Suárez Hit a Grand Slam. Then the Reds Waived Him.

Eugenio Suárez drove in four runs in a comeback win over San Francisco on Wednesday, helping push Cincinnati to a 10-9 victory. By the end of the same day, the Reds had placed him on waivers. That's about as clean a summary of this organization's August as you're going to find.

The Lowe trade on August 3 was the first signal that the front office had stopped pretending. This is the confirmation. Seven games back of the last wild card with 36 to play is not mathematically dead, but Cincinnati isn't running the math anymore — they're running the roster for next year. Suárez, a veteran third baseman with a long history in this league, is available to any club that wants him. The Reds have moved on.

What's left is a team that wins one-run games at a genuinely impressive clip and scores runs at a pace that would be encouraging if the rotation weren't giving them back faster. Chase Burns is 15-5 with a 3.01 ERA and has been as good as advertised. Everyone behind him is a problem. The staff has allowed better than five and a half runs per game over the last 10, and that number isn't coming down with the current depth chart. The Suárez waiver is a footnote to a decision already made.