Over the weekend we took a look back and a bit of a look forward with the Cincinnati Reds young core of players in part one of this series. Today we’re going to look specifically at the 2025 season. This past year the organization entered the season with an obvious set of issues. They had those same issues heading into the trade deadline and they made some trades! The trades did not address the issues. But we’ve made it to the end and so, presumably, we can at least take a look and see where they stand.
Which Reds are gone for 2026?
Nick Martinez is gone. You never felt like the Reds meant to have him on the team, but he did give them another solid year. Now his $21M is off the books, which leaves the pitching staff with a Martinez-shaped hole.
Emilio Pagan is gone. He was a weird fit the whole time. But it mostly worked out okay. That’s $8M. Anyway, happy trails.
Zack Littell is gone. And we hardly knew him. Austin Hays and Miguel Andujar are gone likely gone (Hays has a mutual option at $12M for 2026). They were both good enough, but let’s not romanticize it. We’re all in the process of turning them into trivia answers we only half remember playing for the team.
Those last three, together, account for something like $7 or $8M coming off the books.
Jeimer Candelario has been gone for a while, but he’s not forgotten. The Reds will still be paying him $15M not to play for them next year.
Which Reds are new(ish) in 2026?
Chase Burns and Sal Stewart, welcome aboard. It’s pretty impossible to imagine a scenario where Burns isn’t in the 2026 rotation and Stewart isn’t playing every day at first and/or third and/or DH.
Ke’Bryan Hayes, we don’t exactly know how to feel about you. On the one hand, Hayes provided the most value out of third base that Cincinnati have had in a minute. On the other hand, that’s not exactly a high bar to clear. One of the big questions for next year is going to be whether or not the Reds can actually do anything to turn him into a passable hitter. He’s been passable before. That’s why he got a nice extension in Pittsburgh but he’s now got two years of miserable hitting behind him. On a team that struggles with offense, the deal for him is still confusing. But he’s here, and he’s going to be given every chance to succeed. Let’s hope it goes better than Candelario.
Which Reds are in limbo for 2026?
Santiago Espinal. I would be surprised if he isn’t cut shortly after the World Series ends. However much some of you are impressed with his grit, he’s on the wrong side of 30 and has generated -0.4 WAR over the last three years. He is utterly replaceable. Ke’Bryan Hayes is clearly better than him, which makes Espinal completely redundant.
Christian Encarnacion-Strand is done for the Reds, I think. He didn’t hit especially well in Louisville this year, and he was a disaster in Cincinnati. I suspect he’s traded for a lottery-ticket relief pitcher in the offseason. But we will see. In any case, no team trying to compete is giving a spot to a guy who isn’t good defensively and couldn’t even hit as well as Ke’Bryan Hayes.
Gavin Lux is in arbitration. He’s coming off a season where he produced 0.3 WAR. His modest competence with the bat might keep him around on a team starved for offense, but it wouldn’t be shocking to see him non-tendered. The most likely scenario is that he sticks around and never sees a left-handed pitcher again.
Will Benson is one of my favorite people on the Reds, but he produced at exactly replacement level this year. I wonder if he ends up cut and taking the Aquino route to go play overseas. I think he is probably on the bench in 2026 because his ability to play center is needed and he does have power. But it would not be shocking if the Reds entered camp without Will Benson in 2026.
Which Reds are locked in for 2026?
Note: I won’t be addressing the bullpen. I continue to think trying to guess what will happen with the bullpen is a fools errand. Reds relievers had a 3.89 ERA in 2025. That was good for 14th in baseball and better than that if you remember what their home field is. And they did it without Alexis Diaz. So yeah. I’m just gonna shrug at bullpens until I stop baseball writing. We’ll see what happens when it happens.
The Starting Rotation
SP 1 – Hunter GreeneSP 2 – Andrew AbbottSP 3 – Nick LodoloSP 4 – Brady SingerSP 5 – Chase Burns
That’s right. Barring injury, the top five starters are absolutely set.
The Lineup (it has tiers)
ABSOLUTELY ON LOCK
C – Tyler Stephenson and Jose TrevinoSS – Elly De La CruzCF – TJ Friedl
Probably on Lock Except if They Suddenly Suck Real Bad
3B – Ke’Bryan HayesRF – Noelvi Marte
Definitely on the team. Written on the Lineup Card in Pencil.
1B/3B/DH – Sal Stewart (if he keeps hitting, he plays)2B – Matt McLain (2026 is sink or swim. Defense is great but the bat has to bounce back.)1B/LF – Spencer Steer (likely to get pushed by Stewart, really needs to find the 2023 version of his bat)
So, About Next Year…
I won’t be trying to fill the holes just yet. That’s for Part 3. But right now, the pitching staff is set in all of the important ways. The lineup looks something like this (best guess):
C – Stephenson/Trevino1B – Stewart2B – McLainSS – De La Cruz3B – HayesLF – Steer, probablyCF – FriedlRF – MarteDH – ???????Bench – Gavin Lux and some other guys.
So the Reds have too many guys who don’t hit enough and a gap in the most “you have to hit to play here” spot. Shocker. Stick around for part three when we will speculate wildly!
