Retaining Free Agents: Reds Outfielder/DH Miguel Andujar

Free agency doesn’t officially begin until the day after the World Series ends. Even then, it’s not exactly real free agency as teams have five days from that point to be the exclusive negotiators with players who are now free agents who were also on their team this past season. After those five days are up if players have not agreed to a new contract then they can become true free agents and negotiate with all teams unless they are extended a qualifying offer during that. I don’t remember the last time a player agreed to a new deal before testing the true free agent waters within that 5-day “exclusive negotiating” period of time.

The Cincinnati Reds have a handful of players who are set to become free agents in the next two weeks. Today we are going to start a series to look at these players and discuss whether it makes sense for the club to try and bring them back. Our first piece is going to look out Miguel Andujar.

His time in Cincinnati was short. Cincinnati traded for him at the trade deadline, acquiring him from the Atheltics in a deal that saw the Reds send prospect Kenya Huggins the other way in the swap.

In his time in the American League this season Andujar was having far and away his best season since he was a rookie with the New York Yankees back in 2018. The outfielder was hitting .298/.329/.436 – good for an OPS+ of 111 (which essentially means after adjusting for the ballparks he played in he had an OPS that was 11% better than the league average).

After he joined the Reds he essentially served as the team’s designated hitter. Part of that was due to his limited defensive abilities, but part of it was also due to the fact that he was dealing with quad injury for much of time with Cincinnati. He was healthy enough to hit but they weren’t going to ask him to run much in order to protect the injury and keep his bat available. Still, that limited him to 34 games between August and September.

When he was on the field, though, he hit very well. With Cincinnati he hit .359/.400/.544 with a 153 OPS+. He was the team’s best hitter during that time, but he only played about 60% of the time due to his injury and the Reds going with a bit of a mix-and-match situation with what is probably half of their positions that included the designated hitter.

You can see the career stats for Miguel Andujar here.

The Qualifying Offer

This year the qualifying offer in Major League Baseball is $22,025,000 for a 1-year contract.

Cincinnati made such an offer (at slightly lesser money) last offseason to Nick Martinez and he accepted it. He was the only player offered one who accepted it in Major League Baseball.

Miguel Andujar, like Nick Martinez, is not eligible for the qualifying offer. A team can’t offer it to a player who got one previously in their career (Martinez). They also can’t offer it to a player acquired via a trade during the most recent season.

Should the Reds bring him back?

Just because the team can’t make Miguel Andujar the qualifying offer doesn’t mean that they shouldn’t look at bringing him back.

When the 2026 season begins, Andujar is going to be 31-years-old. He’s never been a free agent before. And he’s coming off of his best season since he was a rookie. For him this is likely going to be the only time he’s going to get a multi-year deal with at least a solid amount of money. He’s only made about $9,000,000 in his career to this point, so expect him and his agent to be looking to shop around and see what they can get.

For Cincinnati the question is not just one question, it’s multi-layered. Andujar can play left field, though he can’t play it well. And he can play first and third base, too. He’s not exactly good at any of the infield spots, either. The National League also has the designated hitter spot available today and that adds a little something to the math here.

Cincinnati traded to Ke’Bryan Hayes at the trade deadline and he’s under control for several more years. He’s an elite defender at third base. The Reds probably aren’t going to bring Andujar back to play there. At first base Cincinnati played Spencer Steer there a lot in 2025, but some of that was due to his shoulder injury that made it so he couldn’t play left field much of the year. But late in the season Cincinnati called up Sal Stewart and he spent time at both first base and designated hitter. One of the team’s top prospects who raked in the minors and hit well in the big leagues, he’s probably going to return to play similarly in 2026 and that makes it tougher to put Andujar in a similar role, especially if the team plans to keep Steer in rotation at first base at times instead of playing him in left field where he’s been a well below-average fielder in his career.

It’s likely going to take a multi-year deal to get Miguel Andujar to sign. And it probably should. He’s been a quality big league hitter for the last few years and had a strong showing in 2025 at the plate. The Reds, whether anyone likes it or not, are working with limited funds from the ownership group. And the positions that Andujar plays are ones that Cincinnati can fill internally with other players.

The upside for Andujar – at least one that’s realistic – just isn’t all that big. Sure, if he could find a way to hit .359 and slug .544 for the duration of his deal write him a big, fat check. But that’s not a realistic expectation. At his age and given his past performance, the expectation should be that of a guy who slightly declines each year moving forward. He’s been a good, but not very good hitter the last few years. And given his defensive limitations, he has to hit well to have value.

Cincinnati could certainly use him in 2026 and probably a few years after that, too. But given how he would (or wouldn’t) fit into the roster construction and how much he’s likely to earn on the market for his services, it’s tough to make a good selling point that it makes sense to bring him back.