Cincinnati Reds Bullpen OVERHAUL Looms | Tony Santillan READY for Bigger Role

Cincinnati Reds Bullpen OVERHAUL Looms | Tony Santillan READY for Bigger Role

The Cincinnati Reds went and didn’t went as much as their bullpen went and didn’t went in 2025 because their bullpen was actually quite mid. 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. Your team every day. My name is Stephen Offenbaker. His name is Jeff Carr. We have been talking about this team in podcast form for a combined 14 seasons. We’re lifelong Cincinnati Reds fans. We love the Reds. We love baseball and we love talking about those things with you. On today’s show, we’re going to get into the Reds bullpen. Jeff just called them mid. Uh, that’s young whippers snappers speak for they weren’t very good, they were just average. We’re going to talk about in-house options to make that bullpin better. Guys that could be moving into new roles uh a little bit later in the show. We’re also going to be getting into the fact that this group is going to have to be rebuilt. We’re going to tell you who’s staying kind of, we know, and who’s going, we think we know, uh, and whose contracts are expiring. We’re going to get into all of that. And where we’re going to start is really with how this group performed in 2025. It was quite the roller coaster this bullpin. Sometimes it was fantastic, sometimes it was totally lights out, and other times it was well mid. So, we’re going to get into that on today’s episode brought to you by FanDuel. Right now, new customers can bet just $5 and if your bet wins, you get $300 in bonus bets back to use across the app. Download the app today. All right, Jeeoff, let’s get into this because the bullpin was in fact a roller coaster. There were there were not very many times where anybody would come into a game really and you and I were both like, “We got it. They’re going to nail it down.” Um it was always a little bit of um hand ringing going on with this bullpin. Yeah, there’s a lot of statistics that bear that out because I I think that at least for me, I don’t know how you feel about this, but for me it was the way that they finished the season almost made me overrate them a little bit if we’re honest. Like I kind of felt like there were some admirable performances there at the end. Like Connor Phillips had a very admirable performance at the end of the season. Emilio Pagan looking like he could barely, you know, he had like a half of an arm throwing that ball was still being able to make some good pitches and Tony Santon as well. And so for me, I kind of felt like, man, this was a good year for the bullpen. But when you really look at it, just about every number says that they were mid. They were league average. They were right there in the middle. They weren’t bad, but they also weren’t good either. I mean, when you look at I I talked about the starting pitching at the beginning of this week where I said that this was the best starting pitching that the Reds had had in 58 years. And only the Phillies were better than them in all of Major League Baseball this season according to wins above replacement. According to wins above replacement for the bullpen group, they were 16th. There were 15 teams that were better than them. And then when you get into some other reliever statistic stuff, when you talk about save percentage, which also takes into account if a reliever comes in in the seventh or eighth inning in a save situation and if they blow it, then that hurts your save percentage, they were mid. And then if you look at their inherited runners scoring percentage, they were literally mid. Like league average was 32%. The Reds inherited runners scored on them 32% of the time. So there was so much about this team that was like, yes, there were some good performances, but the bad weighed it to the point where they were literally right there in the middle. And and it explains the feelings, right? Because, you know, you and I talk a lot of times about how we much we enjoy when we can go look at the statistics and it matches up with the gut checks and it matches up with the eye tests, right? And and it kind of the the statistics definitely mirror the feelings that we had all along the way. the the the mantra of this team doing what we were asking it to do in the most frustrating way possible. And whether it was walking the first batter they faced or you know some of the unluckiness that we’ll get into with a couple of the pitchers in this bullpen, you you look at those statistics and you come away from it really not quite sure how the Reds need to address it because if if you if you look at it from at the end of the season and some of those performances and Ailio Pagan, you know, pitching four days in a row and being lights out and and Santion throwing in