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Source: http://redreporter.com/rss/index.xml

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<title type="text">Red Reporter</title>
<subtitle type="text">Your best source for quality Cincinnati Reds news, rumors, analysis, stats and scores from the fan perspective.</subtitle>
<updated>2025-11-06T23:10:47+00:00</updated>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://www.redreporter.com" />
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<entry>
<author>
<name>Wick Terrell</name>
</author>
<title type="html"><![CDATA[Reds lose Reiver Sanmartin to Giants via waivers on busy day of roster moves]]></title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://www.redreporter.com/cincinnati-reds-rumors/49060/san-francisco-giants-reiver-sanmartin-cincinnati-reds-waivers" />
<id>https://www.redreporter.com/?p=49060</id>
<updated>2025-11-06T18:10:47-05:00</updated>
<published>2025-11-06T18:10:47-05:00</published>
<category scheme="https://www.redreporter.com" term="Cincinnati Reds Rumors" />
<summary type="html"><![CDATA[As the Cincinnati Reds continue to trim the margins of their roster ahead of both administrative needs and the chance to acquire other players for 2026, Reiver Sanmartin will officially have a new club going forward. Sanmartin, a 29 year old lefty, was claimed by the San Francisco Giants on Thursday afternoon. Alex Pavlovic of […]]]></summary>
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As the Cincinnati Reds continue to trim the margins of their roster ahead of both administrative needs and the chance to acquire other players for 2026, Reiver Sanmartin will officially have a new club going forward.
Sanmartin, a 29 year old lefty, <a href="https://x.com/PavlovicNBCS/status/1986554765137092789">was claimed by the San Francisco Giants</a> on Thursday afternoon. Alex Pavlovic of NBC Sports Bay Area relayed the news on Twitter.
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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-dnt="true">The Giants claimed lefty Reiver Sanmartin from the Reds and outfielder Justin Dean from the Dodgers. Mason Black was DFA’d to open a roster spot.— Alex Pavlovic (@PavlovicNBCS) <a href="https://twitter.com/PavlovicNBCS/status/1986554765137092789?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 6, 2025</a></blockquote>
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Sanmartin originally came to the Reds in the same deal that sent Sonny Gray to Cincinnati from the New York Yankees, a deal that saw Shed Long, Jr. head the other direction priorto the 2019 season. He eventually made his big league debut during the 2021 season with 11.2 innings of impressive work in a pair of starts (as a starter, obviously), but struggled thereafter and eventually moved to the bullpen.
He missed more than a year recovering from Tommy John surgery, but finally worked his way back to the big league level in 2025 after some two years, tossing 1.2 IP in a lone appearance with the Reds in early September.
Sanmartin joins the likes of Santiago Espinal and Ian Gibaut in having been placed on waivers to get them off the roster this fall, though the previous two went unclaimed and rejected their minor league assignments to become free agents. Sanmartin is still cheap, though – he’s not yet arb-eligible – meaning teams were much more likely to take a flier on him on the waiver process.
Losing Sanmartin was just part of a larger day of transactions for the Reds, who welcomed each of Carson Spiers, Rhett Lowder, Brandon Williamson, Tyler Callihan, and Julian Aguiar back off the 60-day IL, each of whom needed valuable 40-man roster spots going forward. <a href="https://x.com/Reds/status/1986554225908703526/photo/1">The Reds noted those moves on Twitter this afternoon</a>, as well as informing the masses that they’d promoted RHP Jose Franco to the 40-man, outrighted RHP Sam Benschoter off the 40-man to AAA Louisville, and claimed RHP Roddery Muñoz off waivers from the St. Louis Cardinals.
<figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-dnt="true">The <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Reds?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Reds</a> today announced the following transactions: <a href="https://t.co/3A0cYEUcYs">pic.twitter.com/3A0cYEUcYs</a>— Cincinnati Reds (@Reds) <a href="https://twitter.com/Reds/status/1986554225908703526?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 6, 2025</a></blockquote>
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Muñoz, 25, originally signed with the Atlanta Braves back in 2018, and he’s bounced around through the waiver process through Washington, Pittsburgh, and St. Louis before now finding himself on the Reds roster. He is out of options and owns a 6.73 ERA in 93.1 IP at the big league level in his career, and while he walks people more often than anyone would care to admit, he does have some strikeout stuff to his name, too. My best guess here is that the Reds will again try to pass him through waivers and keep him in their system as depth seeing as he’s out of options, and if they lose him, they lose him.
Jose Franco, meanwhile, is a guy they were likely going to promote to the 40-man to protect for the Rule 5 Draft next month anyway. At 24, he plowed through AA and AAA hitters to the tune of a.311 ERA in 110.0 IP, in which time he fanned 118 against 54 walks. Given his success at the AAA level last year, he’s very much in the mix for his first taste of big league action in 2026.
]]>
</content>
</entry>
<entry>
<author>
<name>Wick Terrell</name>
</author>
<title type="html"><![CDATA[Reds decline 2026 options on Austin Hays, Brent Suter, Scott Barlow]]></title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://www.redreporter.com/cincinnati-reds-rumors/49055/cincinnati-reds-options-austin-hays-suter-barlow" />
<id>https://www.redreporter.com/?p=49055</id>
<updated>2025-11-05T18:35:53-05:00</updated>
<published>2025-11-05T18:35:53-05:00</published>
<category scheme="https://www.redreporter.com" term="Cincinnati Reds Rumors" />
<summary type="html"><![CDATA[The Cincinnati Reds would have been on the hook for some $21.5 million for the 2026 season should they (and the player with a mutual option) have chosen to keep around each of outfielder Austin Hays, lefty reliever Brent Suter, and workhorse righty Scott Barlow. That simply was never going to happen. Cincinnati’s front office […]]]></summary>
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The Cincinnati Reds would have been on the hook for some $21.5 million for the 2026 season should they (and the player with a mutual option) have chosen to keep around each of outfielder Austin Hays, lefty reliever Brent Suter, and workhorse righty Scott Barlow. 
