Cincinnati Reds DECLINE Options For Austin Hays, Scott Barlow & Brent Suter | MLB Off Season, News

Cincinnati Reds DECLINE Options For Austin Hays, Scott Barlow & Brent Suter | MLB Off Season, News

just hours away from free agency officially opening up. 5:00 pm on Thursday evening is the official time that players can start to sign their free agency. Cincinnati Met Reds made a couple big decisions on Wednesday. We’ll get into that along with some other breaking news and rumors about those Reds. Welcome in everybody, Chatterbox Reds. Craig Sandlin joined as always by Nick Kirby. Nick, how’s the start of your week going? Going well. uh third. Is this third or fourth video of the week? I don’t I don’t know. However many we’re uh we’re rolling through, but uh news starting to come in hot and heavy at least. Interesting stuff happening. So, we’ll uh see how it shakes out. No rest for the weary. And of course, that news does keep happening. And as always, Chatterbox Reds has you covered. We’ll start today’s podcast with the news that the Reds and their decisions around the players that they had club options on. Nick, what did they decide on Austin Hayes, Scott Barlo, and Brent Sudter? Well, they declined all of them. Uh, not too terribly surprising. Austin Hayes, $12 million option with a $1 million buyout. Scott Barlo $6.5 million with a $1 million buyout. Brent Sudter $3 million with a $250,000 buyout. So, the Reds save uh 17.25 million. They will pay 2.5 million in buyouts. I don’t think any of these are necessarily surprising. Uh, Suitor, I just didn’t think it made sense at all. Barlo maybe you could squint and say, but I think we said you’d have to kind of get a gauge of the reliever market. Uh, and then Austin Hayes, it just he just wasn’t healthy enough to to justify that in my opinion. So, pretty cut and dry moves. Um, you know, Brad Meter did say that the club remained open to bringing each back on a new deal, and I don’t have a problem with that. Uh, I’ll run through them real quick here. Austin Hayes would have to be, uh, less than 12 million. It could be multiple years even in my opinion, but he’s got to be open to a platoon role in my opinion because he just hasn’t hit right-handed pitching well enough throughout his career. Scott Barlo, loved everything about Scott Barlo. Thought he was an awesome signing. Thought he was a great dude. took the ball whenever. Uh yeah, I’d love him back on a shorter deal. Brent Sudter. I don’t know. I I just don’t see it. I feel like he’ll be back. He’s either going to be back or he’s going to retire. I think uh the hometown kid probably wants to to wrap up his career here based on some of the things he said over the course of the last year and then just the the seemingly joy that he had here in Cincinnati. But I know that’s also just who he is. So we’ll be interested to see. I I mean hard to imagine that he wouldn’t he’s not going to bring a big market, right? So, can you bring him back on a minor league deal and just figure it out, you know, when when spring training rolls around next year and put him on the big league club at a minimum deal or what? I don’t know. I don’t I don’t hate having him around as a a culture guy, but yeah, a lot to do it. I Well, I think less than money, it’s it’s I don’t I just can’t I don’t think it makes sense to put him on a major league deal where he is occupying one of the 40man roster spots throughout spring training. If it’s one of those handshake agreements like, “Hey, if you know, we’ll try to put you on the roster, but we need you to not be on the 40man.” I can live with that. Kind of feels like a lot of people said that Keegan Thompson felt like a Nick Martinez replacement. I kind of think it might be more of a Brent Sudter replacement. Yeah, it’s possible, too. I don’t I’m admittedly don’t know enough about that signing yet to have a firm decision on what role he’s going to fill. Um, you have a video up about that. And trust me, I watched it, but I I like to do my own research, Nick. As much as as much as I appreciate you and my fake news, Nick Kirby, talking about it. And uh again, Reed this morning on Off the Bench, I appreciate all of that, but uh no, I haven’t I haven’t done enough of a uh deep dive there uh to to figure that out. And interesting, you mentioned uh Brad Meter said that the club’s open to bringing back any and all three of them. um you have it a little bit further down the list, but kind of ties into one other topic that we’re going to get into in just a minute. But first, want to take a quick pause and acknowledge our sponsors that make Chatterbox Reds possible. Deep South Commodities is a proud supporter of Chatterbox Reds and our deep drive of the day. And DSC is a leader in renewable commodities for bofuel production, specializing in used cooking oil collection, aggregation, and sales. Visit www.deepsouthcommodities.com for more information. Thanks as always to our friends at DSC. And we also