seemingly 162 games and being good all the way through and and and you find yourself wanting to be like, well, absolutely you bring back Amelio Pagan. Absolutely that Tony Santion is, you know, a trusted, valued member of the A group back into the bullpen. But then you look at the stats and you’re like, you know, I maybe uh I think they got to make changes. Um kind of it’s it’s it’s really hard. It’s really hard to wrap your head around what this bullpin is. And I and I think when when you talk about it being middle of the pack, when you talk about it being average, that if if you can get your emotions out of it and the eye test out of it and what we saw and how excited we were at the end, you look at those statistics and it’s clear that this is an area that still has some work to be done in order to elevate its game to get the Reds where they need to be in 2026. because as much fun as they were at times, I need that bullpen to be a little bit more reliable next year so that the Reds aren’t blowing games because we talked about those games, right? We did a whole episode on the Reds having those air quotes around the word those those games that they should have won, they had in hand, they absolutely no reason for them to lose and they lost them. And there were a lot of times the bullpin played a key role in that. Yeah. You you talk about like coming out and walking the first guy and things like that. This bullpen actually was a bit below league average when it came to walk percentage where there were definitely some guys in it that were elite at limiting walks. Like you look at Nick Martinez and you look at Brent Sudter and you look at a couple of guys like that that were really good at keeping guys off the base on balls. Ironically enough, Graham Ashcraft was right there around league average. I think most people would think, boy, Graham Ashcraft, he was that guy that walked too many people. Scott Barlo had a 14% walk rate and Graham Ashcraft had an 8.8% walk rate. And I think that if you were to ask people right now because Scott Barlo has a team option for next year, are you more are you trusting Scott Barlo or Graham Ashcraft more? I think people are saying Scott Barlo Scott Barlo and it’s not fair, but everybody’s saying that and it’s not quite that fair. I I like Scott Barlo a lot and I do want to bring him back, but I think we misunderstand Graham Ashcraft. And that’s that’s a point that I really want to flesh out in later episodes. We’re not going to dig into the nitty-gritty on that, but just get ready at this point. This at some points this offseason, I’m going to make this argument because Graeme Ashcraft was a guy whose ERA was 3.99. And I always tell people, please don’t go crazy over relief pitchers erraas. And he’s a perfect example because his FIP, his fielding independent pitching says he was getting wildly unlucky. His FIP was 2.7, which is elite. That’s the best of the bunch. That’s better than Pagan. That’s better than Santion. That is showing that Tony that we did not fully understand who Graham Ashcraft was. But I think he is the perfect encapsulation of this bullpen where we think we know, but there’s lots of other things that are showing us. Yes, but here’s the reason why you could be not entirely correct. Yeah, I’m I’m looking forward to and I’m going to save it because I know we’re going to do a show on it. I’m I’m looking forward to talking specifically about Graham Ashcraft because I think, you know, unfair was a good word we used there just a second ago. Um we I think we set his expectations way too high and then the results that he got were not his fault a lot of the time and we beat him up for it. So, I’m looking forward. Oh, he was gonna roll in here and be Randy Myers, and because he wasn’t, everybody’s like, “Oh, okay.” And that’s on that’s on you and me and everybody else that talked about this team, right? We all We all kind of can picture a lane where he ends up being an elite closer with his attitude. And I I think we put the cart before the horse just a little bit. That doesn’t mean he still can’t get there. He can still get there. He can still do it. But I look forward to kind of breaking him down in depth in a in a future episode. But this bullpin as a whole, the the A group versus the B-group, the roller coaster ride that they took us on, the statistics that that they put up and then didn’t put up, it was all very confounding. But here is one thing that I know for sure, Jeff. Um, this group was great at times, it was not great at times, but it’s going to have to be rebuilt. And we’re going to talk about that coming up next. There’s still some time left to take advantage of this great offer over on FanDuel. New users can download the app, create an account, and your first $5 wager that wins can get you $300 