That simply was never going to happen.
Cincinnati’s front office took the predictable route of declining the club options they held on both Suter and Barlow on Wednesday, and similarly declined their half of the mutual option they had on Hays. The team announced the moves on Twitter.
<figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-dnt="true">The <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Reds?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Reds</a> today announced the following transactions: <a href="https://t.co/ZYBqXKSLPs">pic.twitter.com/ZYBqXKSLPs</a>— Cincinnati Reds (@Reds) <a href="https://twitter.com/Reds/status/1986176751748178311?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 5, 2025</a></blockquote>
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Mutual options are almost never picked up – both team and player would have to opt-in for those to happen – but Hays would have been on a $12 million for next season had both parties agreed to pick it up. Instead, he received a $1 million buyout.
The Reds held a $3 million club option for Suter yet instead chose to buy out the hometown guy for just $250,000. It will be interesting to see if he and the Reds negotiate a return at a lower rate for next year given his affinity for the club and his iffy 2025 results (4.52 ERA/4.57 FIP)as he has at least proven he can get ready on a moment’s notice and cover multiple innings when right.
Barlow, meanwhile, had a $6.5 million option that was never going to get picked up. Despite his workhorse efforts in 2025 (75 appearances), he pitched to just a 4.21 ERA and 4.70 FIP this season (and owns a 4.28 ERA across three teams and 191.1 IP dating back to the start of the 2023 season). He was bought out for $1 million, too.
The moves leave the team further devoid of what was the 2025 roster that snuck into the playoffs with 83 wins. Gone, too, are Nick Martinez, Zack Littell, Emilio Pagan, and Miguel Andujar to free agency, while the team chose to effectively cut Santiago Espinal and Ian Gibaut, too. That’s on top of having waved goodbye to Jake Fraley late last season (and Jeimer Candelario much earlier), marking quite a bit of turnover for a club coming off its best season in over a decade.
That’s now on the Reds front office to fix, even if <a href="https://www.redreporter.com/cincinnati-reds-rumors/49049/reds-sign-keegan-thompson-announce-budget-payroll">they’re going to be operating on a budget that’s basically stagnant from last winter</a>. 
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</content>
</entry>
<entry>
<author>
<name>Wick Terrell</name>
</author>
<title type="html"><![CDATA[Reds sign RHP Keegan Thompson, announce further austerity measures]]></title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://www.redreporter.com/cincinnati-reds-rumors/49049/reds-sign-keegan-thompson-announce-budget-payroll" />
<id>https://www.redreporter.com/?p=49049</id>
<updated>2025-11-04T15:43:49-05:00</updated>
<published>2025-11-04T15:43:49-05:00</published>
<category scheme="https://www.redreporter.com" term="Cincinnati Reds Rumors" />
<summary type="html"><![CDATA[Though right-hander Keegan Thompson spent the entirety of the 2025 season at the AAA level within the Chicago Cubs organization, the Cincinnati Reds signed him to a major league deal earlier on Tuesday. Thompson, 30, does have ample big league experience, however. A former 33rd round pick of the Detroit Tigers and later a 3rd […]]]></summary>
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Though right-hander Keegan Thompson spent the entirety of the 2025 season at the AAA level within the Chicago Cubs organization, the Cincinnati Reds signed him to a major league deal earlier on Tuesday.
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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-dnt="true">The <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Reds?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Reds</a> today signed RHP Keegan Thompson to a one-year Major League contract through the 2026 season. Welcome to Reds Country, Keegan‼️ <a href="https://t.co/n1B1KsXYkT">pic.twitter.com/n1B1KsXYkT</a>— Cincinnati Reds (@Reds) <a href="https://twitter.com/Reds/status/1985770274688565705?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 4, 2025</a></blockquote>
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Thompson, 30, does have ample big league experience, however. A former 33rd round pick of the Detroit Tigers and later a 3rd rounder by the Cubs out of Auburn University, he’s appeared in 104 MLB games since the start of the 2021 season – all with Chicago – and pitched to a tidy enough 3.64 ERA across 227.1 IP. He’s made 23 starts in that time despite all of those coming in 2021-2022, and his most recent big league season (2024) saw him post career best marks in ERA (2.67), FIP (3.86) and WHIP (1.22).
He relies heavily on a fastball/cutter combo more often than not, his fastball sitting around 94 mph while his cutter is just under 90, though he will work in a slider and curveball alongside the once-in-a-thousand sinker/change. Word is he’ll get roughly $1.3 million from the Reds in this 1-year contract that appears to be a split deal, as <a href="https://bsky.app/profile/msheldon.bsky.social/post/3m4t7zfdjkk2c">MLB.com’s Mark Sheldon relayed on Bluesky</a>.
<figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-bluesky-social wp-block-embed-bluesky-social"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
<blockquote class="bluesky-embed" data-bluesky-uri="at://did:plc:nkqngm63qlyl5veb5scb2wjw/app.bsky.feed.post/3m4t7zfdjkk2c" data-bluesky-cid="bafyreifksao6ymrmgdckh7m6xxmscwblecc3pnxhwrx2akyj6q3aj42xqu">Keegan Thompson contract terms with the Reds…It is $1.3 million prorated in the big leagues and $350k prorated in the minor leagues. Also another $100k in performance bonuses.— <a href="https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:nkqngm63qlyl5veb5scb2wjw?ref_src=embed">Mark Sheldon (@msheldon.bsky.social)</a> <a href="https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:nkqngm63qlyl5veb5scb2wjw/post/3m4t7zfdjkk2c?ref_src=embed">2025-11-04T19:04:01.898Z</a></blockquote>
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Of course, doling out this kind of coin to a guy their direct division rivals held in the minors and then released is eyebrow-raising in its own right. Clearly the Reds see something in him they think they can fix, and I applaud them for jumping on this so quickly if that’s the case. Still, it sure does look like they are trying to address the major holes in their bullpen by diving directly into the bargain bin, and that’s hard to ignore.
