PLANS: Cincinnati Reds Face MAJOR Dilemma Adding Power Bat AND Bullpen Arms on SHOESTRING Budget

PLANS: Cincinnati Reds Face MAJOR Dilemma Adding Power Bat AND Bullpen Arms on SHOESTRING Budget

The Reds have $20 million to spend this off season and we have the perfect way for them to spend it. And it all starts with a power bat to put in the middle of that Red’s lineup. [Music] You are Locked on Reds. Your daily Cincinnati Reds podcast. Part of the Locked On podcast network. Your team every day. Welcome in to the Locked On Reds podcast. Locked on Reds is part of the Locked On podcast network, which is now the number one sports podcasting network in all the land. Thank you all so much for doing your part to help make that happen. His name’s Jeff Carr. My name is Stephen Offenbaker. We are lifelong Reds fans. We’re lifelong baseball fans. We love talking about the Cincinnati Reds. We love talking about baseball. We’ve been doing it for a combined 14 seasons now. And we appreciate you being here with us today. On today’s show, the Cincinnati Reds have made their decisions on who they are going to protect from the rule five draft. They added some prospects to the 40man roster. We’re going to tell you who they added and of those guys, who could possibly make an impact on the big league club in the 2026 baseball season. We’ve got that coming up for you here in just a little bit. We’re also going to go bargain bin shopping, so to speak. We’re going to go on the hunt for some deals that we think Nick Crawl can chase for the Reds bullpen. We’ve got that coming up for you in just a few minutes. But where we are going to start is the Cincinnati Red’s lineup has had a disturbing lack of power for a long time now, for many, many seasons. They’ve had a disturbing lack of a true power hitter in this lineup for a lot of seasons now. And they have ignored the outfield for a lot of seasons now. We’re going to take a economical approach to how the Reds could fix that problem on today’s show, which is brought to you by FanDuel. New customers can get $300 in bonus bets back with just a winning $5 bet on your first bet. Just go download the FanDuel app today to get started. All right, Jeff, let’s get started with some some bargain shopping. some some powerhitting bargain shopping because you have an article out over on SI that did a blind comparison player A to player B and it was not very hard for me to figure out immediately that player A was Kyle Schwarber and his 56 home runs but uh your player B was interesting because it really feels like one of those players the Reds like to go get. It’s one of those guys that was good, had a problem, didn’t quite bounce back, needs to prove it, and you get to go make a pitch of wouldn’t you like to prove it at Great American Ballpark. Exactly. A guy who’s looking for a prove it deal is probably one of Nick Crawl’s most favorite free agents to go sign. And you know, we’re talking about Reese Hoskins, guy coming over from Milwaukee, or he’s a free agent, having played two seasons in Milwaukee after dealing with a torn ACL in 2023 that ended his tenure with the Phillies. He played his first six seasons in Philadelphia. And he was very good for the Philadelphia Phillies. And that’s something that I think the Reds can draw on a little bit here because let’s be honest, what’s most likely to happen with the Cincinnati Reds ball club, even before you’ve seen the reported totals of around 20 million, some people say 20 to 25, some people go much more conservatively and say 15 to 20. So, we’re going to just look right there in the middle at $20 million. And that’s where we will say this budget comes from. And we’re going to start with Rhys Hoskins as the signing that the Reds make to put in the middle of their order. He can play first base, played most of his games at first base last year. He played some at DH, but mostly there in first base. And it was interesting because he didn’t have the best of seasons and yet he still had a 108 OPS plus. That still would have put him number two on the team for the Reds last season. And albeit he was replaced by Andrew Vaughn in Milwaukee. There’s been a bit of struggles that he has dealt with. We’ve talked about guys like Matt Mlan, guys like Spencer Seir, and how it’s taken them time to get back from pretty substantial injuries. Albeit, this was not a shoulder injury for Reese Hoskins. This was a leg injury, but he had to have surgery on it. And it was a substantial injury that cost him his 2023 season. And he’s never quite gotten back from that. And there’s a, like you said, no better place to get right with the bat than Great American Ballpark. I think it’s far more likely, Steve, that the Reds go get Reese Hoskins. And quite frankly, I would be okay with this. I wouldn’t be over the moon, like if they