GOODYEAR, Ariz. — There are two paths that the Cincinnati Reds’ front office could have taken this offseason.

The Reds could have traded from the starting rotation, the strength of the team, to acquire a middle of the order bat. Or, they could keep the rotation intact and try to upgrade the offense through free agency.

The front office decided to keep together a group of talented starting pitchers who are all going to get paid one day.

“Truth be told, I don’t know if we can go get those (types of) guys (in free agency),” Terry Francona said. “If they’re on the market, you see what some of these guys are getting (paid). I’ve seen Nick (Krall) say that if you trade them, you’ve got to backfill it somehow. I don’t think we want to. I get it. I get that people are like, ‘Hey, get a bat.’ I get it. Believe me, I sit through it every night. But if you don’t have pitching, it’s a hard way to compete.”

The Reds’ rotation is the best in the division and one of the best in baseball. The Reds had the fifth-best starting pitching WAR in MLB last season, and that was with Hunter Greene missing half of the season, Chase Burns only making eight starts, Andrew Abbott and Nick Lodolo spending a bit of time on the IL and Rhett Lowder missing the entire season.

The rotation is running it back in 2026 with Greene, Abbott, Lodolo and Brady Singer. Burns, Lowder and Brandon Williamson will compete for the fifth spot in the rotation.

“We’ve got one of the best groups of starting pitchers in baseball,” closer Emilio Pagán said. “I don’t think that’s something we should shy away from. Our guys could go out and be the best rotation in the game. Starting pitching wins. It impacts everything. It takes pressure off everyone. The group of guys we have are all super, super talented guys. They have a chance to carry this team and this franchise for a long time.”

It’s not just talk. Around baseball, the rotation is recognized for being that good.

Very early in the process, Team USA started recruiting Greene for the World Baseball Classic. The American team was putting together the best rotation in the history of the tournament, and Greene was one of the first targets. Greene decided that he wasn’t going to play, citing an obligation to the Reds and their fans to give Cincinnati the very best 2026 season that he can.

“He’s going to lead the charge,” Lodolo said. “He’s one of the best in the game. I’m happy he got that start in the playoffs last year. It’s experience. You’d see a different guy this year when we get to that spot.”

Team USA also offered a spot to Nick Lodolo, who doesn’t get as much external recognition as Greene and Abbott and flies under the radar as one of the best young left-handed starting pitchers in the game. Lodolo spoke with Francona about pitching in the WBC.

Francona told him, “If you’re dying to do it, I’ll support you. I’m just worried. I’ve seen guys come back and not be the same. I want you to be wealthy as hell. Maybe there will be a day down the road where you have 50 million in the bank and go ahead and do it.”

The expectation is that Lodolo is going to earn that type of big contract one day.

Then there’s Abbott, who finished eighth in NL Cy Young voting last year.

The Reds are building their rotation around two All-Americans plus an All-Star.

“Some of our young pitchers proved a lot to themselves last year,” Francona said. “They know they belong. Now, they’re trying to see how good they can get. It’s fun to watch.”

The entire organizational plan is that the Reds hope that their pitching can carry the team if and when the Reds are back in the playoffs. The Reds didn’t get to follow through with that plan last year. Because they clinched a playoff spot on the final day of the season, Lodolo had to pitch out of the bullpen in Game 162. As a result, he wasn’t available to start in Los Angeles, and Zack Littell went on to start Game 2 of the series.

The idea is that this year, Greene, Lodolo and Abbott can be lined up for the playoffs.

“It’s something we’d love to see,” Lodolo said. “That, I think, is how you’d like to draw it up. If you get that going into a series, I’d feel pretty dang good. We’ve got good arms, man. We’re deep. We just want to get back there and have that chance again.”

During the regular season, there’s one more thing that the Big 3 in the rotation has to prove. None of these guys have been able to stay healthy yet for a full season.

“The biggest thing is staying healthy as a whole group,” Brady Singer said. “I’d love to see all of these guys make 32 starts, throw a hell of a lot of innings and be a strong staff that way. The ceiling on these guys is huge. I can sit back and watch what these guys are capable of, and that’s really cool for me.”

The Reds know what they have in Singer as their No. 4 starter. The 29-year-old posted a 4.03 ERA last year, but he took the ball every fifth day, got better as the season went on and carried the rotation for a bit during the summer. At the start of the offseason going into 2025, Reds prioritized adding a starter who they could rely on to make 32 starts. Singer checked that box, and his durability is a huge asset.

Behind Singer is the best rotation battle that the Reds have had in years. It’s two recent first-round picks who have become top prospects in Burns and Lowder plus a really interesting left-hander in Williamson. The battle will get sorted out in camp. My roster projection right now would give the edge to Burns, but we’ll see what happens.

Burns threw a heck of a live bullpen against some of the Reds’ top hitters on Tuesday. His fastball velocity sat around 100 mph. The best single pitch of the day was Burns stunning a batter for a strikeout looking with a curveball. The reaction from the dugout after that pitch was “wait, Burns has a curveball?” The best of his four pitches on Wednesday was his changeup, which is something because that’s typically his fourth-best pitch. And the fastball velocity speaks for itself.

Most of the people in camp made a point to watch Burns, who’s as talented as any person in the organization.

“Chase throws the absolute hell out of the baseball,” Singer said. “The pitches stand out. A 101 mph fastball. The metrics. His pitchability. He also has a presence on the mound. He’s super calm. You don’t see him too amped up. The moment isn’t too big for him. He’s very chill. But he hangs his (onions) out too when he goes out there and pitches really aggressively.”

Lowder’s command is as good as it gets for a rookie, and he has proven that his approach works in the big leagues. It’s a normal camp for him after missing all of 2025 due to an elbow and an oblique injury, and he’s letting it rip. Lowder was a top-10 pick in the 2023 draft, and the skills that allowed him to debut and post a 1.17 ERA in the big leagues in 2024 haven’t gone anywhere.

Williamson is a fascinating study. He was the Reds’ most consistent pitcher in 2023. But then a shoulder injury cost him most of 2024, and Tommy John surgery wiped out his 2025 season.

Williamson has battled shoulder injuries for most of his career, but the full year off allowed him to train his shoulder like he never had before. His big focus during the offseason was velocity, and he took a trip to a pitching lab and figured some things out.

He’s a completely different pitcher than he was in 2023. He still has the cutter-slider combo that fueled his success in his tool box. But now, because he’s stronger and because he has improved, he’s able to chuck fastballs past hitters and use his curveball as another swing and miss pitch. His velocity is the big difference, and he blew a fastball past Eugenio Suárez on Wednesday.

The Reds’ rotation has all of the ingredients to be great in 2026.

The front office kept this group together, and now the rotation is ready to lead the Reds’ efforts to take the next step.

“It’s great, having that continuity,” Greene said. “Knowing the front office still believes and sees the value in the rotation. We have all that confidence in ourselves already. It’s always nice to feel it in more of an external way.”