It’s impossible to ignore in the context of the rest of today’s Reds news, too.
Per C. Trent Rosecrans of The Athletic (and corroborated elsewhere), Nick Krall suggested today that <a href="https://bsky.app/profile/ctrent.bsky.social/post/3m4ta2nykek2s">the Reds 2026 payroll is going to “be around the same as our payroll from 2025.”</a>
<figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-bluesky-social wp-block-embed-bluesky-social"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
<blockquote class="bluesky-embed" data-bluesky-uri="at://did:plc:lf6l3si6nf4ulmxcfwpkdfoc/app.bsky.feed.post/3m4ta2nykek2s" data-bluesky-cid="bafyreihbc4ve3xd475ksvxrjui5r74xk4kqoqdevo6tuxo4hs52ulatjna">Reds president of baseball operations Nick Krall says the team’s budget “will be around the same as our payroll from 2025.”— <a href="https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:lf6l3si6nf4ulmxcfwpkdfoc?ref_src=embed">C Trent Rosecrans (@ctrent.bsky.social)</a> <a href="https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:lf6l3si6nf4ulmxcfwpkdfoc/post/3m4ta2nykek2s?ref_src=embed">2025-11-04T19:04:44.531Z</a></blockquote>
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The Reds just made the playoffs for the first time since the sinking of the Lusitania. MLB league minimum salaries are rising some ~2.6% again as part of a multi-year plan set in place a handful of years ago to gradually increase salaries league-wide. The cost of a Qualifying Offer is up another million. Yet still, here we are, with the Reds seemingly a) unwilling to fit that into their tight-ass budget or b) simply telling the world false information.
In today’s day and age it’s nearly impossible to rule out the latter, though everything this ownership group has ever done suggests it’s pretty clearly going to be the former.
If that’s truly the case, the Reds will roll out a payroll on Opening Day of roughly $111 million, though they did finish 2025 with roughly $116 million on the books after deadline additions. As I noted when I looked deeper into their existing payroll obligations and likely arbitration raises a month ago, they already had something akin to $95 million on the books before the Thompson signing. Swapping him in at $1.3 million instead of someone else making league-minimum raises that to just under $96 million, so you can pretty clearly see what they’ve got left to spend within that kind of budget.
That’s with their left fielder about to be a free agent. That’s without a closer, and potentially without a pair of key setup men from last year, too. That’s without Zack Littell, Nick Martinez, or Miguel Andujar, too.
It’s enough to make you wonder just how willing Krall will be to do move someone off the current roster who’s now making more money than they are comfortable paying him. Perhaps that’s Brady Singer or Tyler Stephenson or Gavin Lux, each of whom will be a free agent at the end of next season anyway. Surely he could find some SP depth for less than the $11 million Singer may command (is that Thompson already?), Jose Trevino is already signed, and Gavin Lux just posted a -0.2 bWAR season and still has no position.
All told, it seems to have barely taken a couple weeks after the Reds somewhat promising 2023 campaign ended for the official Wet Blanket of the Cincinnati Reds™ to once again throw a huge chunk of the optimism built up over the last calendar year right out the window. 
The guys are just gonna have to play better next year, I guess!
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</content>
</entry>
<entry>
<author>
<name>Wick Terrell</name>
</author>
<title type="html"><![CDATA[Cincinnati Reds notes – Terry Francona named finalist for NL Manager of the Year]]></title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://www.redreporter.com/red-reposter/49043/cincinnati-reds-notes-terry-francona-manager-of-the-year" />
<id>https://www.redreporter.com/?p=49043</id>
<updated>2025-11-04T11:02:17-05:00</updated>
<published>2025-11-04T10:56:19-05:00</published>
<category scheme="https://www.redreporter.com" term="Red Reposter" />
<summary type="html"><![CDATA[There are two things that are pretty paramount for making a sports team something you’ll go out of your way to watch, and the first is obvious: You’ve got to win games. Winning is enjoyable. It’s satisfying. It’s engaging to see the team whose logo you wear on your hat score more points before the […]]]></summary>
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There are two things that are pretty paramount for making a sports team something you’ll go out of your way to watch, and the first is obvious:
You’ve got to win games.
Winning is enjoyable. It’s satisfying. It’s engaging to see the team whose logo you wear on your hat score more points before the final whistle. If you’re going to spend all that time, money, effort, and adrenaline to root for something, well, it’s nice to be rewarded with a good outcome.
The second? That’s being fun, funny, and/or entertaining.
The early-aughts Cincinnati Reds were decidedly not good. No bueno. From 2001 through 2009 they never once finished higher than 3rd in the NL Central, finished dead last on five occasions, and only once won so many as 80 games in a season (just 80, still a losing record). But man, did they ever sock the hell out of some homers. Adam Dunn hit balls 535 feet, Junior Griffey pulled them into the RF seats of the stadium he built (when healthy), and even Austin Kearns and Felipe Lopez managed to get in on that action, too. The Reds were bad – really bad – but they were at least an enjoyable bunch of idiots getting sent to the showers after 12-10 losses.
The David Bell Era of Reds baseball featured almost exclusively none of either. Their surprise 2023 was so out of left field that not even the front office believed in it at the deadline, and that season burnt out like a snap-pop. The rest of his years were lifeless, dingerless campaigns where we all were just forced to play the waiting game, rebuilding seasons featuring a manager with daily interviews that were less engaged as a nun. That entire era featured zero winning and was as entertaining as finding sand in your swim trunks two hours after you’d left the beach.
