Cincinnati Reds: What to know before heading to RedsFest 2026<\/a><\/p>\nIt\u2019s been a busy week in the National League Central. The Chicago Cubs signed All-Star third baseman Alex Bregman, and they\u2019ve also recently added a standout starting pitcher in Edward Cabrera. <\/p>\n
The St. Louis Cardinals, who traded Nolan Arenado to the Arizona Diamondbacks this week, are going in the other direction. <\/p>\n
The Pittsburgh Pirates have had their busiest offseason in years as they\u2019ve added two standout hitters in Ryan O\u2019Hearn and Brandon Lowe.<\/p>\n
While the Brewers haven\u2019t made a big move, they won the division last year.<\/p>\n
This offseason, the Reds have mostly focused on the bullpen as they re-signed Pag\u00e1n and added relievers Caleb Ferguson and Pierce Johnson. They also have added outfielders JJ Bleday and Dane Myers, who are bounceback candidates.<\/p>\n
Still, there\u2019s a lot of optimism around a team that won 83 games last year.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re excited,\u201d All-Star pitcher Andrew Abbott said. \u201cThere\u2019s a lot of energy in the air. We shored up the bullpen and we\u2019ve got the young guys coming back who are trying to prove themselves or build up on seasons past. I\u2019m truly excited.\u201d<\/p>\n
Adding Ferguson and Johnson gives the Reds the most established middle relief core that the team has had since 2020. Instead of adding a bat, the Reds spent over $10 million to sign these two veteran relievers who have pitched in a lot of big games as well as in a variety of roles.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a lot of trust that we have in the veteran guys,\u201d Abbott said. \u201cBeing that I\u2019m still getting my feet wet in the league, we learn from the guys who have been there. It\u2019s really important to have. They\u2019re also an anchor. They\u2019ve been there, done that. You know what you\u2019re getting out of those guys. They\u2019ve always been reliable.\u201d<\/p>\n
Pag\u00e1n feels similar optimism about the bullpen and sees it as a group that\u2019s going to be \u201creally good\u201d this season. He\u2019s excited about the new veteran options, and he said that he\u2019s also looking forward to seeing a talented group of rookie relievers take the next step.<\/p>\n
\u201cConnor Phillips, Lyon Richardson, (Zach) Maxwell, (Luis) Mey, they got good experience for us last year at the big league level and at times they were all throwing high-leverage innings,\u201d Pag\u00e1n said.<\/p>\n
A deeper bullpen can bolster a starting rotation that\u2019s the strength of the team. Hunter Greene, Nick Lodolo, Abbott, Brady Singer and Chase Burns all return. Also after missing all of last season, Rhett Lowder is back in the mix. <\/p>\n
After posting an All-Star season last year, the next step for Abbott is pitching a completely healthy season and making all 32 starts. Last spring, he opened the year on the IL after managing an old shoulder injury and going through a slower build up process during spring training. <\/p>\n
This year entering spring training, Abbott is full-go. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re slowly picking it up,\u201d Abbott said. \u201cNo injuries. No hiccups. It\u2019s been great so far.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cI don\u2019t see why we can\u2019t go win the division,\u201d closer Emilio Pag\u00e1n said. \u201cWe\u2019re going to have…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":523355,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2400],"tags":[5,535,50,4259,4,536],"class_list":{"0":"post-523354","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cincinnati-reds","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-cincinnati","10":"tag-cincinnati-reds","11":"tag-cincinnatireds","12":"tag-mlb","13":"tag-reds"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/115904663341641168","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/523354","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=523354"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/523354\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/523355"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=523354"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=523354"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=523354"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}