Tyler Stephenson on Reds; loss vs. Dodgers in NL playoffs
Reds catcher Tyler Stephenson talks about Reds’ loss to Dodgers
Despite being swept out of the postseason by the Dodgers, manager Terry Francona insisted that his first Reds team was a special one.Terry Francona said he will stay in Cincinnati for a couple of weeks as the Reds brass assesses the season.
LOS ANGELES − Cincinnati Reds manager Terry Francona was only moments removed from the season-ending loss to the Los Angeles Dodgers when he addressed media members post-game, so his big picture analysis of the 2025 season would have to wait.
Bear in mind Francona hasn’t fully turned the page on his Cleveland Guardians‘ loss in the 2017 American League Division series. Some things in a baseball season are never fully explained, understood or accepted.
Unlike postseason trials of nearly a decade ago, the 2025 Reds long ago made their lasting impression on Francona, and that was something he could articulate on the most painful night of the year for his club.
“I thought our group from Day 1 was a special group,” Francona said. “We did not accomplish what we set out to do. That takes away nothing from what me and the coaches feel about those guys… Every time you ask them to do something, they try to do it, which isn’t always the case. They put our ball club ahead of themselves and that doesn’t always happen either. We’re not the finished product but they competed like crazy. That’s what we ask them to do. When things didn’t look very good, they kept competing. Even the last couple nights. We’re kind of getting our ass handed to us but they keep going. That’s a good trait.”
The Reds prevailed in the long grind of 162 games to reach the postseason as the No. 3 National League wild card. The 83-79 record that matched the New York Mets allowed Cincinnati to reach the playoffs because the Reds won the season series against the Mets.
That accomplishment brought champagne to the Cincinnati clubhouse, and gave Greater Cincinnati a taste of playoff baseball for the first time in a full season in 12 years. For at least a few days, Southwest Ohio had a legitimate license to dream World Series dreams. The players did, too, and they did.
The deep dive analysis on 2025 from Francona, President of Baseball Operations Nick Krall, General Manager Brad Meador and others will arrive eventually. Francona said he’ll stick in Cincinnati for a couple weeks, and perhaps the reason for that is to help facilitate the post-mortem.
What all the spreadsheets, number-crunching, analysis and game tape won’t reveal is that key players on the Reds saw 2025 as the beginning of something meaningful, and that can be built upon.
“There’s a lot of fight in this clubhouse. A lot of guys that want to win,” Reds pitcher Nick Martinez said. “I personally feel it’s just the beginning of a winning culture here.”
The final scores from the two wild card round games the Reds played against the Dodgers didn’t flatter Cincinnati. But the complexity of those games requires looking beyond the losses of 10-5 in Game 1 and 8-4 in Game 2.
“There’s going to be narratives written out that because of the way the score ended the last two nights that we didn’t belong, but we were more than in those games,” Reds closer Emilio Pagán said. “For anybody that doesn’t believe that, they can go ask (Dodgers manager) Dave Roberts. You could see it on his face. He treated us with respect. He respected every inning. That’s why he went to his relivers that he did in the spots that he did. We were in those games, and hopefully these guys realize that they belong. They belong with the upper echelons of players and teams. I’d love to be back and run it back with them and take another run at it.”
The post-game clubhouse following the Oct. 1 playoff loss was a somber one, but also one in which teammates embraced and said their goodbyes in a meaningful way because they knew what had just ended was special.
“It’s hard to know what to take away because it’s so fresh and raw,” Francona said. “Everybody’s hurting. Only one team can go home at the end on their own terms, and it’s not us this year. The season doesn’t just wind down. It comes to a crashing halt, and that’s kind of hard sometimes to make your peace with.”
Some will characterize this Reds team as having joined a long line of Reds teams to disappoint in the playoffs this century. But this group isn’t like the 2020 team, or the 2013 and 2012 teams.
Oct. 1 at Dodger Stadium doesn’t have to be the end of anything. It’s definitely a pause on baseball in Cincinnati. We won’t see the Reds in uniform against until late February in Goodyear, Arizona. But the idea of picking up again at that point after what transpired in 2025 had players in the Dodger Stadium visitors clubhouse noticably optimistic considering they’d just been eliminated from the playoffs.
“These guys become your family away from family,” T.J. Friedl said. “You come to spring training, you meet some new guys. You get really close. You spend every day with this group for 7 months. You pop champagne with these guys. You have great moments with these guys. And then it just comes to an end. Unfotuantely, it’s not the way that we wanted it to end. But just really grateful for the group we had this year. We fought hard. We all love each other a lot.”