Free agent left-handed pitcher Caleb Ferguson has tasted postseason baseball and he wanted more. Ferguson deemed the Cincinnati Reds as a viable path to achieving more of it.
Ferguson, a 29-year-old who brings a much-needed lefty presence to the Reds bullpen, spent last season with the Seattle Mariners and Pittsburgh Pirates, going 5-4 with a 3.58 ERA in 70 appearances. He has a 3.66 ERA and six saves in 333 career games the past seven seasons with five teams, including the Dodgers, Yankees and Astros.
Ferguson also has 12 postseason appearances. He watched with interest as the Reds went about achieving their postseason berth in 2025.
“Watching the team last year, it looked like a lot of fun going down the stretch,” Ferguson said. “Being in a chase is always fun. I think everybody plays this game hoping for the chance to win and my given situation, I feel like this is my best chance to go out and try to win some ball games.”
Ferguson saw in the Reds a scrappiness. He’ll hope to add to that after agreeing to a one-year, $4.5 million contract with the club.
“I always kind of felt like it was, every time I faced them you were a couple singles away from being in a bad spot and having a three-run inning at any given moment,” Ferguson said during a Dec. 18 Zoom call with local reporters. “In my opinion, those are kind of the scary teams, the teams that can single you to death and kind of work up a pitch count and before you know it, you’ve got a three-run inning or a four-run inning. You don’t really know how it happened, and that’s kind of what it looks like.
“Having some guys that are gonna be able to just get on base and create a little bit of chaos is going to be fun to be on this side of.”
Ferguson enjoyed postseason success with the Dodgers (2018, 2023) and Astros (2024), and didn’t allow a hit over six combined innings during three postseason runs with those clubs. With Seattle this past postseason, Ferguson appeared in three games but allowed five earned runs in two and 2/3 innings.
Still, Ferguson’s postseason experience qualifies him as a team leader in that regard, even after the Reds made the 2025 postseason but were swept out of in two games by the eventual champion Dodgers.
“Not to be generic, cliche, whatever, but I’ve always said this about my career: I never try to put too much stock into the situation that I’m pitching in,” Ferguson said. “Whether my job is in the third inning, in the ninth inning, the seventh inning, I don’t really try to put a ton of stock in what inning I’m pitching in. At the end of the day, my job is to get outs and it’s to get them as efficiently as I can. That’s kind of what I try to do. I try to take the name off the back of the jersey and try to get the guy out that’s in the box.”
Ferguson is a big part of Cincinnati’s bullpen rebuild as he fills an area of need − something Reds manager Terry Francona reminded Ferguson when they connected.
The Reds have committed $15.8 million in 2026 payroll to three free agent signings so far this winter. The only problem is that the club appears to be close to maxing out available budget room for 2026. Barring any trades that move salary off the roster, the Reds appear to have less than $10 million of working flexibility to complete their offseason needs as they try to build off their 2025 playoff appearance.
Team officials say the payroll budget for 2026 is roughly the same as 2025 ($115 million-$119 million range).
Including the $1.25 million they acquired with the waiver claim of backup catcher Ben Rortvedt, the Reds now have eight players under contract for 2026 at a total of $40.8 million – $52.8 million in obligations counting the $12 million 2026 salary they ate when releasing Jeimer Candelario over the summer.
They have another $40 million to $50 million in projected salaries coming to 10 arbitration-eligible players (barring trading from this group) – plus nine more spots to fill on the Opening Day roster (assuming they don’t carry three catchers), including pre-arbitration players such as Elly De La Cruz, Andrew Abbott and Noelvi Marte (plus other 40-man roster salaries/prorated roster churn).