in bonus bets. You can put that this week on the Bengals. Joe Flacco’s in town, and the Bengals have an overunder of total team points at 14 a half as they head to Green Bay and Micah Parsons. And 14 and a half sounds like a lot, but hey, Joe Flacco, I think he’s better than Jake Browning. Maybe. We’ll see. Anyway, you can head on over to FanDuel and put $5 down on that. Either way, over or under 14 and a half points on the Bengals scoring. I really don’t have a strong feeling either way. So, whatever you pick is probably the right pick. That’s over on FanDuel. Download the FanDuel app today. Create an account. Your first $5 to the wins will get you $300 in bonus bets. Best line I saw on Joe Flacco trade day, Jeff, was putting Joe Flacco behind the Bengals offensive line is elder abuse. Make sure you’re subscribed. That way you don’t miss any of the Red’s content we’ve got coming your way. We’re going to be here all off seasonason long breaking down the 2025 Cincinnati Reds and getting you primed and ready to go for the 2026 Cincinnati Reds. We’re going to be with you the whole way. Click subscribe, click the notification bell. You don’t want to miss any of it. All right, Jeff, let’s dive back into this group because there was the good, there was the great moments, there was some bad times, but what we know is there are people leaving. There are contracts expiring. There are options that are not going to be exercised. This group is going to have to be rebuilt. And and when we say rebuilt, it’s probably a larger percentage of the bullpen that people think of when they think about how many people are leaving. There’s going to be some overhaul out there. Yeah, for sure. And I I think that it’s important to note that the first guy that they’re losing, there’s no option on him whatsoever. He’s just he’s a free agent, is Alio Pagani. And when you look at how good of a season he had and the fact that he set career highs and a lot of different things and he was up there on the saves leaderboard and all that other stuff that, you know, people who make contracts in Major League Baseball just absolutely lose their minds over. He’s going to get a lot of money. And I don’t know that the Reds are in the position that they’re going to spend that on him. And you could make the argument that there’s plenty other reasons to spend that money. And maybe it’s multiple relief pitchers that you would spend it on for what he would probably garner. I think you’re looking at I don’t know 10 12 million for him a year. And and honestly, that’s what he should be asking for. It’s not like a, you know, let’s try and find the fan friendliest number we can get and keep Amelio Pagan here. Like his agent’s going to be out there talking to people and be like, my dude went last year, so you’re going to have to pony up and bring him in. I just don’t know that the Reds are going to be on that train. So then you look at some of the other guys. I mean, Tony Santon is under team control, so that’s good. He’s coming back. There’s two guys with club options and Scott Barlo and Brent Sudter. Scott Barlo’s for six and a half million. Brent Sudter’s for three million. And then you’ve, you know, you’ve got a bunch of other guys who are under team control that you could argue may or may not be non-tendered. Guys like Ian Jabau and Sam Maul. Uh so things like that are going to come into play. I would say of the guys with options, I would argue that you should keep Scott Barlo. I think that Scott Barlo really showed you to be a durable option. And as much as I pointed out his walk rate in comparison to Graham Ashcraft, I still think that he’s a very good relief pitcher and somebody they can count on next year. Brent Sudter is intriguing to me though because I don’t know what his role is. They don’t use him as a high leverage guy. They use him more as like a a mop-up guy. And so do you pay three million for a mop-up guy? I Brett soon is the one I struggle with the most, but the short answer is yeah, I think they do. um because he gives you a little bit of flexibility when things go sideways and through a 162 game season things go sideways. They were able to use him as an opener. They’re able to use him when somebody had to leave the game early with an injury as a bridge guy. So, it wasn’t necessarily just mopup, but it was bridging bad situations, right? And and Sudter would just go out there whenever anybody pointed at him and pitch until his arm was ready to fall off. I I recall a 40 or 50 pitch outing from him one time when things went super sideways. So, um, that’s the kind of flexibility he gives, and I think you pay $3 million for that flexibility. Um, Scott Barlo for me is an absolute no-brainer. You bring that guy back, you know, he just kind of went out there and did his job, and he was