went and signed Kyle Schwarber, but I would be okay with this and I’d be excited about how the middle of the lineup looked because this guy is lineup protection for LA Cruz. You know, we’re we’re looking at a guy that’s probably going to sign a one-year deal. It’s going to be a one-year economical deal. The Reds love that. Um, and we’re going to get into a little bit later that all of baseball seems to love that right now. Uh, the one-year deal is very prevalent right now, and we have some theories that we’ll talk about uh here in a little bit. But you look at Hoskins and I can I can kind of predict some of the comment section right now in that you said number four hitter, middle of the lineup guy. This guy hit 12 home runs last year. This is true. He had a little bit of a power outage. He’s coming off of not his best year power-wise, but in five of his eight big league seasons, he’s hit 20 or more home runs. I think that’s who he is. And you put him in Great American Ballpark for 81 games, and he’s going to hit you 20 to 25 home runs at a minimum. Maybe he goes off and does better than that. But I I think 20 to 25 home runs from him at GABP. That is not unrealistic at all. Uh I you know, the year before for Milwaukee, he hit 26 home runs. So, he’s got the power in there. I think he just had an off year. Um, I’m okay with this, Jeff. Uh, the more I try and wrap my head around the $20 million. If they can get away with spending seven to eight million on a guy that could give you 20 or 25 home runs, I’m all for that because then they can take the rest of that money and address this bullpen. And you’ve done some things to get better. No, it’s not Kyle Schwarber. No, none of these guys are going to that we’re going to talk about today are going to be hold up the jersey press conference signings. That’s not going to be these guys. But you can get three or four guys for the same money you would spend on Kyle Schwarber and address a lot of needs that this team has. Now, there’s things that could happen that could we’ll we would have to revisit this. The we’ve been talking about that Hunter Green trade for a while now. If that happens, that frees up more money. if they, you know, make a package deal, if they move some guys. We’ve talked about Tyler Stevenson. If that money comes off the books, that’s more money to go address a need. So, things could happen between now and the end of the offseason where we have to revisit some of this. But, I think this is pro the conversation we’re having today, Jeff, is probably pretty close to the conversations they’re having at Nick Carl’s office down at GABP getting ready to make their offers to free agents, getting ready for the winter meetings. And and if you’re looking at comparing two different things, like if you look at Reese Hoskins compared to what you could get in a trade for Hunter Green, it is clear you could get a lot more in a trade for Hunter Green than you could out of Reese Hoskins. So this is assuming that they use the $20 million on a free agent budget and they don’t make that big trade. That big trade, like you said, could cover all of this. And that’s probably why we saw an article from Charlie Goldmith where he said that the biggest need for the Reds in free agency this year is bullpen because it’s likely they address the lineup through trade. I mean, maybe that is something that they could look at there. But I I I cannot imagine them going through an entire off seasonason without addressing the lineup or at least making some effort to do that. And I think that Reese Hoskins is that guy. Reese Hoskins, albeit with the down numbers, still had nice peripherals. He was above average when it came to hard hit percentage, when it came to exit velocity, when it came to barrels. His swing was slightly slower than league average, but at the same time, it’s not that bad everywhere else when you look at the swing path and when you look at his contact that he made, especially squaring up the ball and things like that. So, the peripherals still say that he wasn’t like overly horrible and he was just getting lucky. and even the numbers that we saw that weren’t that good were still lucky for him. I still think he has something to give and I think that he could give that on a one-year deal. And that’s why he should be a guy that the Reds are considering this off season. And I know that there was reports that Nick Craw met with a whole bunch of different folks. So, I’m hopeful that, you know, he’s one of them. You know, and I would say this also, Jeff, even if I knew, if I knew right now that there’s a deal agreed upon to trade Hunter Green for a big left fielding powerhitting bat, the guy that we’ve been waiting for, right? Even if I knew that was happening, I would still consider this type of deal for this type of player