I still don’t know how good the 2025 Cincinnati Reds were. They snuck into the playoffs with 83 wins, and there’s a part of me that wonders if this is just how good this group can ever be if they stay as healthy as they did this year. That’s me actively wondering that in a year where Hunter Greene, Rhett Lowder, Austin Hays, Noelvi Marte, and Tyler Stephenson all got hurt we still saw about as much of them collectively as we ever will. They were better than they’d been in a while, though, and the stagnant malaise of the Bell Era officially had been turned over to the gregarious Terry Francona.
<img src="https://platform.redreporter.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/132/2025/11/gettyimages-2238267459.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0,0.0050766575286829,100,99.989846684943" alt="" title="" data-has-syndication-rights="1" data-caption="LOS ANGELES, CA - OCTOBER 01: Manager Terry Francona #77 of the Cincinnati Reds smiles as he leaves the field during Game Two of the National League Wild Card Series between the Cincinnati Reds and the Los Angeles Dodgers at Dodger Stadium on Wednesday, October 1, 2025 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Katelyn Mulcahy/MLB Photos via Getty Images)" data-portal-copyright="" />
Francona, as the title way above that meandering series of side notes suggested, <a href="https://www.mlb.com/news/2025-bbwaa-awards-finalists-for-mvp-cy-young-rookie-of-year">was named a finalist for the NL Manager of the Year Award</a> late Monday night. He was joined in the finalists group by Pat Murphy of the Milwaukee Brewers and Rob Thomson of the Philadelphia Phillies, and while I don’t think Tito has a shot in heck at actually winning this award (this time around), I do think it’s worth pointing out that the Reds significantly improved in both paramount aspects of why you go out of your way to watch a team play sports.
In the second aspect – being fun, funny, and/or entertaining – it was Tito himself providing the gas. While many of his managerial tendencies scream old school and dated, it’s impossible not to want to hear him talk about the game of baseball. He’s a riot, we get to hear him and read about his thoughts, and that’s precisely what the players in the dugout get way more often than we ever do. Francona lights up a clubhouse in ways few others ever have, and that’s vital in a sport where you play every single day for six-plus months while travelling constantly.
For that latter part I applaud him more than I do for the 83 wins, though as I opined already, I’m not truly sure any manager out there could coax a whole lot more out of this roster than that. The rest of the winning needs to come from the owners and front office (groan), and the fact that Francona is a finalist at all reflects that I’m far from the only person who thinks that. The BBWAA voters put him in that trio of finalists not for having won 83 games, but for having won 83 games with this roster from this franchise.
In other Reds news, <a href="https://x.com/Reds/status/1985459131294302226?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1985459131294302226%7Ctwgr%5E82b1f4eb4b1994af26a302b22db91f557ecdf5ad%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.mlb.com%2Fnews%2Freds-announce-coaching-staff-changes-for-2026-season">bench coach Brad Mills retired</a>. He’s 68 and seen a ton, and despite being Tito’s right-hand man for decades he found it time to hang up his spikes for good.
<figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-dnt="true">Congrats on an amazing career, Brad! Wishing you all the best in retirement! <a href="https://t.co/lH4rRAEQ2Z">pic.twitter.com/lH4rRAEQ2Z</a>— Cincinnati Reds (@Reds) <a href="https://twitter.com/Reds/status/1985459131294302226?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 3, 2025</a></blockquote>
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MLB.com’s Mark Sheldon had notes on <a href="https://www.mlb.com/reds/news/reds-announce-coaching-staff-changes-for-2026-season">the ripple effect this has on the rest of the coaching staff</a>, though the announcement of Mills’ retirement paired with the entire rest of the coaching staff being revealed at the very same time means all of this has been in the works for quite awhile. A bombshell this was not, in other words. Willie Harris will take over as the 3B coach with a promotion from having managed in the minors for the Reds in 2025, while Mike Napoli will be the assistant bench coach to Freddie Benavides – who was co-bench coach with Mills just last year. Bill Haselman will take over as actaching coach for JR House, who left for the Diamondbacks, while House’s former role at 3B will now go to Harris. Napoli, who you remember as a prominent catcher of the aughts and teens, is not the catching coach. Got it?
<a href="https://www.cincinnati.com/story/sports/mlb/reds/2025/11/03/reds-rays-trade-outfielder-ryan-vilade/87072757007/?gnt-cfr=1&gca-cat=p&gca-uir=true&gca-epti=z115957p118550c118550d00----v115957b0043xxd004365&gca-ft=134&gca-ds=sophi&sltsgmt=0154_E">The Reds traded Ryan Vilade to the Tampa Bay Rays</a> for some sweet, sweet cash just yesterday. Most importantly, though, they traded a guy who was on the 40-man roster for something that does not require a 40-man roster spot, so they’ve got an additional one open as they look to welcome back Rhett Lowder, Brandon Williamson, and Julian Aguiar from the 60-day IL this week.
You remember Ryan Vilade the Cincinnati Red, right? Right?
Finally – in NL Central news relevant to the Reds interests – <a href="https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2025/11/shota-imanaga-becomes-free-agent.html">Shota Imanaga became a surprise free agent this morning</a>, ending his partnership with the Chicago Cubs after just two seasons. 
Turns out that his contract had a clause where the Cubs had to decide whether to pick up a 3-year club option after this year that would have guaranteed Imanaga a 3-year, $57.75 total contract through 2028, and declined to do so. That, in turn, triggered a clause where Imanaga could make a call on a $15 million player option for 2026, and he declined to do so, too.
Imanaga was pretty brilliant in 2024, pitching to a 2.91 ERA across 173.1 IP for the Cubs, earning an All Star appearance as a 30 year old rookie and being valued at 3.0 bWAR/3.1 fWAR. Those numbers became a 3.73 ERA in just 144.2 IP in 2025, however, and his FIP jumped from 3.72 up to 4.86. In other words, he still managed to out-pitch his peripherals but not nearly to the same extent, and apparently that was enough to scare off the Cubs.