he was the most unexciting, non-electrifying relief pitcher we’ve had around here in a while, but yet he still got it. You need that though. You need that in the middle of your B. You need that guy that just can come out and do the thing. So, I think you bring Scott Barlo back. You’re absolutely right about Amelio Popagon. Listen, when they brought him in here, it was not with the idea that that’s our closer we’re signing right now. Nobody knew that. That just kind of happened. So, he wasn’t being paid like a closer, but he went out there and used was used as a closer the entire season, and he’s going to now parlay that with his representation into getting paid, and it’s not going to be the Cincinnati Reds that pay him. I think the Reds are already looking at through a lens of Tony Santon is the closer for this team next year, and then they’ll build a bullpin around Tony Santion. I I really think that’s the mindset they’re going to enter the offseason with and I think he deserves that. I think the way that he pitched this past season, he’s an interesting case where we talked about Graham Ashcraft with his FIP being lower than his ERA. Tony Santons is higher. He actually had a 2.4 RA, a 3.7 fib. And so that’s kind of what hurt him in the wins above replacement department, but he did pretty well. I mean, he had an above average strikeout rate. His walk rate was just around league average, a little bit higher than league average, but he’s the kind of guy that you can really trust. And I think one thing that we got to look for for him moving forward is that longevity. I mean, dude pitched in 80 games. I can’t even believe I’m saying that. He pitched in 80 games this past year, Steve. Like that’s going to be the interesting thing for me is how do you back a guy like that up where I am in the camp that I believe you can really get somebody to be a good closer. At the same time, a guy like that who’s coming off of such a busy year, you better have a plan B, maybe even a plan C in place when you get this season going because I mean, the Reds really, I mean, Ailio Pagan was a good plan B for Alexis Diaz this past year, but the Reds were almost betting on Alexis Diaz to be their closer. And when it was clear he was just not going to be that guy, they’re like, “Okay, let’s shuffle a bit.” and they were okay for a little bit, but that’s really why the depth of this bullpen was tested so much. And I think that there is a group of in-house guys that we’ll get to here in just a few minutes that I think makes us feel a little bit better about this bullpen rebuild, but you absolutely are right. You have to go out and get some veteran guys to bolster this pin around a guy like Santon, who I am bullish on his chances, but I’m not saying that he’s a proven closer because he hasn’t proved it. And and you’re right in focusing in on that 80 games number and it it’s pretty impressive looking past the 80 games, but the top three guys, right, 80 from Santion, 75 from Barlo, and 70 from Pagan, those guys threw a lot of innings. And one thing we’ve learned in in the Ian Jaboa experiment is when you have a guy throw that many games, the next season doesn’t always look like the season before it. Um, right? you know, there could be some extended recovery time. I hope that’s not the case. So, you’re right. A plan B needs to be in order, but I don’t know that they’ll necessarily go out and sign a guy that we’ll instantly be be able to look at and think that guy that guy’s going to that guy could be the closer. I don’t know. Pagan will Yeah. Right. So, you know, it’ll be it’ll be much like the Pagan situation was this year where they go out and sign a guy that maybe somewhere back in his resume had a season of being a closer or somewhere back in his resume had a year where he did save a lot of games. Uh, and then you try and run that back and bring that back. I think that’s how it’ll go. I I believe the fact that, you know, Tony Santion is going to be going into his age 29 season. The fact that he’s been a starter before and had a lot of innings on that arm. The fact that, you know, he really I mean, at times he looked fatigued, but he never really loo fatigued to the point where we were like he they need to shut him down. He needs to he needs to not pitch for a while. We never got there with him. So, you take all those things into account. It gives me ah this team. It gives me hope. It makes me hope that when he comes to spring training in 2026, he’s going to be recovered because the workload, while it was extreme, while it was a lot, it wasn’t in excess of things he’s done in the past already. His arm knows how to recover from, you know, an 80 uh 80 games. his arm knows how to recover from I’m trying to grab how many innings that was from 73 innings. He’s had he’s had well