a Reese Hoskins type deal type of player because if they if we learned anything over the last several years is you need spare parts around here in the city of Cincinnati. They they need to be able to to move people around and do some things and compensate for injuries. They have not been good offensively position player-wise in the depth department recently. This could help that because if you brought in a Rehys Hoskins, he could play some first base. He can play some left field and you go get your big move with Hunter Green that’s a a bopper outfielder. That guy can move around between the corners a little bit too. and you’ve got the depth there now in an outfield that is sorely sorely sorely lacked depth for a long long time and you’re adding then that bopper as your new number four hitter and then coming up right behind him Hoskins who’s a guy that can give you 2025 home runs. So I would I would do both things. I’m not saying this is a one or other proposition. Even if I knew I was addressing that outfield need with a 100 green trade. I would still look for players like this that you could bring in on a prove it deal, get for the cheap and have some depth around here for a change. Yeah, I think that this is the move to at least start to address this lineup and some other moves could supplement it and make this even better. But Reese Hoskins is absolutely worth a look. But, you know, the Reds need to retool their bullpen, too. And with there, you know, being a couple of options that they could fit into this $20 million budget, we’ll dive into who those are coming up next. Look, the defense for the Bengals is just a train wreck. And quite frankly, they’re they’re getting seven points at home against the Patriots this coming week. I’m not touching the point spread. I’m just I’m just not. But you can on over at FanDuel. And if you touch the money line, that’s probably what I would look at with this brand new offer for new users. You could place a $5 wager. If it wins, you’ll get $300 in bonus bets. Looking at the money line for different things. And honestly, I don’t bet against the Bengals, but I probably would advise against betting against the Bengals right now if if if you’re looking at something like that because man, that defense, they can’t stop anything. It’s it’s getting bad there. And the Bengals could be an interesting fade over on FanDuel on a weekly basis. So, make sure you go check them out. Like I said, new users place a $5 wager and if it wins, you get $300 in bonus bets. Download FanDuel today. Thank you. Making Lockdown Reds part of your everyday routine. And if you don’t make it part of your everyday routine, make sure you hit the subscribe button right here on YouTube and on your favorite podcast app. I we appreciate you if you’re in every day or you make us your first listen. Our first listeners each and every day are awesome and you’ve helped make Locked On the number one sports podcast network in the country. So, thank you very much for that as well. All right, Steve. So, part of this is, you know, looking at the $20 million proposed budget that some people are reporting that the Reds have to work with and saying, how can they address the most needs? Reese Hoskins sets them up that they address the lineup a little bit. Now they have to address the bullpen. And you don’t just need one guy. As as much as it would be nice to go out and spend 10 million, 11 million, 12 million on one guy and maybe call him the closer next year, you need multiple pitchers. And it actually for me starts with a lefty. And there’s a guy right now that they could look at who at least according to spot track could be on a value. And that is Jaylen Beaks. You can go get yourself a lefty. He pitched for Arizona last year. He’s younger than Brent Sudter was. He’s not young. He’s like going to be 33 years old. And in terms of baseball years, that’s not super old, but at the same time, we’re talking about a guy who can give you some production from the left side there on the mound. And he won’t be that expensive. Now, last year, uh, for the Arizona Diamondbacks, Jeff, he almost got to one war. He was almost a one in war, 0.9. uh pitched in 61 ball games for the Arizona Diamondbacks, 57 and a third innings. You you look at his numbers, I’m not crazy about his walk rate. You know, he had a walk rate of 3.1 per nine. I’d like to see a little bit better there, but he’s kind of been that guy. If you look at his last four seasons, all above three in walk rate. So, that’s who he is a little bit. But also, he kept his RA sub four. He pitched a lot of games for the Diamondbacks. still managed to strike out nearly eight guys per nine innings. So, this is an affordable costsaver coupon of a lefty signing. And that’s important because what we’re talking about here is allocation