Photo: Doug Gray
The Cincinnati Reds are bringing back closer Emilio Pagan. Cincinnati has agreed to a 2-year deal for $20,000,000 to bring back Pagan, who served as their closer in 2025, according to The Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal and C. Trent Rosecrans. The deal will include a player opt-out after the first year.
This contract is similar to the previous one signed by the Reds and Pagan. Following the 2023 season with the Minnesota Twins where he posted a 2.99 ERA he joined Cincinnati on a 2-year deal worth $16,000,000.
During the first year of that contract, Pagan struggled a bit at times as he posted a 4.50 ERA in 38.0 innings. He would miss much of the summer, pitching in just one game between May 20th and August 11th. Still, entering the final week of the season he had a 3.47 ERA before he allowed five runs in his final two outings that saw his ERA jump more than a full run.
In 2025 Pagan was on the mound for a full season and he put together what wound up being his best season since 2019 when he was with the Tampa Bay Rays. Serving as the Reds closer, Pagan pitched in 70 games and posted a 2.88 ERA for Cincinnati. After having just 32 saves in his career, mostly coming back in 2019, he picked up 32 saves for the Reds while giving up 41 hits and striking out 81 batters in 68.2 innings pitched.
The price is quite low for a closer who just picked up 30+ saves. But Emilio Pagan doesn’t “look like” your traditional 30+ save closer, either. He doesn’t throw triple-digits. He doesn’t have a true wipeout secondary offering. Those are things that many teams are looking for in a closer and they pay a lot for those things. It’s why Pagan has been able to come into Cincinnati on the relative cheap for two straight contracts coming off of years in which his ERA was below 3.00.
Adding help to the bullpen was one of the areas that was clear that the team needed to address in the offsesaon. Adding Pagan should not be the only thing they do in regards to adding pitching, but it’s a first step and probably the biggest one. Now about finding some hitters to hopefully give Pagan and the Reds more save chances….
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