more than 73 innings on his arm in a season. So, I think he’s going to be able to recover from it. I hope I hope I wish that he comes back strong because I I think he could be a really really good back end of the bullpin guy for this team next year. Let me give you two things. one uh one is an idea and one is a speculative thing that you’re going to laugh at. Just get ready for it. But two things real quick. First thing is the plan that I think the Reds might roll with is that Santon is plan A. Plan B is outside hire that they signed for probably a similar deal to Scott Barlo’s. And then plan C is Graham Mashcraft. Um yeah, not probably what they roll with. Not that that’s what it should be, but yeah. Um, you know, Graham Ashcraft has all of the mentality required to be a closer, and that’s why we got so excited about him. He has all of the attitude needed to be that guy that comes out there and and gives the opposing hitter a starown and then just runs the table, right? He has all of those qualities mentally. Um, the problem has been that he can’t physically put it all together. He can’t put it together for an entire season. He can’t put it together for, you know, consistency over the course of the season. He has a lot of up and downs. Availability is a problem. Um, so those are the things he’s got to fix. Um, if he can if he can get his game to match his attitude, yeah, he should absolutely be in the in the thought process of what you’re going to do with the A group, the back end of this bullpen. Um, but Graham Ashcraft, I’m no longer ready to just like say, you know, here you go. You’re obviously part of this group. Graham Ashgraph has to go earn being part of that group. And then uh your your favorite former Reds relief pitcher, unrestricted free agent this year, Riceell Glaciius, is valued around 8 to N million. Your thoughts, Mr. Horribly wrong. Um yeah, no, I I never I never want to have to see that guy pitch again. I’m still pissed off about that whole thing. I didn’t figure you’d be interested in that one, but I know this, there’s definitely some young arms. There’s some some arms who are currently vying for starting rotation roles that could be moved to the bullpen. There are a lot of interesting options in house for the Cincinnati Reds. We’ll break those down coming up next. What do you get when you have a bald eagle standing on top of a silverback gorilla riding a T-Rex? You get confidence. You get pure confidence. And if you’re looking for something beyond the usual pill, it’s time to meet Rouier Go Long. Ruier Golong gives you that confidence. That’s where Ruer comes in. It’s not just another ED pill. It’s a total gamecher for your confidence. Golong combines two doctor trusted medications in one dual action formula so you can get hard and go the distance. The effects can last up to 36 hours. That’s confidence all day, all night, and even into the next day. The process is simple. 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But I think that it’s not going to require a wave of free agents so much as just a couple because it seems as though there’s plenty of guys that are already in the organization whether they are close to the major leagues or we’ve already seen them at some point this past year who can really fill some valuable innings for this bullpen. There there are some very interesting questions that are going to have to be answered because there are a lot of starting pitchers coming back from injury in 2026. And the the first thing that’s going to have to be decided and this is probably a lot harder question to answer than we think. And that is when you get get to the end of the process, when you get to opening day and you’ve picked your five guys. And we kind of know four of the five guys already. Probably I’d argue five. If I’d argue, when you pick your when you pick those five guys, are you going to take the the leftover dudes and are you going to build an awesome like backup starting rotation B down in Louisville and have all of these dudes ready to go to plug and play or are you going to put a couple of them in the major league bullpen um risk not having them available if you need to fill starter roles later, but have a lot of innings eaters in the bullpen? And I think we’ll see a little bit of both. um is my answer to that because Brandon Williamson is coming back from injury. Uh Julian Aguiar is coming back from injury. Rhett Lauder is coming back from injury. Um and that’s just a few of the guys that the Reds are going to have that all when last we saw them were members of the starting rotation. Then you’ve got the Chase Pedies of it all. You you’ve got these guys. Um, I feel like the Reds will probably stash two of those guys in Louisville as extra starting pitchers and then they’ll find one or two of the guys