want to remind you that you can call or text 988 anytime, day or night. The 988 suicide and crisis lifeline is a place to get support for anything related to mental health. Whether it’s an immediate crisis, simply wanting to find out how to connect with care, or anything in between. It’s a 100% confidential, secure, and anonymous way to reach out for help when you don’t know where else to turn. To connect, call or text 988 or visit mantherapy.org to get help. It’s okay not to be okay. All right, Nick. We’ll get into that news in just a minute, but a couple other tidbits we want to talk about before we get to that. First, uh, Reds and FanDuel Sports Network officially made an announcement today. They’ll be back on the network for 2026. I think that’s probably best for fans at this point is for them to continue that relationship. Your thoughts? Well, it’s good that it’s not dragged out into February. I don’t remember. I don’t remember when it got announced last year, but man, it was dragged out a long time and there was twists and turns and we thought, hey, they were going to MLB and then they ended up going to FanDuel. So, at least there’s clarity. People know exactly where they can watch Red’s games before the calendar even hits 2026. I don’t know if FanDuel’s a perfect option. Um, a I don’t think it’s a long-term option. I think this is a short-term solution. I think they’re going to have to probably at some point end up uh going through MLB like a lot of other teams have done like the other team in Ohio is. Um but for now, this probably I’m assuming this is what gives them the most money. Uh and uh I’m glad it’s just not not dragged out uh any further into the uh offseason and people know what to expect. I will go ahead and bookmark it now that come March, I’ll be signing back up for that FanDuel Sports Network monthly subscription and I’ll be uh I’ll be watching my Reds on the FanDuel Sports Network app and on my smart TV for the uh 2026 season. So, um, look, I that was all fine and dandy, but, uh, really interesting tidbit slash, uh, piece of information that we found later on in the day on Wednesday that we can’t possibly not talk about, Nick. And I know I see your grin. I see your little smirk. All right. I know you this is something that you loved to see, but go ahead and tell the people what we’re talking about. Well, a a betting site uh called Bet Online. No free ads, but we have to mention because they’re the ones who posted it. The Cincinnati Reds, your Cincinnati Reds have the best odds of landing Kyle Schwarber. The Reds are plus 250, the Mets plus 300, the Cubs plus 400, the Yankees plus 500. Craig, the best odds in the business. Impossible. No chance it could happen. Correct. Those are the best odds if he leaves Philadelphia. That’s the piece that we’re not really talking about. Philly is not even on the list that you posted on the Chatterbox social media pages, Nick. You know why? because they’re the favorite for Kyle Schwarber to be on the team in 2026. But you know what? That doesn’t play into your narrative, does it, Nicholas? Does it? No. Listen, I love it. I’m glad I’m glad that that is there and that we can get some excitement. He’s not coming to Cincy, Nick. It’s not happening. The projections still have him somewhere in the range of four years and 120 to $140 million. everywhere you look has that same kind of projection. And yes, the Reds are listed by every prognosticator as a good fit for Kyle Schwarber. But guess what, Nick? They’re a good fit in terms of what the Reds should do, not what the Reds will do. And that’s the big difference here is yes, I would love Kyle Schwarber to be the Red’s cleanup hitter in 2026. Imagine him hitting behind Ellie de la Cruz and what Ellie is going to be able to do in 2026 when he’s actually protected by a real power hitter that can put the ball in play consistently and hit 50 bombs 100%. That’d be amazing. Not happening. Not happening. Well, first and foremost, I would not bat Schwber that low in the lineup. I’m not I’m I want him to have more trips to the plate like he did in Philadelphia. Ellie lead off. Put Schwber second. Whatever. I get it. Yeah, I don’t care. put Shoreber first. That’s what the Phillies did. Seemed to work out pretty well for him. Um and then you have TJ Fredel hitting ninth. Uh being your second lead off hitter. I I already see it. I mean, Craig, the implied odds, the implied I did the math. 29% I mean that’s not nothing. 