The Cincinnati Reds will open their 2026 season on March 26th in Great American Ball Park with the Boston Red Sox in town. Cincinnati\u2019s Cactus League slate at their home in Goodyear, Arizona will begin this Saturday, February 21st, with the Cleveland Guardians both their home complex compatriots and opponents for the day.<\/p>\n
With competitive baseball firmly on the horizon, here\u2019s Red Reporter\u2019s first stab at how the 26-man roster will look when regular season ball commences just five weeks from now.<\/p>\n
Advertisement<\/p>\n
Starting Rotation<\/p>\n
RHP Hunter Greene<\/p>\n
LHP Andrew Abbott<\/p>\n
LHP Nick Lodolo<\/p>\n
RHP Brady Singer<\/p>\n
RHP Chase Burns<\/p>\n
Notes: The storyline here is the battle for the fifth and final spot in the rotation, as each of Burns, Rhett Lowder, Brandon Williamson, and Julian Aguiar are among the candidates \u2013 each of whom already has big league experience under their belts. Burns, though, seems poised to launch into the stratosphere of elite pitchers in the game today, and I don\u2019t think the Reds are in a position to throttle that to begin the season (even if they need to limit his innings at some point later in the year).<\/p>\n
Given that each of Lowder, Williamson, and Aguiar is coming off lost 2025 seasons due to major injuries, I think each will get slow-played to start 2026 in order to be built up and ready for the inevitable mid-season needs of the big league club.<\/p>\n
Advertisement<\/p>\n
Bullpen<\/p>\n
RHP Emilio Pag\u00e1n<\/p>\n
RHP Tony Santillan<\/p>\n
RHP Graham Ashcraft<\/p>\n
LHP Brock Burke<\/p>\n
LHP Caleb Ferguson<\/p>\n
RHP Pierce Johnson<\/p>\n
RHP Connor Phillips<\/p>\n
LHP Sam Moll<\/p>\n
Notes: The final spot here is the lone one about which I\u2019ve got questions, but usually when that\u2019s the case it\u2019s the larger, administrative factors that win out. In this case, Moll is out of options, and I think that will give him the leg up on the final spot over the likes of Zach Maxwell and Luis Mey. It gives the Reds a third lefty, which might not be ideal, but would buy time for Terry Francona to figure out just how much he really needs a third southpaw (and for Moll to show he\u2019s healthy again), with Big Sugar and Mey around for immediate depth if anything goes askew.<\/p>\n
Advertisement<\/p>\n
Position Players<\/p>\n
C Tyler Stephenson<\/p>\n
C Jose Trevino<\/p>\n
1B Nathaniel Lowe<\/p>\n
DH\/IF Eugenio Su\u00e1rez<\/p>\n
IF Sal Stewart<\/p>\n
IF Matt McLain<\/p>\n
IF Elly De La Cruz<\/p>\n
3B Ke\u2019Bryan Hayes<\/p>\n
IF\/OF Spencer Steer<\/p>\n
OF TJ Friedl<\/p>\n
OF Noelvi Marte<\/p>\n
OF Will Benson<\/p>\n
OF Dane Myers<\/p>\n
Notes: The recent signing of Lowe to a non-roster contract put this projection into flux, but I do truly think there\u2019s plenty left in his tank and that will show in spring camp. That means he\u2019ll be in the mix at 1B more often than anyone originally thought, and while initially that would look like a major impact to the playing time of Stewart, I think it will actually impact JJ Bleday more than anyone due to Lowe hitting from the left-hand side. Bleday has options remaining \u2013 as does Benson, as they\u2019ll be competing directly with one another \u2013 but I think Benson gets the inside edge for the time being.<\/p>\n
Advertisement<\/p>\n
What carrying Lowe, a solid defender at 1B, does though is push Spencer Steer into more time in LF. Stewart, Lowe, and Su\u00e1rez will rotate through 1B\/DH on most days, though I do still expect Su\u00e1rez to get at least one start a week at 3B until the point at which he proves unplayable there. Steer will also likely get time at 2B on days when McLain either a) takes over SS to give Elly a break or b) when McLain needs a break himself, with Stewart hopefully getting in that mix a time or two here and there, too.<\/p>\n
While I\u2019m still highly skeptical of the concept of Myers at all, I think he gets the nod as the right-handed outfielder who can play CF for the time being.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Cincinnati Reds will open their 2026 season on March 26th in Great American Ball Park with the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":613142,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2400],"tags":[2001,5,48,757,12054,3760,5250,9093,708,535,50,4259,51,1951,1163,1105,92,2102,1952,1176,12056,1627,1401,4,495,1331,542,1944,79476,1133,536,6967,6513,9611,66,6288,8167,12475,1868,7656,42335],"class_list":{"0":"post-613141","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cincinnati-reds","8":"tag-andrew-abbott","9":"tag-baseball","10":"tag-boston-red-sox","11":"tag-brady-singer","12":"tag-brandon-williamson","13":"tag-brock","14":"tag-cactus-league","15":"tag-caleb","16":"tag-chase-burns","17":"tag-cincinnati","18":"tag-cincinnati-reds","19":"tag-cincinnatireds","20":"tag-cleveland-guardians","21":"tag-dane-myers","22":"tag-elly","23":"tag-emilio-pagan","24":"tag-eugenio-suarez","25":"tag-hunter-greene","26":"tag-jj-bleday","27":"tag-jose-trevino","28":"tag-julian-aguiar","29":"tag-luis-mey","30":"tag-matt-mclain","31":"tag-mlb","32":"tag-nathaniel-lowe","33":"tag-nick-lodolo","34":"tag-noelvi-marte","35":"tag-ohio","36":"tag-opening-day-at-great-american-ball-park","37":"tag-pierce-johnson","38":"tag-reds","39":"tag-rhett-lowder","40":"tag-sal-stewart","41":"tag-sam-moll","42":"tag-san-francisco-giants","43":"tag-spencer-steer","44":"tag-tj-friedl","45":"tag-tony-santillan","46":"tag-tyler-stephenson","47":"tag-will-benson","48":"tag-zach-maxwell"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/613141","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=613141"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/613141\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/613142"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=613141"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=613141"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=613141"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}