The Cincinnati Reds have announced their 2026 Hall of Fame inductees. There will be three former players as well as one manager inducted in the late April. Making it on the modern player ballot were Aaron Harang and Brandon Phillips. Joining them through the veterans committee are Reggie Sanders and Lou Piniella.
Long overlooked here is Reggie Sanders. He was with the Reds from 1991 when he was a rookie who played in nine games through the 1998 season. During that time he played in 805 games and hit .271/.353/.476 with 152 doubles, 33 triples, 125 home runs, and he stole 158 bases. All of that came out to 21.5 WAR according to Baseball Reference. In the 1995 season he made the only All-Star game of his 17-year big league career. It was his best season as he hit .306/.397/.579. He finished 6th in the MVP voting that year.
The acquisition of Brandon Phillips in 2006 is one of the better moves ever made by the Reds. A former top prospect, Phillips had struggled to do much in the big leagues and by the end of 2025 Cleveland was ready to move forward without him. Cincinnati traded for him, sending at the time a player to be named later – which turned out to be Single-A reliever Jeff Stevens.
While Stevens would eventually pitch in the big leagues in parts of three seasons with the Chicago Cubs, he finished his career with a 6.27 ERA in 37.1 innings during that time. Phillips, though, turned into a 3-time All-Star. From 2006-2016 he played in 1614 games for Cincinnati and hit .279/.325/.429 with 311 doubles, 32 triples, 191 home runs, and 194 steals. He would earn four Gold Glove awards in his time with the Reds and in 2011 also won the Silver Slugger award.
A few years before Cincinnati picked up Phillips they would make a midseason trade to acquire Aaron Harang from Oakland. He struggled in that 2003 season after being acquired, and the next season he still had some struggles. But in 2005 he turned things around and anchored the Reds pitching staff for the next handful of years.
In parts of eight seasons with Cincinnati Harang would throw 1343 innings with a 4.28 ERA and 1125 strikeouts. His peak seasons with the Reds were from 2005-2007 when he had an ERA of 3.77 and threw 677.2 innings, going 43-30 for the team. In that 2006 season he became the first pitcher to lead the league in both wins and strikeouts and not win the Cy Young award. He would throw six complete games that year.
Lou Piniella took over as the Cincinnati Reds manager in 1990. Things went quite well that year as the team went 91-71, won the division, beat the Pittsburgh Pirates in the NLCS, and then went on to sweep the Oakland Athletics in the World Series. The next year was about as opposite as it gets as Piniella and the Reds won just 74 games. In the 1992 season things got back on track as the team won 90 games, but they finished eight games back in the division and in 1992 there was no wild card and despite the third best record in the National League they sat out of the playoffs. That would be his final year with Cincinnati. The team offered him a new contract, but he declined it and was soon thereafter named the manager of the Seattle Mariners.
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