coming back in the bullpen. I think Chase Petty is facing a harsh reality in that his performance, the opportunity he had to break through as a starter for the Cincinnati Reds. He didn’t get it done. And I think there is risk now with the young rotation that the Reds have built that Chase Petty’s going to become a bullpin guy if he’s ever going to see the major leagues. That’s probably what’s going to happen with him. Um or be or be or be a trade piece. Um Brandon Williamson is the other real interesting thing because I’ve always felt like the Reds as an organization have undervalued Brandon Williamson. I I’ve liked Brandon Williamson since he was in the minors. I love the work he put in when they finally called him up. Um he was one of those wonky emergency we have to call him up now even though he’s not really ready and he learned on the job. He developed under fire. He got a lot better, but the Reds never really quite treated him like they believed in him as a long-term starting option for this team. I think we’ll find Brandon Williamson in this bullpin in the Nick Martinez role. I I I think that’s where he’ll end up and and that might be good for a guy coming off of Tommy John. limit the amount of innings that his arm has to endure in his first season back. It’s not necessarily a bad thing, I think, for either. I think it helps the Reds, it helps the bullpen, and it might help Brendan Williamson. So, you know, those are just kind of loose speculations. Uh mostly based on how they dealt with Brandon Williamson before he got hurt because I always felt like David Bell was was trying to just shove Brandon Williamson into the bullpen, get him out of the rotation, but the situation never quite presented itself. And I don’t know if that was a David Bell thing or if that was an organizational philosophy thing that they were telling David, hey, listen, we’re eventually going to get this dude out of this rotation and into the bullpen, so act accordingly. I’m not sure which it was, but the Reds always seem to act like they wanted him down in that bullpin. It’s intriguing because I would like to see how Terry Francono manages him, but you’re right. I don’t know outside of like a rash of injuries that we will not be rooting for. I don’t know that we get to see him start in the major leagues this year. I mean, think about the guys if they don’t make a trade this off seasonason that involves a major league starting pitcher. Their starting rotation is set because their starting rotation is Green, Lola, Abbott, Singer, and then either Burns or Louderder. And I think you could argue it should be Burns. And then louder would be your ace in Triple A ready to come up at a moment’s notice. And then you got to figure out, you know, Petty Aguiar and Williamson. And I think that when you look at this bullpen, unless they go out and they sign a bonafide left-handed pitcher for the bullpen, which a couple of the names at the top of the list right now are Taylor Rogers, which we’ve tried that already, and AJ Mentor. So, I don’t necessarily know what that looks like for them. They might move him to the bullpen to be one of their lefties because Sam Maul I just I I think that whatever he did this last year has completely put him on the outs. I expect him to be non-tendered this off season. So I I there’s going to be a missing piece there in the bullpin of having a southpaw. But then on the other side of this like are you really going to have a AAA rotation of Louder Petty Aguar Williamson and then probably like Jose Akunia or something like that? that that almost seems like a waste at that point to not have a couple of those dudes back in or in this bullpin really helping you out on top of the Zack Maxwell’s Luis Mays and guys like that who should be pushing for spots as well. Yeah, my my first hot take of the offseason, Jeff, is that Brady Singer is not going to be on this team in 2026. Uh I I I think he’s trade bait. They’re going to they’re going to package Brady Singer with something to try and address some of the outfield need. I think that’s what’s going to happen. So that frees up one of those rotation spots. That’s why I said four. Um I I’m kind of sitting on that. That’s a whole show we’re going to do later. But um I I and I think that gets louder into the major league rotation. So um then that still leaves you Aguar and Williamson and all these guys. I think Williamson goes to the big league bullpen and I think Aggi is your spare part maybe with Chase Petty down in Louisville if you need to to keep a guy stretched out and pull him up. That’s how I see that playing out. So that still leaves plenty of bullpin slots that need to be replaced, but I think you’re looking at Brandon Williamson replacing Nick Martinez. You’re looking at the the groups that are under