29% of it happening. Great. How about the other 71, Nick? I heard zero. 29’s better than zero. All right. Well, I I I in all serious, I still I still think it’s possible. I’ll give you the path. All right. Uh I guess we’re going to skip ahead because Nick Crawl said the Reds payroll will stay about the same in 2026. So essentially, we think the Reds have about $30 million right now. That’s about what Schwarber probably costs 30 to $40 million a year for the next four to five years. So that’s that’s the money there. I think the Reds um there’s a chance they trade Hunter Green. If not, they trade a starting pitcher. That’s going to free up some additional money. I think if you’re shining Kyle Schwarber, you’re certainly not bringing back Gavin Lux, right? So, there’s another $5 million right there. And there’s your money. There’s your money, Craig. Yeah. Where’s my bullpen coming from? Who cares? You have Kyle Schwarber. He just signed a whole bunch of minor league relievers. I mean, would you rather like I I’d rather just pump it all into Schwarber and and roll with the, you know, scrap heap minor scrap heap bullpen arms than the Cincinnati teams love pumping money into offense and not worrying at all about the other side of the ball. We love to do that. Well, I mean, yeah, that sounds great. Okay, you’re acting like the pitching was terrible last year. There’s still quite a lot of good pitching in Cincinnat. And you’re going to get six innings out of them on most nights and then you’re going to have three innings of an absolute roller coaster night in and night out because you don’t have a single bullpen arm that you can trust outside of Tony Santon. Would you you would rather have a a a bunch of Scott Barlos and no bats? I mean, I would take my chances. Well, I’m not saying no bet, but to dedicate your entire payroll, you know, to Kyle Schwarber when we’ve been over this multiple times on this show already, Nick, that the Reds need to add three to five bullpen arms for 2026. I don’t know. I I’d rather I’d rather I’d rather roll with it. I mean, again, I’m sure you would. Great American ballpark, baby. You’re playing 81 games there. At least you have someone that can hit it out there on your side. I I just, you know, like I I’d rather have the one guy I know is an elite at something thing and and taking the Reds are going to have to be short changed somewhere. It’s just the way that it works and the way that they’re they’re spending. Um I’d rather take the chances in the bullpen. The Reds have done a have made a lot of uh good minor league low-level signings in their bullpen. I mean, heck, look at last year. The one guy they actually paid was atrocious. Rogers, the the guys they did it, the Scott Barlos at 2.5 million, they they were good. Um, the Reds have picked up guys off on minor league deals that have been good. The Reds do have a lot of talented arms like Luis May and Zack Maxwell that could be good. Uh, I’d rather roll with my chances that have the one big bet. I’d put all my eggs in Kyle Shber if that’s all I can do. Yeah. I just I mean how many free agents that are going to be on the market this year are coming off of 50 home run seasons or even have a 50 home run season to their name period. Hey Suarez. Okay. Well, all right. But Schwber’s Schwarber is the only one that can realistically repeat that. Yes. I I don’t think Suarez can realistically Could he? Yes. But it’s not realistic. Schworber. almost expected. You’re you’re talking about the the likely runner up in the NL MVP award race this year. He’s going to be I I get that the positional the lack of positional flexibility hurts his value some, but he he’s going to have I’m going to say 10 to 15 teams vying for him. I don’t think it’s going to be all 29, but he’s going to have a a significant number of teams buying for him. And I know he’s from from uh the Cincinnati area, but man, as much as I’d love to make it happen, I don’t know. It’s tough. He’s 32. He’s going to be 33. So, that’s going to like teams aren’t signing. Even the the the New York Yankees, the New York Mets, they’re not going to sign Kyle Schwarber into his 40s. They’re just not going to sign a DH. It just it’s not going to happen. I mean, everyone is predicting five years max for him. So, the thing that that that kind of fits what the Reds could potentially do and the the thing that the Reds have going for them is you think that the Reds can win a tiebreaker. If the Reds and the Mets offer the same deal, I think I believe there’s a real chance that Kyle Schwarber takes the Reds deal. And that’s not the case for most free agents. The Reds can offer the exact same amount of money for Cody Bellinger. And Cody Bellinger would say, “Reds, you have to pay me $30, $30 million more because I’m going to go to the bigger market that that I can, you know, make more money on endorsements and all that.” Schwarber, you actually have a chance at the tiebreaker and maybe you could even get lucky and he would take a little bit less. He’s not going to take some massive hometown discount. I don’t believe that. Like I think some people do, but you could realistically maybe get him a little bit less, but you at least have a chance at the tiebreaker, which the Reds do not have, and people do not mention this enough when they talk about free agents. The Reds have to pay more than big markets a lot of times. I don’t think that’s the case here. Yeah, we’ll see. I hope they’re smart