of resources, right? Fun fun stuff to talk about in the offseason. Everybody loves to talk about the allocation of the resources. But is it better for the Cincinnati Reds who have told you they’re spending $20 million, who have demonstrated over the last several years that they’re going to set a budget, they’re going to stick to it. That’s the amount of money that there is. Now, Nick Crawl, go work some magic. They’ve showed us who they are. So, with that $20 million, is it better to take the $20 million and sign one really good guy and not address any of the other needs on this team, or is it better to find some bargains and get some good players, but get several good players and address some needs? Well, clearly, it’s better to spread that around a little bit. But to make it effective, you got to find that one deal. That deal that, you know, doesn’t necessarily scream at you, great player. Doesn’t necessarily scream at you, oh, I’m glad we got that guy. But you went and you got a guy that’s effective, that can get the job done, that has a proven track record, but that you can get on the cheap. We’re talking about $2 million here, which saves you five or six that you can now slide on over and get that other bullpin arm that automatically drops into the A group. And that’s the important part of this. And that’s the other thing. We kind of forgot to mention that with Reese Hoskins, is that Spotre has him valued around $7 million per year. I’d say he probably gets a little bit more than that, but not much more. So, we’re probably talking somewhere between like seven and 10. Let’s say for the case of this exercise, he gets eight. And let’s say that Jaylen Beaks gets two. So, now you got $10 million that you can play with. And there’s two options that you could go look at to at least give you confidence in the back end of your bullpen. And I would really look at firstly at Devin Williams. Now, there’s a really good chance that his demand pushes his price past that $10 million point. And so, if you can’t get Devin Williams, who we’ve talked about a little bit and how good he would be in this bullpen, I would go look at Kyle Finnegan. Kyle Finnegan is a guy who made his career in Washington, pitched at the end of last year with Detroit, but has overall 112 saves in his career. So much as we don’t love like going crazy about that stat. That just tells you he has plenty of experience closing out ball games. And so you’re not just saying that going into 2026 Tony Santon is our closer come hell or high water. You’ve got another option in Kyle Finnegan that maybe they duke it out. Maybe Kyle Finnean starts the year as the closer. Maybe Tony Santon takes it over. Whatever that looks like. I would feel much more comfortable about the bullpen. If you’re able to add a guy like Kyle Finnean as well as Jaylen Beaks and then let’s see what Luis May has. Let’s see what Zack Maxwell has. Let’s see what Conor Phillips has rather than just handing them the keys of the car and saying drive kid. Let’s keep it between the lines. I actually like the idea of going after Finnegan or a Finnegan type rather than chasing Devin Williams because Devin Williams is going to have 15 teams talking to him and and you’re right, that is going to drive up the price. So, while that is happening, the Reds should just uh go after another target and try and get it done. Um, you look at what Finnegan’s done in his body work. You’re right. 112 saves over six big league seasons. Now, he’s never been a high high strikeout guy. Um, he had a little blip there when he pitched for Detroit. Uh, not a lot of of sample size, 16 games. You know, he was striking out 11.5 per nine in those 16 games. But on the year last year, struck out 8.7 per nine. Walk rate under three, which I love. 2.8. He hasn’t always been that guy in his career. In fact, for his career, he’s averaged 3.5 walks per nine, but we did see that down in 2025. I love that. Uh this is the kind of guy, you’re absolutely right, that has pitched in a lot of high leverage situations, a lot of ninth innings, a lot of closing out ball games. You pair him up with Tony Santon, you’ve got a great one two punch now in this Red’s bullpin. And you might have a little cash left over to take a flyer on another guy. You know, we were talking about guys like uh Pierre Johnson from the Braves or Sodto from the Mets to to is what did I say? Pierre Pierce, right? It’s Yeah, Pierce Johnson. His last name is Johnson. It’s Johnson. I got that part right. I’m bad with the names. And Gregory Sodto is the other guy you’re talking Gregory Sodto from the Mets. Yeah, both of those guys are are you could go take a flyer on with a little bit of the leftover money and you’ve upgraded this bullpin even more. So, I think this is the approach, Jeff. Not it’s not sexy. It’s