Zach Buchanan

zbuchanan@enquirer.com

SAN FRANCISCO – It was six days until the Aug. 1 trade deadline when Walt Jocketty sat down with a pair of reporters before Wednesday’s win over the San Francisco Giants. The the Cincinnati Reds president of baseball operations didn’t have much new to report.

The interest in right fielder Jay Bruce remained surprisingly tepid given the 29-year-old’s monster season, although Jocketty felt things could pick up as the week progresses. There have been interested teams, but none willing to pay what Jocketty would consider a serious price.

“Clubs inquire about certain players, but they never want to trade you anything,” Jocketty said. “So what’s the point? You wouldn’t believe some of the stuff…”

Bruce is the team’s biggest and most obvious trade chip, and just happens to be enjoying the best offensive season in his life. The outfielder is on pace for a career-best 40 home runs and is hitting .271/.323/.572 after a pair of down seasons from 2014-15.

BAR: Jay Bruce shows he can hit away from GABP

Defensive metrics don’t rate him well, although most observers agree he’s nowhere near as poor in the field as they suggest. A litany of contenders have been connected to them – including the Giants, Cleveland Indians, Washington Nationals, Texas Rangers, Los Angeles Dodgers and Baltimore Orioles – although executives with three of those teams said in off-the-record conversations that their interest has been overstated.

“There are clubs that have been engaged on Jay for a while, but they’re basically the same clubs,” Jocketty said. “No one’s really come up and been really aggressive with it. I can’t say anything’s going to happen imminently because we’re just not in that kind of position.”

Acquiring Bruce now would come with an extra year of control in the form of a $13 million team option for 2017, something people around the game said should give Bruce more value on the trade market now than if traded in the offseason. But no one has been willing to meet Cincinnati’s price.

Jocketty doesn’t think his ask is too high. Last week, one National League executive suggested a “strong, mid-level prospect” would represent a good return for Bruce, and Jocketty’s evaluation didn’t sound much different.

“We want a legitimate prospect,” Jocketty said. “The guy’s a valuable player.”

Jocketty said the team is willing to hold on to Bruce until the offseason if no team meets their price, although he acknowledged that route wouldn’t be a simple one. The Reds would have until five days after the end of the World Series to pick up Bruce’s option – or pay a $1 million buyout – giving them just five days to gauge Bruce’s value on the winter market.

There are numerous ways his value could go down by then, beyond the fact that an interested team would have fewer years of control over Bruce. He could get hurt or go in a slump, and the Reds could receive less in return. On the other hand, Bruce could keep things up – although hitting a homer a day like he has the last five days would be superhuman – and the Reds could find a wider market for him in the winter.

“If the value isn’t there for a player, it just doesn’t make sense to trade a guy for the purpose of trading him,” Jocketty said. “Financially, we can hold on to him.”

Bruce still appears to be the only Reds player likely to switch teams at the deadline. Jocketty said he’s had no discussions about Zack Cozart, which is likely due to the fact that few contending teams are hurting at shortstop. The four years of control remaining on Dan Straily after this season have far outweighed the type of interest he’s received from other teams. Teams have asked about right-hander Anthony DeSclafani, but no one has offered a package big enough for the Reds to consider moving the talented young starter.

If a smaller deal is to be made, it might involve one of Cincinnati’s veteran bullpen arms. Ross Ohlendorf, Blake Wood and Tony Cingrani have all enjoyed varying levels of success this season, but are unlikely to be affordable members of the next contending Reds team because of service time.

The unit has also been deeper with the additions of Michael Lorenzen and Raisel Iglesias, and Brandon Finnegan will eventually move there from the rotation to limit his innings.

Price: Consistency arriving in the bullpen

“If someone had a legitimate interest and it was a fair return, I’d certainly say yeah,” Jocketty said when asked about moving a reliever. “We’re going to start needing to find more innings for some of our younger guys. But to this point there hasn’t been.”

Jocketty did add that a reliever trade might be more realistic in August, when players have to pass through waivers in order to be traded to any team. Players who are claimed can only be traded to the claiming team.