enough to realize that the Yeah, I think look, I think one of the concerns, which is been one of your concerns this entire off seasonason, too, is that you’ve got the potential for an impending lockout and the uncertainties around that. And I’m not saying that there’s a perfect science in there, but you know, some some people are saying that he’s going to get a five-year $145 million deal. and to expect the Reds to dedicate those years and those dollars just doesn’t feel likely to me. That’s all. Um, I would love it. I absolutely will be jumping on a live stream with you the minute it happens if it does. Um, and I’ll be rocking my Reds World Series hat again. But, uh, but no, I’m I’m I’m I’m much lower than 29% on this happening. So, I’ I’d be closer to 2.9, maybe even below that. So, uh, that’s still up. That’s still up. You’re going up. You’re going up. So, you’re saying there’s a chance. Um, yeah, I guess there’s always a chance. You mentioned it real quick. Uh, I want to make sure that we actually give the the time that it’s due. Um, on Wednesday, Nick Crawl uh reportedly shared that the Red’s payroll um is expected to be about the same in 2026 as it was in 2025. I know there were a lot of people that were kind of holding out hope that hey, maybe this playoff run and the the additional ticket sales that the team saw towards the end of the year would drive a little bit more um on that. But I think you can correct me if I’m wrong. I don’t think realistically the Reds were going to do a single thing different in 2026 knowing that 2027 is un unsure. Um I don’t think they were going to put themselves in a position of uncertainty like that. So I I I I think realistically the payroll will be about the same in 2026. We’ll figure out what happens with the with the CBA and then there’s always a potential that it could go up in 2027 or beyond. Yeah. I mean, I I think I had a hope it would be a little bit more, but I I didn’t think it was going to be some big drastic change. I think I saw someone say the Reds made about $5 million more in ticket sales. Okay, that’s not that doesn’t move move the uh the the needle that much. Uh, and it does seem like some other teams are small market teams, we’ll talk about the Brewers here in a second, are also potentially looking at um trying to keep their payroll low to maybe keep some money because I think there’s going to be a lockout. I think it’s going to be a significant lockout. Um, and it also seems like it coincided with the Reds figuring out what what their budget was uh when the FanDuel thing got announced when they got clarity on that. I think that was probably the the last piece there. So, I guess maybe the best hope is that maybe the reg just said it’ll be about the same and maybe there’s a little bit of flexibility that it’s maybe $10 million more and you know they said, “Hey, we’ll say it’s about the same and and be surprised if it’s more.” Um, and you know, then to say it’s it’s say it’s probably going to go up and then it doesn’t go up and then pitchforks come out. Yeah. Yeah. Look, I think uh I think there’s a lot of people who had a lot of hope that things were going to be different based on the playoff run and the viewership on TV and all those things and uh this ownership group hasn’t really given a lot of faith that things are going to change. So, we’ll uh we’ll see how things go and maybe we’ll have a uh maybe we’ll have a salary cap the next time we talk about the Red’s uh payroll. Who knows? Uh you mentioned the Brewers, Nick. Um, Reds announced their spring training schedule on Wednesday. Uh, I hear the Brewers are going to be part of that. Yeah. So, uh, give you the the notable stuff here. You can go online and see the the full games released, but the first spring training game February 21st against the Cleveland Guardians. Thank god they’re not doing a split squad on the first day. That was the dumbest thing I think I’ve ever seen. Doing a split squad game, both games at the same time. Like, like that was so dumb. like put them all in one. Let’s get it on TV. Let’s enjoy it. Uh March 4th, how about this, Craig? An exhibition game against the Cuba national team at Goodyear Ballpark. That’d be a fun game to get down to if you’re uh uh uh going to spring training. I would think that’d be a fun game and something just unique and and interesting about spring training. Get to see the uh the Cuban national team. I don’t know. Do you know any of the who would be the best player on Cuba? Uh Lub. Lub. Okay. Could be a what? Yeah. How does that work out when uh when Lub is a Well, I would assume that if you’re playing for the Cuban national team that that you would play for them. Uh the Reds will have players playing for other teams uh for the world baseball class. That’ll be another interesting thing about spring training is uh I remember the f the first year of Chatterbox Reds u when I covered the spring training every day. Um there was a lot of players