not, you know, it’s not going to set the Twitter a fire. We’re not going to see, you know, all of the social media posts of everybody losing their mind. But these type of moves will make this team better for 2026. And when you look when you look though at what’s going on in baseball right now, we saw four qualifying offers picked up. Yes. Yesterday. Yep. Yep. All one year, $22 million deals. And I think the reason that we’re seeing that, and we heard this from our our buddy Chuck up in Milwaukee, right, that, you know, guys aren’t getting multi-year offers right now. There’s a there’s there’s a notable lack of offers coming into the big free agents for multi-year deals. I’m telling you, tell me the owners are worried about the CBA without telling me the owners are worried about the CBA. Lots of one-year deals, I think, is what we’re going to see this year as baseball gets ready to to to chain the gates for 2027. I I think this is the year you can get guys on one-year deals because everybody has kind of a read on the lay of the land. And more to your point as well, like following following that up, like I feel like if you tell Nick Crawl, this is the move that you can make and you will get noticed and everybody will be talking about the move that you just made because it’s epic or here’s a bunch of solid moves and everybody’s going to be doing that, huh? Well, that’s that’s all right. That that’s a that’s a fine move. I think Nick Crawl goes for the fine move like nine times out of 10. And so I I would be I’d still go back to the fact that man, I’d love it, but I’d be shocked if Kyosber does end up signing here or or Kyle Tucker or Pete Alonzo or any of the guys that are on the top shelf of this free agent hot stove season. He’s going to be going for quantity over qual over quality and then hoping that some of the guys that are in house now really take a step forward next year. As much as we all love that word hope. Yeah. Well, you know, Nick Crawl has a chance. He can address multiple needs while accepting just a few flaws from these guys and do all of that on a shoestring budget, which is what he’s been given to work with. Yeah. All right, Jeeoff, let’s let’s move on from the uh the bargain bin shopping, the the goodwill free agency that uh Nick Craw has to put together and let’s talk about the 40man roster because the Reds protected some guys from the rule five draft and at least one of those guys could impact the big league club in 2026. We’re going to talk about those guys coming up next. If you can’t watch us on YouTube, guess what? We’re available on every single podcasting app that’s out there. I think if you find one we’re not on and you need us to be there, just message Jeff. He can probably make that happen for you. Uh take us to the gym, take us in the car, take us for a walk. We’ll go anywhere you want to go and talk Red’s base with Reds baseball with you along the way. All right, Jeff. Uh 40man roster has some new additions. Uh the Reds protected a few guys from the rule five draft and in one case it’s a guy that we expect could have a shot at some big league playing time in 2026. Yeah, I think we are both of the assumption that the four guys that were added, Hector Rodriguez has the best chance to make an impact on the major league roster next year. And that’s not to say that Edwin Royo, Leo Balazar, and Jose Franco just don’t have any chance to uh surprise us there, but it’s less expected. So, what happened was the four guys that the Reds added, right-handed pitcher Jose Franco, short Zap Edoyo, outfielder Hector Rodriguez, and infielder Leo Balazar are now all on the 40man roster. There was one move in order to open up space for Balazar and that was the Reds designating uh Carson Spires for assignment. Carson Spires had Tommy John surgery in June or I’m sorry July which I honestly forgot until I saw that the Reds DF8 him and I was like wait what? And then I looked I’m like oh yeah well duh. If he’s not healthy then what’s the point? So he is no longer on the 40man roster and Leo Balazar is. Leo Bakazar has had a very nice fall in the Arizona Fall League. I don’t necessarily think that puts him on the short list to get caught up, but he’s only 21. He’s still developing there. Edwin Aoyo as well needs to show some things and he needs to hit in Triple A, I think, before the Reds really get excited about his callup, but we’ll see that. And then Jos Franco did pitch a little bit in AAA last season. He had 51 and a third innings in Louisville. He had a strikeout per nine, a 9.1. He did have a walk per nine of 4.9. So, we’d like to see that come down. Uh, but ultimately, he could be a guy, at least on the radar. We know it takes a village when it comes to pitching through the 162. And so, he could be one of those guys on the on the long list of possible