Emilio Pagan wants to return to pitch for the Reds in 2026

The offseason has technically started for the Cincinnati Reds after their first round exit in the playoffs, being swept by the Los Angeles Dodgers. Teams can’t really talk to free agents at this point, but they are able to speak to players on their own team who are set to be free agents after the World Series ends. One player that’s set to be a free agent is closer Emilio Pagan. He told Gordon Wittenmyer of the Cincinnati Enquirer that he would “love to be back and run it back with them”.

Of course he’s going to say that, though. The Reds may not have as much money as some other teams in baseball to spend on free agents, but they still have some money to spend. And their money is as good as others if it’s the same amount, so him saying he wouldn’t like to come back would be silly.

The 2025 season was the second best of Pagan’s career. Only his 2019 season with Tampa Bay was better. This year with Cincinnati he had a career high 32 saves – nearly half of his career total at this point (65). He pitched in 70 games and threw 68.2 innings to go with his 2.88 ERA. Pagan gave up just 41 hits, walked 22 batters, and had 81 strikeouts during the season.

When the year began there wasn’t a closer in mind for the Reds. On Opening Day the team now infamously decided to go with Ian Gibaut as the closer only to see him allow four runs and blow the game in a 6-4 loss to the Giants. The next game saw Pagan pick up his first save of the year and from that point forward he didn’t really move out of the role as the team’s closer on days where he was available to pitch.

Pagan will be 35-years-old in early May. He’s only been a closer once in recent memory. And in today’s game he doesn’t look like your typical closer who throws triple-digits. But he also showed in 2025 that he can get the job done and be very good while doing it. His age and non-elite looking stuff is going to very likely keep him from getting both a long deal and an expensive, closer-like deal on the free agent market. But that also doesn’t mean he’s going to get chump change.

He made $8,000,000 each of the last two seasons with the Reds. That’s not closer money but it’s a lot more than middle relief money, too. If Cincinnati wants to bring him back they are probably going to have to at least match that $8,000,000 price tag and do so for multiple years.

Emilio Pagan

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