out. Ian Jabau was one of them playing for Great Britain. And so that’ll be something we’ll keep track of as well. Uh but a fascinating game. I’m also on that team. Yoan Mona, Yenna Sespodus is on that team. Still on the team. All right. How about that? Um yeah. So, and then of course Lewis Robert or Louie Rober depending on who you talk to. Yeah, that’ll be that’ll be fun. I I hope they actually put that on TV. I’m sure that’ll be a radio only just because, you know, the the why I so dumb how how so many major league games aren’t broadcast and I get every college baseball game. But nonetheless, we move on. Uh March 19th, one of my favorite days in spring training, the spring breakout game. Red’s doing the playing the Giants in Scottsdale, Arizona. That’s a beautiful ballpark. One of the few that I got to to go see. Uh had the probably the had the best atmosphere of any of the games I went to in spring training. uh in 2024. So, that’d be a great game to go to if you’re going out to Arizona. Uh really fun atmosphere and there was not a huge crowd for any of the spring breakout games I got to. So, um I would highly recommend that. Uh and then last but not least, the Reds are going to end spring training in Milwaukee against the Brewers. Little Inner Division two exhibition games. Uh that’ll be Monday and Tuesday before opening day on uh Thursday, March 23rd through 24th. So, that’ll be kind of interesting. The Reds have not done anything like that, I think, in a long time. I don’t I didn’t look back, but it’s been a while since the Reds play like legitimate exhibition games. A lot of teams do this. I know that the Angels and Dodgers do it almost every year. I think uh they do like that Monday, Tuesday they play against each other. Um I know there’s some other teams that have done that. The Reds did the game in Dayton last year, but that was just a one-off game. And that was not a game that they put a lot of eggs in their basket for them being real games at all. So certainly a little bit of a different different thing. And uh hopefully again those games are actually on TV and we can watch them. We get excited a few days before opening day. Yeah, I would assume that that Tuesday the 24th will be a day game exhibition and then um probably then they’ll head they’ll head to Cincinnati Tuesday night, have Wednesday off and then of course uh first pitch on the 2026 MLB season with the Boston Red Sox in Cincinnati on Thursday the 26th. So the Dayton game was at night, but that was in Dayton, so it’s a little bit much different. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So that’s cool. That’ll be fun. And uh the Brewers may have a different look. I guess it’ll be the same old Brewers, but uh you mentioned small market teams. It’s worth quick note uh as we look around the NL Central overview as we do some of these shows. Uh the Brewers had a couple uh decisions and uh both on the player side and the club side on Wednesday. Yeah, the Brandon Woodruff, this was earlier in the week, declined his option with the Brewers. He’s now a free agent. They also declined options on William Contrarus, Rhys Hoskins, and Jose Quintana. Now, William Contrus, the catcher, still will be back with the Brewers. He has a weird contract. Uh, still has one year left. Um, so he’s going to go to arbitration now instead of the $12 million club option that he had. I guess last year he signed a two-year deal that covered 2025 and 2026, but there was a buyout. So basically the Brewers are betting that he’s going to cost less than 11.9 million in 2026 as they have to pay him a $100,000 buyout. So an interesting deal, but he’s back nonetheless. And like I mentioned, I I don’t think the Brewers are going to be spending much this offseason either. I think they’re probably going to be in the same boat as the Reds. The Cubs have already kind of made some semi excuses about spending, saying they’re not going to spend on on highle relievers. are expected to lose Kyle Tucker. Um the Cardinals I think are are it’ll be interesting to see what Heim Bloom does in his first year as G first off season as GM. Um I think he’s probably going to sell some pieces and look to take a step back. So again, I say all this to say I still think it’s a it’s a division that that the Reds have a real shot in. Um never going to count the Brewers. Will never do that again. I don’t care if they’re projected to win 55 games at some point. I mean, that team just knows how to do it. Cubs are are still going to be a juggernaut, but I I don’t know if they’re necessarily um you know, they’re not I don’t think at the level of any of the certainly not the Dodgers or um any of the other top contenders, but look, it’ll still be a division that is somewhat favorable for the Reds. Although the NL Central overall did perform really really well last year. Yeah, the William Contra decision was interesting to me. I he was one of those guys that I thought was like a surefire