arms to throw on the mount at Great American Ballpark. But I would expect that Hector Rodriguez would have the biggest opportunity of the four to make the biggest impact. Yeah, there was no real surprises here. In fact, when we talked about this the other day, um this is pretty much what we said was going to happen. You know, you to your credit identified Balazar as a guy that could get rule five protection, could get added to the 40man and turns out sure enough that the Reds have made that happen. Carson Spires, I feel bad for that guy. like every time he seems to get rolling, he has an injury and you know, he just he may have used up his time. Like I I don’t know. Um but it could be like a TJ Anton deal, right? Uh they designate him. He either accepts it or doesn’t, works out a new deal, sticks around while he rehabs, and then sees if he can still pitch. Uh his days may not be over. Uh but, you know, I get the I get the need to, you know, handle the paperwork in such a way that you can get the guys protected that you want to protect. Um, we haven’t spent any time talking about whether or not we think the Reds will add via the rule five draft. And I’m going to say that I don’t think they will. Um, given what they’ve done with the roster, I think that um I think they’re not going to add a guy. They’d have to create more space. So, I I see this as um saying we want to protect these guys. We’re not going to really go look for new any new blood in the 40 in the rule five draft and we’re going to reevaluate things once we get to spring training and can slide some guys back to the to the the injured list. The only possibility I would see is if they make a trade and they get a bunch of prospects or something like that like like maybe they trade Brady Singer and they just get prospects back. But I just don’t see that happening. I don’t think that Nick Crawl is making that kind of trade this off seasonason because it feels like you got to do one or the other. You got to, you know, make the major league team good for the playoffs or you need to build for the future. And just with the way that things are going right now, it kind of seems like it’d be difficult to do both at this point. And so for me, I think that there’s no I don’t think that there’s no chance, but I think it’s highly unlikely that they do. Think about this, too. When you make a rule five selection, we’ve said this before, but when you make a rule five selection, that player has to be on your 26-man major league roster all season long. And if at any point you go to send him down, then you must offer him back to the team you picked him from for $50,000. And so, I just don’t necessarily see that happening. Like there could be a guy that the Reds would pick that could be a bullpin option, but that would that would have to just take a trade where you’re you’re getting somebody off the 40man rush. I don’t see it happening, but you know, crazier things that happen. And all the while we continue to wait for the Reds to do something. I’m I’m starting to be the guy with the stick, Jeff. Like just just early. It’s so early. I know. I You know, I know the everydayers are with us on this. I This is the part of the season, the offseason I just I hate the most. Nothing’s going on. They’re gearing up for the winter meetings. Nobody’s really making moves. It’s It’s just a lot of trying to guess what they’re going to do next. And I’m ready to get to these winter meetings and see some things happen. Um and and be able to kind of at at least determine a direction. Yeah. And I think too the the other part of this that we’re talking about, you know, prospects who could make an impact or whether the Reds make a rule five move or not, I I’m not rooting for that to happen because it kind of feels like if any one of these four guys are called upon to make a big impact, that’s because the Reds didn’t make an impact move this off seasonason. And that’s really what we’re looking for, whatever that might be. If that’s a trade, if that’s adding a quantity of guys like Reese Hoskins and Kyle Finnean and and Jaylen Beaks or some other pairing of relievers to go along with a power bat, there’s some other guys too like we could conceivably see a move to bring in Miguel Andrew. He plays left field every day. You know, things like that there. There’s some things that the Reds can do that they don’t have to just completely ignore certain needs of the roster and they can still make this team better. So ultimately, I just I feel like if the Reds are calling upon any one of these four guys or making a rule five selection that they will keep on the roster all year long, then we’re not talking about the right things for this roster. Can you imagine Nick Crawl looking at a camera and going, you know, we didn’t feel like we needed to sign