MILWAUKEE — In the chaos that was the post-clinch celebration in the visiting clubhouse at American Family Field on Sunday, Cincinnati Reds center fielder TJ Friedl hugged just about everyone in the team’s traveling party, but when he got to teammates Tyler Stephenson and Tony Santillan, it was different.

Stephenson and Santillan have been teammates since 2015, before Friedl and Taylor Trammell, now with the Houston Astros, joined the organization a year later. Together, the four dubbed themselves the “T-Amigos,” living together throughout the minor leagues and during spring training in Arizona.

“I was searching for everyone, but I think the embrace with those guys was a little longer,” a shirtless Friedl said after the team clinched a playoff berth for the first time since 2020.

Stephenson has been with the Reds — the big-league team and the organization — longer than anyone else on the roster. The 29-year-old catcher was the team’s first pick in the 2015 MLB Draft, taken 11th, 38 picks ahead of Santillan, a fellow high schooler. The next year, the Reds drafted Trammell and signed Friedl as an undrafted free agent.

The four lived together throughout the minor leagues, beginning in what was then High A in Daytona, Fla., where Stephenson and Trammell played in the Florida State League Playoffs, losing in the championship series. Together they played in some combination at every level of the Reds’ minor-league system, playing for teams in Arizona, Montana, Ohio, Florida, Tennessee and Kentucky.

Sunday, the Reds clinched the National League’s third wild-card spot despite losing 4-2 to the Milwaukee Brewers in the final game of the regular season. Just minutes after the Reds lost, the Miami Marlins finished a 4-0 win against the New York Mets. The Reds and Mets finished with 83-79 records, but the Reds beat the Mets in four of six head-to-head matchups this season, giving them the nod to head to California to face the Los Angeles Dodgers in the best-of-three National League Wild Card Series.

Classy move, @Brewers. pic.twitter.com/GvFZTe4Ssx

— Cincinnati Reds (@Reds) September 28, 2025

Though Stephenson debuted in 2020, he wasn’t on the active roster for the Reds’ clincher or the team’s playoff series in Atlanta.

Stephenson, Friedl and Santillan played for the Reds in 2021, when they finished with an 83-79 record but missed the playoffs in the final year with just two wild-card spots per league.

In 2022, the three played for the 100-loss Reds team, and in 2023, they were part of another near-playoff team. In all, they have played a combined 869 games in a Reds uniform, and Tuesday at Dodger Stadium, they’ll be playing in their first game in a Reds uniform with a postseason patch.

“In 2020 when we clinched, I wasn’t part of this, so this is the first time I’ve been able to be a part of this,” Stephenson said. “The organization’s been through so much, and to be so close the past few years, to be able to finally accomplish this, it’s special.”

None of the three is the team’s most veteran player, but they are leaders on a team full of them. Catcher Jose Trevino and utilityman Gavin Lux were in the World Series last year with the New York Yankees and Dodgers, and closer Emilio Pagán has been to the playoffs with five of the six teams he has played for. Then there’s reliever Nick Martinez, starter Brady Singer and outfielder Austin Hays, all of whom have played in the postseason.

But even the veterans quickly saw how important the trio was to the team’s culture. None of the three has reached free agency, but their presence and experience with the team have helped set a tone.

“They’re great people, great players,” Pagán said. “It took a while to get here, but you could argue that they were kind of the start of it. They’re a huge part of our young core.”

Each had unique paths to the big leagues.

Stephenson debuted first, hitting a home run on his first big-league swing in 2020. A top prospect after being taken 11th out of a Georgia high school, Stephenson battled injuries throughout the minors and has done the same in the majors. He finished with Rookie of the Year votes in 2021 but played in just 50 games the next year due to injuries. Last year, he became the first Reds catcher since Joe Oliver in 1993 to catch at least 1,000 innings.

This year, the team brought in Trevino to pair with Stephenson behind the plate, and they have formed a solid duo.

Friedl wasn’t drafted in 2016, but he received a then-record signing bonus for a non-drafted free agent of $732,500. Friedl didn’t even know he was draft-eligible before that year’s draft because he had redshirted as a sophomore at Nevada before impressing with Team USA after his second year with the Wolfpack. The Reds had the most leftover signing pool money and gave it to Friedl, who picked the Reds over the Tampa Bay Rays.

Though Stephenson and Santillan are listed at 6 feet 3, Friedl stands at 5-8. Stephenson was known for his power as a high schooler, but Friedl was known for his bunting. In both seasons in which Friedl played at least 100 games — 2023 and 2025 — he led the majors in bunt hits, with 17 in 2023 and 11 this year.

That’s not the sexiest stat, but he has gone from fourth outfielder to leadoff man against right-handers to full-time leadoff man regardless of the pitcher. He has battled injuries and come back each time. Both of his big-league managers, Terry Francona and David Bell before him, have stated their love of him as a player and stressed how difficult it’s been to get him out of the lineup.

“He’s the guy you can’t measure; you can’t look at the stat sheets,” said Reds assistant hitting coach Alex Pelaez, who was the Daytona Tortugas’ hitting coach in 2018 when all three played there. “He’s our leader in our clubhouse; he plays hard, and everybody follows him.”

And then there’s Santillan.

Tony Santillan had a 2.44 ERA with 75 strikeouts in 73 2/3 innings pitched for the Reds this season. (Jeff Dean / Getty Images)

A starter in the minors, Santillan made it to the big leagues in 2021 but was outrighted after an injury-shortened 2023 season. He wasn’t claimed by other teams and re-signed with the Reds. He was arguably their best reliever last spring, but because he was not on the roster and out of options, he didn’t make it to the big leagues until July.

This year, the man nicknamed “Oso” because he has the physique and strength of a bear was arguably the team’s most valuable player, appearing in 80 games, one shy of the major-league lead. In those 80 games, he had a 2.44 ERA and seven saves to go along with Pagán’s 32.

“He was one of the first guys I grabbed,” Francona said of Sunday’s celebration. “I mean, what he did — and he’s still doing it — but what he did was … a lot.”

For a team that was built by president of baseball operations Nick Krall and general manager Brad Meador, with special consideration to who the players are as people as much as who they are as players, those three set the tone from the beginning of their time with the Reds.

“They led the way,” Meador said. “This group never stopped fighting. We’ve been dead so many times, right? It’s probably been over 20 times — we’ve read about it, we’ve heard about it. And they just stuck together.”

It’s how a team that was under .500 as recently as Sept. 16 found its way to the playoffs.

And as Friedl’s wife, Dressa, said, the way only an exasperated wife can, the three friends (along with Trammell) still have that text thread that started when they were members of the Dayton Dragons in 2017.

“That’s when Taylor, Tony and TJ were all together,” Stephenson said. “(Friedl) was in my wedding (along with Trammell); he’s one of my best friends. I love him. There’s so many emotions. It’s special.”

The T-Amigos don’t all live together anymore — their wives probably wouldn’t approve it — but at least three of the four are still together, and they’re going to experience the playoffs together for the first time.

“This is what you play for: October baseball,” Santillan said. “It was a goal of ours ever since I’ve been here — 10, 11 years — and I haven’t experienced it. So this is a big moment, a good experience to have. Everyone who plays professional baseball dreams of playing October baseball, and I’m just happy to have a great group of guys to enjoy it with.”

(Top photo: C. Trent Rosecrans/ The Athletic)