Either that or a looming 2027 strike/lockout did, and they’re doing as much as they can to keep as much guaranteed money off the books before the entire economic structure of baseball implodes.
Anyway, it’s Reds-relevant not only because their division rival lost a rock-solid starting pitcher, but also because that adds another pitcher to the ‘available’ market this winter when the Reds best asset right now is their own pitching depth. In other words, the idea of using Nick Lodolo or Andrew Abbott as a trade chip to get help elsewhere just got muddied by there now being another left-handed starter out there that teams can jump at signing, and that’s not exactly a boon to Cincinnati’s leverage.

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</content>
</entry>
<entry>
<author>
<name>Wick Terrell</name>
</author>
<title type="html"><![CDATA[Ke’Bryan Hayes wins NL Gold Glove Award for work at 3B]]></title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://www.redreporter.com/latest-news/49040/kebryan-hayes-nl-gold-glove-award-3b" />
<id>https://www.redreporter.com/?p=49040</id>
<updated>2025-11-03T14:33:50-05:00</updated>
<published>2025-11-03T14:33:50-05:00</published>
<category scheme="https://www.redreporter.com" term="Latest News" />
<summary type="html"><![CDATA[Defense has never really been the calling card for the Cincinnati Reds, at least not of late. This is the same franchise with the same owner and a lot of the same members of the front office who doled out big money deals to bring in Nick Castellanos for a corner outfield spot and Mike […]]]></summary>
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Defense has never really been the calling card for the Cincinnati Reds, at least not of late. 
This is the same franchise with the same owner and a lot of the same members of the front office who doled out big money deals to bring in Nick Castellanos for a corner outfield spot and Mike Moustakas, whom they tried moving up the defensive ladder despite him being old and slow and woefully outmatched. 
Dating back to the start of the 2020 season, the Reds total team DEF via FanGraphs checks in at -175.4, a mark that’s only worst-ed by five other clubs across Major League Baseball. That list includes perennial losers like the Los Angeles Angels, Chicago White Sox, Washington Nationals, and Oakland/Sacramento/Vegas A’s, too.
The Reds hadn’t had a Gold Glove winner since Tucker Barnhart took one home back in 2020, and it sure felt like they hadn’t had a player in front of the plate take one home since the signing of the Magna Carta. In reality, it had been since Brandon Phillips won one for his work at 2B back in 2013 – and Cincinnati hadn’t had a 3B win one since Scott Rolen in 2010.
That changed on Sunday evening, mercifully. <a href="https://www.mlb.com/reds/news/ke-bryan-hayes-wins-2025-nl-gold-glove-award">Trade deadline acquisition Ke’Bryan Hayes won the National League Gold Glove Award for 3B</a>, and did so incredibly deserving fashion. He had previously been named a finalist at his position (as had Spencer Steer at 1B, though Steer did not win at his position), and it was pretty obvious at that time that he was the frontrunner to win.
Defense is the obvious calling card for Hayes, who owns just a 63 wRC+ in 966 PA dating back to the start of the 2024 season. That’s good for the 5th worst among the 316 MLB players who’ve logged at least 500 PA in that time, which is a painful thing to write. That said, his 25.7 DEF in that same span ranks 10th overall, and that’s behind the outsized weight of four catchers alongwith superstars Bobby Witt, Jr. and Francisco Lindor, among several others.
That’s what the Reds paid for, both in prospects and taking on the remaining millions on his long-term contract, and that’s precisely what they received. Hayes is an absolutely elite defender, and he’s plenty good enough at that to carry him in your everyday roster provided that you surround him with enough offense elsewhere that it’s not a problem. It’s that latter part that the Reds struggled to do in 2025, and it damn well should be the primary goal of the front office heading in to 2026.
Congrats to Ke’Bryan!

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</content>
</entry>
<entry>
<author>
<name>Wick Terrell</name>
</author>
<title type="html"><![CDATA[Hot Stove Links – Top trade targets & free agents]]></title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://www.redreporter.com/cincinnati-reds-rumors/49037/mlb-hot-stove-links-trade-targets-free-agents" />
<id>https://www.redreporter.com/?p=49037</id>
<updated>2025-11-03T11:08:42-05:00</updated>
<published>2025-11-03T11:08:42-05:00</published>
<category scheme="https://www.redreporter.com" term="Cincinnati Reds Rumors" />
<summary type="html"><![CDATA[The season is over, the tee-times are booked, and the players who are the fuel and backbone of Major League Baseball are beginning their rest after the grueling eight-ish months of the daily grind. It also flirted with 32 degrees where I am this morning, and the hot stove season has officially begun. The Cincinnati […]]]></summary>
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The season is over, the tee-times are booked, and the players who are the fuel and backbone of Major League Baseball are beginning their rest after the grueling eight-ish months of the daily grind.
It also flirted with 32 degrees where I am this morning, and the hot stove season has officially begun.
The Cincinnati Reds enter this winter with a number of needs despite having seen their once young roster mature into a club capable of actually sneaking into the playoffs. But to actually advance in the playoffs, they’re going to need more than what they had, and free agency has already claimed a good portion of the roster that got them there in the first place.
Gone are Nick Martinez and Emilio Pagan, to begin, as well as deadline additions Miguel Andujar and Zack Littell. Santiago Espinal and Ian Gibaut were effectively cut. When the option decisions come down this week, they’ll also lose Austin Hays, with both Scott Barlow and Brent Suter potentially out the door, too.
That’s a huge portion of their bullpen from the 2025 season that needs replacing, while losing Hays and Andujar from an already frail offense puts another huge dent in the roster. How the Reds address that remains to be seen, of course, though the idea that it’ll be done frugally is more or less gospel around here. With that in mind, here are some early looks at who might be out there on the market for them to acquire this offseason, as well as a list of names before those names that will undoubtedly cost more than they’re willing to spend.
