By Oliver Thomas, Staff Writer

After a promising 2025 season that included their first playoff berth since the 2020 season, the Cincinnati Reds look to take another step forward in 2026. Finishing last year with a record of 83-79 and securing the final Wild Card spot, the Reds showed that they have a crop of young talent that the front office can build around.  

The biggest move of the offseason came in signing power bat Eugenio Suarez on a one-year, $15 million deal. Suárez, who was with the Reds from 2015 to 2021, finished last season with 49 home runs, tying his career high. Suárez will bring some much-needed power to an offense that finished last season in the bottom 10 in home runs. 

Outside of bringing Suárez back, it was a relatively quiet offseason for Cincinnati. There were a couple of low-risk moves in trading for an above-average defender in outfielder Dane Myers, as well as signing Michael Toglia, who struggled in his last season in Colorado but has shown potential to have some power in his swing. The Reds also lost a couple of players from last year’s lineup, as second baseman Gavin Lux was traded away, while Austin Heyse left via free agency. 

The lineup will be led by their young star shortstop, Elly De La Cruz, who the Reds hope to bounce back offensively after a down 2025 season for his standards. Cincinnati will also be looking to one of their top prospects, Sal Stewart, to play a key role offensively as he looks to build off his short but strong 2025 rookie campaign.

The Reds’ pitching staff will see a handful of new faces as well. To start, the front office let starting pitchers Nick Martinez and Zach Littell walk in free agency, while also not re-signing Scott Barlow and Brett Suter, who both finished in the top four in innings pitched in the Reds bullpen last season. 

Even with the departure of back-end starters Martinez and Littell, the Reds’ starting pitching staff remains one of the best young units in baseball. The staff will be led by Andrew Abbott, who posted a 2.87 earned running average (ERA) last season while finishing 8th in Cy Young voting. The Reds have another ace in Hunter Greene, who is one of the best pitchers in baseball when healthy, posting a sub-three ERA in his last two seasons. If Greene can remain healthy in 2026 and Abbott remains at the level he was last year, the Reds front-end of their rotation will be one of the best in all of baseball. With Nick Lodolo and Brady Singer making up the back-end of the rotation and one of Brandon Williamson, Rhett Lowder or Chase Burns being the fifth starter, the Reds starting rotation looks to be in a strong position.

The Reds made a notable re-signing in their bullpen, bringing back closer Emillio Pagan to a two-year, $20 million deal. Pagan is coming off his best statistical season in over six years, finishing the season with a 2.88 ERA and 32 saves, the second most saves in the National League.

With their closer locked up for the next two seasons, the front office continued to add to the bullpen, trading for Brocke Burke, while signing proven arms in Pierce Johnson and Caleb Fergusson. Johnson is coming off a career-best season, finishing the year with a 3.05 ERA, while the two lefties Burke and Fergusson will add more depth to a bullpen that struggled at times last season.

Though this off-season didn’t feature the blockbuster signing that fans may have wanted, the front office was still able to bolster multiple weak points from last year’s team. Led by what could be one of baseball’s best starting pitching staffs and a lineup that looks to have improved on paper, there is a clear path for the Reds to be competitive in the National League, in hopes of seeing their first back-to-back playoff appearances since 2013.