team control mostly largely coming back and then the Reds go out and sign a guy or two and that’s how they build out this bullpen. Uh with your in-house option for closer being Tony Santion and your in-house option for eighth inning guy replacing Santion is the aforementioned Graham Ashcraft. kind of think that’s how the in-house roles shake out. And then everybody else finds their lane, right, through spring training, through the beginnings of the season, uh, who Franca is comfortable with. That’s where they find the rest of that group. And you get you identify your three guys that three to four guys that are your A group that are the guys you want available for seven, eight, nine. And then you’ve got your also dudes that are the B group, the Brett Suitor, the guys that are valuable that need to go out there and eat innings. You know, where does Barlo fall in that? I I think he’s probably that bridge dude, right? We’ve always talked about there’s the guy that’s like the best B-group guy, not quite the A group guy. That’s your Scott Barlo of the Bullpit. I I I like that. And it makes me feel a little bit better about, you know, the pitching. Like it it’s it’s really early. Obviously, the offseason hasn’t technically started yet. So, it’s really early to say that you’re really happy with where the pitching sits because things happen. Status quo, baby. We We’ve got our team. Nick Cross. Knock on all the wood. Fingers crossed. I Yeah, but I I I I Yeah, it’s it’s the pitching it just doesn’t feel like I mean fingers crossed everything doesn’t feel like they need a lot. And then we’ll say this, your hot take about Brady Singer might not be that hot because as spot track sets, it is expecting Brady Singer to make around 13 million in arbitration, which would make him the highest paid Red. Yeah. See, I I feel like the Reds just happily pay that money already knowing that that dude’s getting traded at the winter meetings. You know what I mean? Like I I don’t I don’t think I don’t think they’re stressed. Do they trade him before? Do they trade him? I would be I would be surprised before then. I think he’ll be part of a deal that gets done in the winter meetings. I I think Nick Crawl will sit down with some people and do some face tof faces and we’ll get an outfielder at the winter meetings. That’s that’s my big hot take. And it’s it centers around Brady Singer with a package of somebody from the minor leagues to get a good outfielder. We’re going to be with y’all throughout the offseason, keeping you up to date on everything going on with this Reds team because like we said, like there’s a lot that’s going to be moving here. A lot of it could be inhouse, especially based on some of these arbitration numbers. We’ll really dive into those here in a little bit. We’re going to continue looking back at this season. Actually, tomorrow we’re really going to dive into one of the things that I think people did misunderstand a lot, and that was how the defense of this team really did kind of help. I know that there were some inconsistencies, but there were definitely a lot there was definitely a step forward in that department for this team. We’ll talk about that on tomorrow’s Lockdown Rads podcast. Make sure that you are subscribed that way you don’t miss anything that we’ve got coming for you because we’re going to be with you every single day. Also with you every single day is Lockdown MLB game night. They have every game covered every night so that you don’t have to watch every game that’s going all the way through the World Series. That’s over on the Lockdown MLB feed. Make sure you go check them out right now. But as for Steve and myself, you know that we will be locked on Reds every single day. So, is Zach Taylor gonna have to like go sign Flaco out of the nursing home on game day or like does the little handy van thing just bring him to the stadium? Do you think that Joe Flacco or Key Brian Hayes will go down as the better in season trade acquisition in the city of Cincinnati? Well, this is the depths we’ve reached.

The Cincinnati Reds’ bullpen faces a crucial overhaul for 2026. Steven Offenbaker and Jeff Carr analyze the 2025 performance, highlighting the unit’s mid-tier ranking and inconsistent results. They explore potential changes, including Emilio Pagán’s likely departure and Tony Santillan’s possible ascension to closer. The hosts debate in-house options, discussing Graham Ashcraft’s untapped potential and the futures of Brandon Williamson and Chase Petty. They also speculate on Brady Singer’s trade value and the need for left-handed relievers. Get the inside scoop on the Cincinnati Reds’ pitching strategy and roster construction for 2026 – listen now to shape your expectations for next season!

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