Over at The Athletic, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6754665/2025/11/03/mlb-free-agent-ranking-2025-2026-kyle-tucker/">Keith Law has put together his list of the Top 50 free agents for this offseason</a>. Names that would fit the Reds roster perfectly like Kyle Tucker, Bo Bichette, Cody Bellinger, Alex Bregman, Pete Alonso, and Kyle Schwarber all rank near the top here, showing just how much depth there is at the top of this particular class of free agent hitters. Of course, none of those guys will come cheap, and that’s precisely how you have to become a Cincinnati Red with this ownership group, so you might need to scroll on down to the Ryan O’Hearns of the list before getting realistic, and likely all the way to Paul Goldschmidt and Andujar before even beginning to get your sugars up.
The fine folks at MLB Trade Rumors released their list of <a href="https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2025/11/mlb-rumors-top-trade-candidates-offseason.html">the Top 40 trade candidates for this 2025-2026 offseason</a>, and interestingly enough that’s a list where pitchers dominate the top in an almost perfectly inverse way from how hitters dominated the aforementioned free agent list. Dualism, yin and yang, wonderful complements! It’s a list featuring a lot of players from teams entering rebuilds (read: the St. Louis Cardinals and Minnesota Twins) and those who don’t like paying players they won’t sign long-term (read: the Rays and Guardians), as well as one Brady Singer (at #17) due to his dwindling team control and Reds depth at starting pitcher. It’s an interesting list filled with names who’d make the Reds better, though there are a lot of high-priced former stars on there who could be landmines, too.
Finally, <a href="https://www.mlb.com/news/ranking-the-free-agents-for-2025-26-offseason">the folks over at MLB.com dropped their list of the Top 30 free agents this winter</a>, a list that all but says the Reds should really sign Kyle Schwarber in a true and just world, but there’s likely no way in hell that’s actually going to play out. Or, it says something like that. <a href="https://www.mlb.com/news/mlb-free-agents-2025-2026">They also put together a comprehensive list of all free agents this winter</a> that includes positional breakdown and total fWAR accumulated dating back to the start of the 2024 season.
Now’s the time of the offseason to get your hopes up, Reds fans, even if you know deep down (or pretty shallow down at this point) that it’s likely going to end up being a winter of we just need to get some guys back healthy and for them to take another step forward.
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</content>
</entry>
<entry>
<author>
<name>Wick Terrell</name>
</author>
<title type="html"><![CDATA[Key administrative dates for the MLB offseason]]></title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://www.redreporter.com/cincinnati-reds-rumors/49035/key-mlb-offseason-dates-deadlines" />
<id>https://www.redreporter.com/?p=49035</id>
<updated>2025-11-02T11:10:33-05:00</updated>
<published>2025-11-02T11:10:33-05:00</published>
<category scheme="https://www.redreporter.com" term="Cincinnati Reds Rumors" />
<summary type="html"><![CDATA[It is a perfectly fine and normal reaction this morning to have woken up and proclaimed that the Toronto Blue Jays won the World Series last night. In a perfect world, they’d have. In the real world, the pretty much kind of did, for a bit, and that’s enough for most of us. That the […]]]></summary>
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It is a perfectly fine and normal reaction this morning to have woken up and proclaimed that the Toronto Blue Jays won the World Series last night. In a perfect world, they’d have. In the real world, the pretty much kind of did, for a bit, and that’s enough for most of us.
That the Los Angeles Dodgers completely a completely bonkers comeback on the field in their opponents’ stadium is the reality, but that’s a mere detail to that Evil Empire at this juncture of their dominance. That they were so close to the brink by this Jays club is the real story, and likely will be for many in the game as we drift further and further from the actual details.
It’s akin to the same way so many remember the ‘97 Marlins and ‘01 Diamondbacks instead of a decades-long Yankees dynasty that won however goddamn many titles they won in that span. Baseball fans across the world, perhaps especially in markets that so rarely make it to the big stage, naturally gravitate to those special, similar teams who actually do.
Anyway, the 2025 MLB season is in the books. Players whose contracts reached their conclusion at the end of the 2025 MLB season officially become free agents today, and five days from today they’ll be able to sign with any team in the game (should they so choose). That means the likes of Emilio Pagan, Nick Martinez, Miguel Andujar, and Zack Littell could only negotiate with the Cincinnati Reds for five days (should they so choose), after which they can sign elsewhere – but as of today, they’re all free agents.
Qualifying Offer (QO) decisions must also be made within five days from today, though there is zero expectation of that being a drama-inducer for the Reds again this year. They can’t give a QO to Martinez again after they did so last year, and nobody else who’s a free agent warrants that kind of one-year, $22.025 million dice roll.
Trades, though, can officially begin happening again today (if any front office exec is up to it and not laying on a beach somewhere for a few days). It feels as if Nick Krall’s entire personality is I got sunburned once when I was seven, so it’s doubtful that he’s out there on la playa. Maybe he’s already hard at work!
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Option decisions from both the player side, the team side, and those rarely-activated mutual options must be decided upon within five days from today, too. Players on the Reds that fall into that category include Scott Barlow, Brent Suter, and Austin Hays, with varying expectations on the reality that they get picked up and return.
November 21st marks the deadline to tender contracts to players who are under team control and within the arbitration and pre-arbitration windows. The non-tender deadline, it’s when the Reds will face tough decisions on keeping guys around who are now earning raises due to service time but may not be producing better than players they can find for cheaper. Sam Moll and Connor Joe might see their time up at that point, while the likes of Ian Gibaut and Santiago Espinal likely would have <a href="https://www.redreporter.com/cincinnati-reds-rumors/49030/ian-gibaut-santiago-espinal-elect-free-agency">had the Reds not gone ahead and lopped them off the roster</a> within the last week.
