit between them, Friedl feels that he and Myers have been smooth.
“He’s very communicative and so am I. I’m loud out there, too. We work pretty well together," Friedl said.