Wayne Granger Passes Away
Former MLB reliever Wayne Granger passed away on Wednesday at 81. The National Baseball Hall of Fame announced the news this evening.
Granger, a 6’4″ right-handed pitcher, was a native of Springfield, Massachusetts. He signed with the Cardinals as an amateur free agent and debuted with St. Louis during the 1968 season. Granger tossed 44 innings of 2.25 ERA ball as a rookie. He made one mop-up appearance in that year’s World Series, getting through two scoreless innings in a blowout loss in Game 6 against the Tigers. Detroit would win the decider the next night, coming back from a 3-1 series deficit.
That wound up being Granger’s final appearance of his first stint in a St. Louis uniform. The Cardinals traded him to Cincinnati alongside 23-year-old outfielder Bobby Tolan for Vada Pinson, a star center fielder who was by that point in the decline phase of his career.
It turned out to be a win for the Reds. Pinson played one season with the Cardinals, hitting .255 with 10 homers, and was traded to Cleveland a year later. Tolan had a brief peak but had three excellent seasons as a table-setter in front of the bigger bats as the Big Red Machine dynasty developed.
Granger was a bullpen workhorse over his three seasons in Cincinnati. He led the majors in appearances (90) and games finished (55) during his first year with the Reds. Granger threw 144 2/3 innings — a huge amount out of the bullpen even at a time when most relievers went multiple innings — and worked to a 2.80 ERA. The ’69 season was the first in which MLB officially recognized the save statistic. Granger picked up 27, tying him for third-most in the majors.
He had a similar showing the following year. Granger again posted a sub-3.00 ERA while logging 84 2/3 innings during the regular season. He led the majors with a career-high 35 saves, which was at the time the most in a season in MLB history (including retroactive tallies from before it was officially recognized as a stat).
That was mostly a reflection of the changing way in which teams used their relievers. It certainly didn’t hurt that a 102-win Cincinnati team gave Granger plenty of opportunities to shut the door. He pitched quite well in his own right, however, although that unfortunately didn’t extend to the postseason. Granger gave up five runs in two innings over a pair of appearances in the 1970 World Series. The Reds dropped a five-game set to the Orioles.
Granger played one more season in Cincinnati, again leading the National League in appearances in 1971. The Reds traded him to the Twins after that season. Granger pitched one year in Minnesota before kicking around to a handful of clubs (Yankees, a second stint in St. Louis, White Sox, Astros and Expos).
He retired after the 1976 season and was inducted into the Reds’ team Hall of Fame six years later. Granger finished his career with a 3.14 ERA across 638 2/3 innings. He recorded 108 saves and struck out 303 opponents. MLBTR sends condolences to his family, friends, former teammates and loved ones.
Poll: Who Will Be The Odd Man Out In The Reds’ Lineup?
The Reds were perhaps the most surprising playoff club of the 2025 season, as they managed to squeak into the third NL Wild Card spot with an 83-79 record. That return to the postseason came to an abrupt end when they were dispatched by the eventual World Champion Dodgers in the Wild Card round, but that didn’t stop them from making some upgrades to the team this winter. The return of veteran slugger Eugenio Suarez is surely the most impactful addition of the team’s offseason, but it also creates a bit of a logjam within the roster for their existing players. While Suarez is an impactful offensive addition coming off a 49-homer campaign, he’ll surely cut into the playing time of one of the club’s other regulars. That’s especially true given the addition of JJ Bleday to the club’s outfield mix, which effectively replaced the traded Gavin Lux on the roster.
While a reduction in playing time for the rest of the roster is inevitable, the Reds have enough positional flexibility on their roster that exactly how playing time will be divvied up remains an open question. With so many potential lineup configurations, who will end up getting the short end of the stick? There’s a few obvious players who won’t be losing playing time this year. Tyler Stephenson and Jose Trevino are more or less locked in as the club’s catching tandem. Shortstop Elly De La Cruz is a star and will surely be in the lineup every day as long as he’s healthy. TJ Friedl projects as the regular center fielder, and Suarez himself is sure to play everyday as long as he’s healthy.