December 10th will see the Rule 5 Draft, where clubs can effectively pluck prospects who haven’t been promoted fast enough out of other organizations under the right set of parameters. Each club gets the chance to ‘protect’ players who’ve spent enough time in their own systems by placing them onto the 40-man roster, but obviously those roster spots are pretty precious and limited. So, you’ll see a lot of transactions in the run-up to that draft as teams try to position themselves for the long-term the best they can.
For those players who get tendered a contract in November and are arb-eligibles, they’ll have to sort out a precise figure with the team by mid-January lest an independent arbitrator get involved and settle it for both parties in truly awkward fashion.
How the Cincinnati Reds manage to navigate a lot of this administrative stuff will ultimately determine how much risk they’ll take in the more liquid markets of player acquisition, since finding out a) exactly who’s still around and b) how much those guys will precisely cost is of the utmost priority for this penny-pinching franchise. If they can get through the options/roster-adds/arbitration section of their offseason without any big surprises, we’ll find out just how many low-level guys they’ll be willing to spend on in late January and February this time around, players in the typical mold of Hays, Wil Myers, Tommy Pham, Barlow, Buck Farmer, and Hunter Strickland. You know the deal.
Those are the key dates to look forward to now that the Toronto Blue Jays have more or less basically won themselves a World Series. Congratulations to them, and I suppose to the Dodgers for playing a great heel.

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</content>
</entry>
<entry>
<author>
<name>Wick Terrell</name>
</author>
<title type="html"><![CDATA[Ian Gibaut, Santiago Espinal elect free agency]]></title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://www.redreporter.com/cincinnati-reds-rumors/49030/ian-gibaut-santiago-espinal-elect-free-agency" />
<id>https://www.redreporter.com/?p=49030</id>
<updated>2025-11-01T15:08:54-04:00</updated>
<published>2025-11-01T15:08:54-04:00</published>
<category scheme="https://www.redreporter.com" term="Cincinnati Reds Rumors" />
<summary type="html"><![CDATA[The Cincinnati Reds made make or break roster decisions with a pair of veterans over the past week, choosing to outright both right-hander Ian Gibaut and infielder/outfielder Santiago Espinal off the 40-man roster and assign them to AAA Louisville. Both Gibaut and Espinal, though, have enough service time as veterans to control their own destinies […]]]></summary>
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The Cincinnati Reds made make or break roster decisions with a pair of veterans over the past week, choosing to outright both right-hander Ian Gibaut and infielder/outfielder Santiago Espinal off the 40-man roster and assign them to AAA Louisville.
Both Gibaut and Espinal, though, have enough service time as veterans to control their own destinies in these situations. Rather than accept those assignments, both elected to become free agents in search of big league opportunities.
The Enquirer’s Gordon Wittenmyer had <a href="https://x.com/GDubMLB/status/1984635687434375440">the details</a> this morning on Espinal, while Gibaut’s decision was noted in the MLB.com transaction log on Friday.
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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-dnt="true">A day after the Reds announced they outrighted Santiago Espinal to AAA Louisville, he exercised his right to become a free agent.— Gordon Wittenmyer (@GDubMLB) <a href="https://twitter.com/GDubMLB/status/1984635687434375440?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 1, 2025</a></blockquote>
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It’s a common occurance this time of year as teams look to free up spots at the end of their roster for administrative purposes. Players on the 60-day IL who still have team control have to be returned to the 40-man after the World Series, for instance, and the Reds now have just 37 men on the 40-man to help accommodate those returns (of Rhett Lowder, Brandon Williamson, and Julian Aguiar, in particular).
It’s also a common occurance for veterans in similar situations as Espinal and Gibaut. Both are arbitration-eligible players again this winter, though both are coming off the kinds of 2025 seasons that wouldn’t really inspire a team to give them a raise on salaries already above league-minimum. In other words, both guys were firmly in the non-tender crosshairs, but the non-tender deadline is another three weeks away – waiting for those three weeks before cutting them loose wouldn’t free up the roster spots they’ll need before then.
So, the Reds went ahead and made it happen.
Of course, both players likely cleared waivers for similar reasons in that no team is going to claim them right now given their expected salary raises. Teams often try to pass guys like this through waivers at precisely this time because they know those 40-man spots are precious right now, though that occasionally means a guy who’s more fringe than teams realize will become available on waivers. Now, the Reds have a little bit more wiggle room to pounce on such a player should the chance arise.
As for Gibaut and Espinal, both have shown they’re capable big leaguers in smaller roles over the last few seasons, and their own expectation is that they’ll be able to land a big league deal to do so elsewhere, even if it’s now at a rate that’s below what their arbitration estimates were had the Reds kept them around through that process. 
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</content>
</entry>
<entry>
<author>
<name>Wick Terrell</name>
</author>
<title type="html"><![CDATA[Cincinnati Reds outright Santiago Espinal to AAA Louisville]]></title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://www.redreporter.com/latest-news/49026/santiago-espinal-cincinnati-reds-roster-rumors" />
<id>https://www.redreporter.com/?p=49026</id>
<updated>2025-10-31T15:05:57-04:00</updated>
<published>2025-10-31T15:05:57-04:00</published>
<category scheme="https://www.redreporter.com" term="Latest News" />
<summary type="html"><![CDATA[Over the final 54 games in which he played during the 2024 season, Santiago Espinal hit .311/.361/.446 with 55 hits for the Cincinnati Reds. The utility infielder, never a huge source of offense, chipped in enough to be counted on in 2025 as a pretty valuable depth piece on the roster. At least, that was […]]]></summary>
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Over the final 54 games in which he played during the 2024 season, Santiago Espinal hit .311/.361/.446 with 55 hits for the Cincinnati Reds. The utility infielder, never a huge source of offense, chipped in enough to be counted on in 2025 as a pretty valuable depth piece on the roster.