pick up the option on. Um I know arbitration makes things a little weird because you know the cap that they can make is sometimes different than what their free their actual like open market value might be. But like Sporrak has William Contreras’s open market value at nearly $16 million a year. Um, which, you know, may or may not be accurate, but certainly more than 12 million. And I don’t know, it might might just be one of those things that William Conterus and the Brewers going into last year had an agreement that hey, you know, we can we can do that, but we’ll do what’s right for you. And if you’re worth more, then we’re not going to pick up that option with the understanding that, hey, we can still renegotiate your contract and maybe sign you to an extension next year, do something longer term versus just picking up a $12 million option when you’re worth more. the the interesting thing is like so MLB trade rumors is projecting 11.1 million. So I mean this is maybe a move to save in the hundreds of thousands of dollars. So it’s interesting. I I don’t know how the I don’t know exactly how players view this kind of stuff if they just realize it’s just a straight business or if a guy like William kind of goes like come on this was like a couple hundred,000 if that ends up being what it is and you kind of pissed off your catcher over a couple hundred,000. I don’t know. I I don’t I don’t want to like I don’t want to go too far and say like oh this is something that’s going to you know really hurt the the Brewers in Contraras but I also don’t think it’s necessarily a complete nothing burger either. Yeah. It’ll be really interesting to see what the outcome of that is because I would imagine that the Brewers are going to come to the table with some sort of valuation in the like $10.5 million range and then Contraras might come to the table with a $15 million range in the arbitration if it goes to arbitration. Also true. Also very true. Yeah. Um so yeah, speaking of which, Nick, we got some upcoming dates uh of note that we want to make sure people are aware of. Um, it obviously starts today with free agency. Yeah, free agency officially begins. Um, so yeah, free agents. We’ll see. Sometimes it comes quick and there’s a a lot of free agents signed right off the rip. Sometimes it’s a very slow moving. So, we’ll kind of see and we’ll certainly be available for that. GM meetings, that’s next week, November 10th through the 13th. Not usually a lot happens there, but uh usually the framework is what they say is uh uh is decided there. And then the rule five protection November 18th. So probably next week, early the week after, we’ll start digging into that a little bit more. And then the non-tender deadline right after that on November 21st. So yeah, it’s going to be a busy month of November with a lot and some rumors and exciting stuff if you’re a sicko like us and you listening. Yeah, starting to see some rumors floating around of players that have already come to an agreement with the team. I think I saw Leody Tiveres is going to sign with the Orioles. Um, so you’ll start to see some of those rumors leak out even before the official start of free agency and uh and the time when players can actually sign because those agreements are oftentimes done well before the actual date that they can sign. So, um, we’ll keep an eye on that. And if the Reds make any moves, as always, we’ll be right here on Chatterbox Sports YouTube and wherever you get your podcast. Make sure you leave us a like, make sure you subscribe to the channel, follow us on social, leave us a fivestar review. If you’re listening to this on a podcast, um, and make sure you check out all of our great content. Chatterbox Bengals, of course, brings you all the latest Bengals news. We had a great trade deadline show on Tuesday. Uh joined by Casey Mallister and Stone Shields. Appreciate them joining. Make sure you leave us a review and comments there. Uh the Flying Lion podcast Saturday, game three of FC Cincinnati and the Columbus Crew in the first round of the MLS playoffs. Make sure you check them out. And as always, Off the Bench Monday through Friday, 10A to 11A. Then the Stone Shield show 11A to 12p. and a brand new Chatterbox Bearcats dropped on uh Thursday morning. There you go. Chatterbox Bearcats. They are in crossover season as it is called. Basketball and football underway. So, those guys will be super busy bringing you a lot of great content about the Bearcats and what is lining up to be a pretty exciting couple months both from the football side and basketball side. So definitely appreciate the work that all these guys are doing to put together great content for all of our Cincinnati sports fans and uh yeah, we appreciate you listening and supporting the channel as well. So until next time, I am Craig Sandalin. This has been Chatterbox Reds. We’ll see you next time everybody. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music]