For virtually every other player on the roster, however, it’s not impossible to imagine them getting squeezed out. Spencer Steer is perhaps the most established player among the rest of the roster, but even he doesn’t seem to be guaranteed everyday at-bats. That’s in part because he’s without a position. While he was a strong defensive first baseman for the Reds last year, his 97 wRC+ isn’t exactly the sort of impact one expects from that spot in the lineup. That could leave Steer handling any number of positions, as he’s at least passable when playing each of second base, third base, and the outfield corners in addition to first base and DH. That leaves the players at each of those positions (aside from Suarez) with a capable, if unspectacular player breathing down their necks in the hunt for playing time.
At first base, the Reds currently figure to utilize Sal Stewart. A consensus top prospect entering 2026, the rookie got an 18-game cup of coffee in the majors down the stretch last year and did everything one could’ve hoped for with the opportunity. He slashed .255/.293/.545 with five homers and a double in just 58 trips to the plate while managing to keep his strikeout rate at a reasonable 25.9%. He also succeeded when the lights were brightest, going 2-for-4 with a walk and four RBI against Los Angeles in the playoffs while the rest of the team struggled to produce. That’s enough that it should earn him a starting job, and he’s spent plenty of time at third and even second base in addition to first, offering some potential flexibility regarding where he’ll play. With that, said, if the rookie struggles at some point this year it wouldn’t be a shock to see him sent down to Triple-A, where the Reds could garner another year of team control over Stewart if he stays in the minors long enough.
While Stewart’s service time considerations could make Cincinnati a bit more willing to pull him out of the lineup than the rest of their players, that doesn’t mean the others are safe in their playing time. Ke’Bryan Hayes was the team’s most notable deadline addition last year, and his elite glove should mean that the Reds’ pitchers are consistently rooting for him to be in the lineup at third base on a regular basis. With that being said, Hayes is undoubtedly the weakest offensive player on the roster. While he flashed upside earlier in his career with the Pirates, he also hit just .235/.290/.306 (65 wRC+) last year after posting a 60 wRC+ the year prior. If Hayes can’t get his offensive production back into the 90 wRC+ range it sat in from 2021-2023, then it could be hard for the team to justify playing him regularly unless the rest of the lineup is mashing.
Hayes’s offensive woes also apply, at least to some extent, to Matt McLain. McLain appeared in 147 games last year after missing the entire 2024 season due to injury, and his results left a lot to be desired. He hit just .220/.300/.343 with a wRC+ of 77. While he turned in a solid 9.5% walk rate to save his overall slash line somewhat, the combination of a 28.5% strikeout rate and a .124 ISO simply isn’t going to cut it if he wants to be even an average big league hitter. McLain is a former top prospect who showed substantial upside in 2023 with a 129 wRC+ in 89 games, but his leash could wind up being somewhat short if he struggles, given that several other players on the team are capable of handling the keystone.
One such player is Noelvi Marte, who spent last season in right field but has been an infielder for most of his career. Marte had a disastrous 2024 season where he hit just .210/.248/.301 after returning from an 80-game PED suspension, but 2025 saw him take a step in the right direction as he posted a 101 wRC+ in 90 games despite losing two months to an oblique strain. Prior to that injury, Marte looked to be in the midst of a breakout, and while a brutal month of September put a damper on his overall season numbers, it’s not hard to see the 24-year-old taking another step forward this year. With that being said, a slump or two like the ones he suffered in 2024 and the second half of 2025 could conceivably leave Marte as the odd man out if the rest of the lineup is hitting.
One wild card with regards to playing time for the rest of the roster is Bleday. He’s more or less locked into the outfield corners defensively, and therefore can’t offer the sort of versatility virtually every other player here can. He’s also a questionable fit to be in the lineup against lefties, which inherently gives him a lower ceiling in terms of playing time than the rest of the roster. That might make him seem like the obvious pick to get the least playing time on the roster, but his lefty bat on a predominantly right-handed roster could prove extremely valuable. Additionally, Bleday is just one year removed from a solid season for the A’s where he posted a 120 wRC+ and 3.2 fWAR. Last year was tougher on him as he hit just .212/.294/.404, but if he can rediscover his 2024 form he could be one of the top hitters in the Reds’ entire lineup and earn a larger share of playing time than many of these players who have mostly shown league average or lower ability in recent years.
Who do you expect to ultimately draw the short end of the stick when it comes to playing time in Cincinnati this year? Will a young player like Stewart be sent down, or could someone like McLain or Marte struggle despite their former prospect pedigree? Will Hayes’s offense be too weak to justify his excellent defense, or will Bleday not hit enough to justify his middling outfield defense? Or, could the rest of the lineup work out so well that Steer finds himself in a utility role? Have your say in the poll below:
Which Reds player will get the fewest plate appearances in 2026?