an outfielder. You know, we just added Hector Rodriguez to the 40man roster. We we’re done four players. Problem problem solved. I mean, that’s as good as a trade deadline acquisition, Steve. That’s as good as an offseason signing, Steve, is adding these guys. Let’s not God help us. Let’s that’s that’s the kind of stuff like Okay, you you mentioned this too. Let’s let’s address this before we end today. Like, four guys accept a qualifying offer. That’s never happened in an off season. um what they say like since the qualifying offer was created, 144 have been given out and only 14 have been accepted until this year where 13 were given out and four were accepted. Far higher percentage than we’ve ever seen. It does make me wonder a little bit, not just from players looking for multi-year deals, but just fans waiting for their team to make a move and do some things and all this other stuff. I don’t even necessarily think it’s a Cincinnati problem at this point. It kind of feels like it’s going to be a Major League Baseball problem where this offseason feels like it’s going to be quiet. There’s going to be points where things happen, but they’re going to be few and far between. Yeah. And I think that the guys that do get multi-year deals, it may run all the way into spring training before we see them. Um I don’t know that they’re going to happen quickly. Um but I was that offseason that Bryce Harper and Manny Machado didn’t sign until like January or February. I It could be like that. and and I even the non-qualifying offer, the free agent signings, I think we’ll see a lot of one-year deals or one year with a a secondyear option, mutual option, things like that. Um, I really truly believe that these owners are gearing up for a 2027 lockout and that they’re not trying to sign guys to giant deals that are going to still have to be paid um after the dust settles. So, I I think this is going to be a very very interesting offseason from a standpoint of people are going to be doing things that they don’t normally do. Yeah, it kind of feels like I don’t know. It just it it just feels like they are waiting for the confirmation on what the economics of baseball will look like after the CBA is over, which is frustrating because it it seems as though the window of playoff contention has opened for the Reds, but it seems as though it’s a leaguewide mandate to sit on your hands. And the Reds are obviously not going to buck trends here and start spending money now. they’re going to wait and and that’s going to be the frustrating part of of this uh winter. And that happy note is where we’re going to go ahead and wrap it up for today. Thanks as always for making locked on red your first listen each and every day. Thanks for being here. We appreciate you. Now go make your second listen to locked on MLB feed. Sully’s got you covered over there with all of the news from around the league each and every day. Give him a listen. You’ll be glad you did. Uh, we’ll be back in your feeds tomorrow with more of the news, the notes, the rumors, and the reports to keep you locked on Reds every single day. You sawing a lot of logs over there. I’m going to tell you what, like nothing like Nothing like recording a podcast with a chainsaw exactly right outside your desk. Are you Are you actually recording a podcast at like the Strongman competition? Do you remember those things that like they showed like the middle of the afternoon on ESPN where it was like some dude from Switzerland just cut down five trees in like 20 seconds? Yeah, it’s my turn next. I just figured I’d knock this out real quick. Good luck.

Cincinnati Reds face a pivotal offseason with just $20 million to spend—can budget signings spark a playoff push? Steve and Jeff break down affordable free agent options like Rhys Hoskins to inject much-needed power into a struggling Reds lineup, while weighing the impact of one-year “prove it” deals over splashy signings. Should Nick Krall target bullpen arms such as Jalen Beeks and Kyle Finnegan instead of chasing big names like Kyle Schwarber?

The hosts unpack Cincinnati’s recent 40-man roster moves, spotlighting prospects Hector Rodriguez, Edwin Arroyo, and Leo Balcazar—and debate whether any could make a difference in 2026. With the winter meetings looming and a cautious MLB free agent market amid CBA uncertainty, will the Reds’ conservative approach leave gaps in the outfield or the bullpen? Stay tuned for an energetic, thoughtful analysis of the Reds’ offseason strategy and how it might shape the team’s NL Central hopes.

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0:00 — Reds Offseason Power Bat Plan
2:50 — Reese Hoskins & Bargain Shopping
12:14 — Building a Budget Bullpen
21:48 — Rule 5 Protections & Prospect Impact

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