Olmedo stock fallen - Role in team's plans uncertain

www.cincypost.com By Tony Jackson Post staff reporter

Shortstop Rainer Olmedo has the goods on defense, but it's at the plate where the 22-year-old needs to improve.

WINTER HAVEN, Fla. -- The uniform number, 71, seems to cover every inch of Rainer Olmedo's tiny back, and it's definitely too big for a player the Reds once held in such high regard.

A couple of springs ago, before he was 20 years old, the 5-foot-11, 155-pound infielder wore No. 2, the kind of number you don't get as a non-roster invitee to spring training unless someone in a position of power thinks your future is promising. At the time, Olmedo was considered a middle infield star of the future, an electrifying fielder who eventually would supplant either Pokey Reese at second base or Barry Larkin at shortstop.

Today, through no fault of his own, it's no longer clear where Olmedo fits in. Reds general manager Jim Bowden beamed as he announced at the winter meetings last December he had acquired Felipe Lopez, the latest in a long line of guys tabbed to eventually replace Larkin. And Aaron Boone, the manager's son and a potential All-Star, is moving to second base, where he is expected to be an everyday presence for years to come.

"I'm not really worried about it," said Olmedo, who won't turn 22 until May 31. "I know they have got a lot of experienced guys, but the big leagues are still a couple of years away for me anyway. I work very hard. I'll just keep doing that and see what happens."

 Olmedo was added to the 40-man roster in November to protect him from the Rule 5 draft, but he still has all of his minor-league options, so the Reds can afford to let him develop at his own pace.

In the four minor-league seasons since Reds scout Johnny Alamaraz signed him as an undrafted free agent out of Venezuela, Olmedo has a .247 average. He has little power, having hit just eight home runs, and he has never driven in more than 41 runs in a single season. But he does have considerable speed, he is a switch hitter, and he is a good bunter. Those three factors combined could add untold points to his average if he ever perfects the art of bunting his way to first base.

There are aspects of his game, however, that already have been perfected.

"I think he's a major-league defensive player already," Cleveland Indians shortstop Omar Vizquel said. "But obviously, the hardest part of what we do is the hitting. If he wants to get to the big leagues and be an impact player, that's the part of the game that he has to work on. I don't think he will ever have any problems with the fielding part."

Vizquel, the veteran and three-time All-Star, is a fellow Venezuelan and a mentor of sorts to Olmedo, and the two speak frequently during the offseason. Just before a spring-training game between their clubs Tuesday -- the Reds beat the Indians, 4-2, before 3,595 at Chain of Lakes Park -- Vizquel said what impresses him most about Olmedo is the questions he asks, which demonstrate a willingness to seek advice and to learn.

Phillip Wellman, Olmedo's manager at Class AA Chattanooga last year, said it wasn't until early in the season that Olmedo learned to be so receptive to others' advice.

"As much as he developed as a player, I think being 20 years old, he also grew up last year," Wellman said. "I'm talking on and off the field. It was good that we had some older veterans playing around him, and that helped him grow up a little bit. I don't think he was really accustomed to having somebody get on him or offer constructive criticism. He took it really hard, and it seemed to hurt his feelings.

"But as time went on, he became more open to it. I think he realized that I was wearing the same uniform he was and that all I was trying to do was help him."

Olmedo probably will begin this season back at Chattanooga, partly because he still is at that stage developmentally and partly because the Reds will stock the roster at Class AAA Louisville with older players such as Gookie Dawkins and non-roster invitees Felipe Crespo, Kelly Dransfeldt and Wilton Guerrero.

But just because Olmedo is wearing a high number in spring training doesn't mean his stock has fallen, or that Bowden and manager Bob Boone have soured on him. If they had, he wouldn't have been added to the 40-man roster.

All that has changed for Olmedo is that with the addition of Lopez and the decision to move Aaron Boone to second, there are now more players standing in his way. But he arguably is one of the most dazzling defensive players in the organization.

"When we had him and Dawkins up the middle last year, they did some things I had never seen before," Wellman said. "Stuff that just made you say, 'Wow.' "