At least, that was the hope. The reality was that he was more or less an abject disaster with the bat (.243/.292/.282 in 328 PA) and even his defense began to slip. After the Reds made the move at the trade deadline to acquire 3B Ke’Bryan Hayes from Pittsburgh to up the defensive acumen on the dirt, Espinal got just 32 PA before season’s end, starting only 8 times (none of which came in September).
Espinal was set to be arbitration eligible for the third and final time this winter, with estimates suggesting he’d take home a $2.9 million salary for 2026. I say ‘was’ here, however, because the Reds chose to outright Espinal off the roster and down to AAA Louisville on Friday afternoon, removing him from the 40-man roster altogether.
As MLB.com’s Mark Sheldon noted on Bluesky, <a href="https://bsky.app/profile/msheldon.bsky.social/post/3m4j4meao3s22">Espinal has enough service time to reject the AAA assignment</a> and become a free agent should he so choose, though either way he’s now off the roster.
<figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-bluesky-social wp-block-embed-bluesky-social"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
<blockquote class="bluesky-embed" data-bluesky-uri="at://did:plc:nkqngm63qlyl5veb5scb2wjw/app.bsky.feed.post/3m4j4meao3s22" data-bluesky-cid="bafyreiaxve5ikrov5qh2zxv6cceespmaf6esvuhm4es7rsnnvlgrtauwei">IF/OF Santiago Espinal was sent outright to Louisville. He can reject the assignment and become a free agent. Either way, he is now off the Reds 40 man roster.— <a href="https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:nkqngm63qlyl5veb5scb2wjw?ref_src=embed">Mark Sheldon (@msheldon.bsky.social)</a> <a href="https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:nkqngm63qlyl5veb5scb2wjw/post/3m4j4meao3s22?ref_src=embed">2025-10-31T18:36:25.939Z</a></blockquote>
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The 2025 MLB season could well end tonight if the Toronto Blue Jays dispatch the Los Angeles Dodgers in Game 6 of the World Series, and that would start the administrative clock on all offseason transactions. That includes returning guys on the 60-day IL to the 40-man roster, and the Reds have the likes of Rhett Lowder, Brandon Williamson, Julian Aguiar, Carson Spiers, and Tyler Callihan in need of spots. With Espinal a pretty clear non-tender candidate anyway, the Reds seem to be getting a jump on cleaning out their roster before those moves become mandatory.
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</content>
</entry>
<entry>
<author>
<name>Wick Terrell</name>
</author>
<title type="html"><![CDATA[Matt McLain likely to qualify for Super Two status, raise]]></title>
<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://www.redreporter.com/cincinnati-reds-rumors/49022/matt-mclain-super-two-arbitration-salary" />
<id>https://www.redreporter.com/?p=49022</id>
<updated>2025-10-31T12:49:18-04:00</updated>
<published>2025-10-31T12:49:18-04:00</published>
<category scheme="https://www.redreporter.com" term="Cincinnati Reds Rumors" />
<summary type="html"><![CDATA[The salary structure and team control matrix for Major League clubs is complicated and convoluted, but there are at least a couple of tenets to it that generally hold. Clubs get six years of team control over players, and the players typically operate at or around league-minimum salaries for the first three of those years […]]]></summary>
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The salary structure and team control matrix for Major League clubs is complicated and convoluted, but there are at least a couple of tenets to it that generally hold.
Clubs get six years of team control over players, and the players typically operate at or around league-minimum salaries for the first three of those years – after which time they go through the arbitration process and begin to get raises based upon their performance. The better you’ve been (in at least the right specific categories of production), the more money you make each trip through arbitration, and previous year salaries serve as a benchmark on which you get your raise.
Guys like Spencer Steer and TJ Friedl are hitting that threshold for the first time this winter, and will begin to make significantly more money going forward.
Those years, though, are full years, and partial years don’t quite get you there. This comes into play when you see teams waiting conspicuously long to call up top prospects at the start of seasons, often waiting until May or June to promote them in pretty clear efforts to manipulate their service time – the years of team control – to effectively get 3/4ths of a seventh year of control over them.
As a way to combat that, the top 22% of players with more than two years of service time (and less than three years) become eligible for Super Two status, effectively giving them a fourth year of arbitration eligibility (and kick-starting their increased earnings a year early). As the fine folks at MLB Trade Rumors explained yesterday, <a href="https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2025/10/super-two-cutoff-expected-to-be-around-2-140-years-of-service.html?utm_source=twitter">that typically involves a service time threshold of two years and 120 to 140 days</a>, with all players who’ve logged at least that much qualifying.
This year, the cutoff is expected to be two years and either 139 or 140 days, and Cincinnati’s Matt McLain has exactly two years and 140 days of service time under his belt. So, rather than play the 2026 season on a roughly league-minimum salary of $780,000, he’s estimated to command a $2.6 million salary through the arbitration process for which he’s about to officially qualify.
Brandon Williamson similarly sits with two years and 139 days of service time, so there’s a chance he qualifies as a Super Two, too. He won’t command quite the same salary increase as McLain, but it would still be at least a few hundred thousand above actual league-minimum.
(If you’re at home doing the math, yes, players earn service time even when they’re on the 60-day injured list rehabbing. So while it still seems like we’ve barely seen any of McLain and Williamson, they picked up service time while on the big league roster even while sidelined with their respective ailments over the last two seasons.)
Each of Andrew Abbott and Elly De La Cruz have more than two years of service time (and less than three), but both will fall short of Super Two status by several weeks, meaning they’ll once again play on a salary at or around league-minimum for the 2026 season (assuming the Reds don’t hammer out longer-term contracts independent of mere team control between now and then).
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