Rebuilding Reds made strides in second half

CINCINNATI — The Reds weren’t thinking about postseason aspirations in 2016, but they did want their rebuilding efforts to make forward progress. That glimmer of optimism eventually came, but not until some painful struggles on the field.

Amid injuries and poor performance, the Reds were 32-57 at the All-Star break. But after some players returned healthy, and others with improved play, Cincinnati finished one game under .500 in the second half at 36-37. It earned manager Bryan Price the opportunity to continue with a one-year contract extension with a club option.

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“There was a period of time in April and May where we weren’t winning many games and these guys were playing their tails off,” Price said at season’s end. “And we were losing in similar fashion. We were scoring a lot of runs and giving up a lot of runs. Or not scoring any runs and giving up a lot of runs. Our pitching wasn’t very good.

“Those guys, to their credit, just stayed locked in. You hope there is help on the way, but we realized that there really wasn’t. The help we were going to get was going to come from our own system, so it was going to be rookies. These guys — it’s a cliché — kept their nose to the grindstone and continued to go out there and play hard and prepare hard. I admired that a great deal. That to me is the highlight of the season.”

Some of the reinforcements came in the form of familiar faces. Anthony DeSclafani galvanized the rotation upon his June return from an oblique injury. Raisel Iglesias, who was the Opening Day starter in DeSclafani’s place, returned from a shoulder injury and joined Michael Lorenzen in providing some bullpen stability. Billy Hamilton …

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