Nick Kirby and Craig Sandlin break down the latest Cincinnati Reds offseason news, starting with the team declining contract options on Austin Hays, Scott Barlow, and Brent Suter — and explaining the reasoning behind each move. The guys also discuss the Reds being listed as the betting favorite to sign Kyle Schwarber, what that could mean for the roster, and how it fits into the front office’s offseason strategy.

Plus, they go through the 2026 Cincinnati Reds spring training schedule, which includes exhibition games against the Cuba National Team, two scrimmages in Milwaukee, and the Spring Breakout Prospects Game. Nick and Craig also dive into notable Milwaukee Brewers news and how it could impact the NL Central race and the broader MLB offseason landscape.

If you’re a Cincinnati Reds fan looking for in-depth analysis, roster breakdowns, and smart baseball conversation all offseason long, this episode has you covered.

Cincinnati Reds 2025-26 Offseason Outlook

The Cincinnati Reds enter the 2025-26 offseason at a pivotal point. After finishing 83-79 and earning their first full-season playoff berth since 2013, the Reds have reestablished themselves as a legitimate contender in the National League. Now comes the challenge of sustaining that progress while addressing several roster needs.

Key Free Agents and Roster Moves

The Reds have multiple decisions to make with their pending free agents, including Miguel Andujar, Zack Littell, Nick Martinez, and Emilio Pagán. None are expected to receive qualifying offers, but their departures would leave gaps in both the lineup and bullpen. The front office also faces option calls on Austin Hays, Brent Suter, and Scott Barlow, all of whom could impact the team’s payroll flexibility.

Beyond free agency, Cincinnati must also determine which young players to protect from the Rule 5 Draft. Prospects like Edwin Arroyo, Héctor Rodríguez, and Leo Balcázar have progressed enough to warrant 40-man roster consideration. The team has already made a few minor roster adjustments, hinting that bullpen changes and depth moves will continue through the winter.

Offensive Improvements Needed

Despite their playoff berth, the Reds’ offense struggled at times in 2025. The club ranked in the bottom third of MLB in home runs, OPS, and overall run production. Too often, the lineup relied on streaky power rather than consistent contact and situational hitting.

President of Baseball Operations Nick Krall has stated that improving the offense will be a top offseason priority. While big-name free agents may be out of reach financially, Cincinnati could explore trades or mid-tier signings to add another impact bat. Internal development will also be key — players like Elly De La Cruz, Spencer Steer, and Christian Encarnacion-Strand are expected to take another step forward in 2026.

Bullpen and Pitching Depth

The bullpen was a strength for much of 2025, but several key relievers are entering free agency. Re-signing or replacing those arms will be a major focus. The Reds may look to supplement their relief corps with experienced middle relievers or cost-effective veterans.

The rotation remains solid at the top, led by Hunter Greene, Nick Lodolo, and Graham Ashcraft, but depth beyond the front three is still a concern. Finding reliable fourth and fifth starters — or swingmen capable of handling spot starts — could help stabilize the pitching staff over a 162-game season.

Youth Movement and Long-Term Strategy

Cincinnati continues to lean heavily on its young core and deep farm system. The organization’s success in developing homegrown players will determine how far it can go under current budget constraints. Several young position players and pitchers are expected to compete for roster spots during spring training.

Financially, the Reds are likely to stay disciplined. Krall’s front office has focused on sustainable roster building rather than short-term spending sprees. The goal is to keep the team competitive while maintaining payroll flexibility for future seasons.

Final Outlook

The Reds’ offseason hinges on balance — upgrading the roster without overextending resources. If they can add a productive bat, reinforce the bullpen, and continue developing their young core, Cincinnati has the potential to make another leap forward in 2026. However, standing pat could risk stagnation in an increasingly competitive National League.