Reds, Nathaniel Lowe Agree To Minor League Deal
TODAY: The Reds officially announced Lowe’s contract. Sheldon reports that Lowe will earn $1.75MM if he makes Cincinnati’s active roster, with another $250K available in contract incentives.
FEBRUARY 13: The Reds and first baseman Nathaniel Lowe are in agreement on a minor league deal, per Mark Feinsand and Mark Sheldon of MLB.com. The SportsMeter client will be in big league camp as a non-roster invitee.
A year ago, the notion of Lowe settling for a non-roster deal would’ve seemed far-fetched. From 2021-24, the now-30-year-old Lowe was the Rangers’ everyday first baseman — and a good one, at that. He slashed a combined .274/.359/.432 (124 wRC+) with 78 home runs, 104 doubles, 10 triples, 13 steals, a strong 11.3% walk rate and a 23.3% strikeout rate that was only a bit north of average. Defensive metrics were bearish on his glove early in his MLB run, but he posted quality marks in both Defensive Runs Saved (4) and Outs Above Average (10) in 2023-24.
As the Rangers began the process of paring down their payroll, they traded Lowe and his $10.3MM salary to the Nationals for left-hander Robert Garcia. The change of scenery didn’t work out whatsoever for Lowe. He appeared in 119 games and tallied 490 plate appearances with a .216/.292/.373 batting line (86 wRC+) before being designated for assignment and released in August. Lowe’s walk rate in D.C. dipped to 9.6%, and his strikeout rate climbed to 26.5%. He was also a bit more prone to pop-ups and hit fewer line drives than he had during his Texas stint.
The Red Sox, needing help at first base, quickly scooped Lowe up and got better production out of the veteran’s left-handed bat. In a smaller sample of 119 plate appearances with Boston, Lowe turned in a .280/.370/.420 slash that pretty closely resembled the production from his time in Arlington. His production was buoyed by a .361 average on balls in play that he’s highly unlikely to sustain, but Lowe was also dogged by a .267 BABIP with the Nationals — a whopping 72 points south of the .339 mark he carried into the season.
With the Reds, Lowe will have a chance to win a prominent role in the lineup. Top prospect Sal Stewart is the presumptive front-runner at first base, but he has all of 18 big league games under his belt. The 2022 No. 32 overall pick belted five homers in that time and had a big year in Triple-A as well (.309/.383/.524, 152 wRC+) but some veteran competition for him won’t hurt. Also in the mix at first base are Christian Encarnacion-Strand and Spencer Steer. The former hasn’t hit in the majors since 2023 and has minor league options remaining, while the latter can play all over the diamond.
There could be occasional DH at-bats available, although the returning Eugenio Suárez will likely take the bulk of those reps in 2026. Suárez could also see time at the hot corner if the oft-injured Ke’Bryan Hayes hits the injured list, which would open up additional avenues to get both Stewart and Lowe into the lineup — assuming Lowe performs well enough to make the roster, of course.
Tyler Stephenson Wins Arbitration Hearing
Reds catcher Tyler Stephenson won his arbitration hearing against the team, reports Gordon Wittenmyer of the Cincinnati Enquirer. He’ll earn the $6.8MM figure submitted by his reps at ACES rather than the $6.55MM figure submitted by the team. Stephenson is heading into his final season of club control and will be a free agent next winter.
Stephenson pulls in a 38.1% raise on last year’s $4.925MM salary on the heels of a season in which he slashed .231/.316/.421 with 13 homers and 18 doubles in 342 plate appearances. A broken left thumb and an oblique strain limited him to just 88 games in 2025, but he had another generally productive stretch while healthy. Since debuting in 2019, Stephenson has taken just shy of 2000 plate appearances and logged a combined .261/.338/.426 slash with 63 homers and 94 doubles.
Last year’s 33.9% strikeout rate was a career-worst by a wide margin, but his career-high 10.8% walk rate at least helped to mitigate that uptick in punchouts a bit. He actually chased balls off the plate less than the average hitter, but Stephenson’s contact rate on those chases was just 49.4% — well shy off the 55.6% league average. His contact rate on balls within the zone dropped by a concerning six percentage points.
Some of that could be due to his broken thumb, of course. Hand injuries can linger and impact a player’s swing even after he’s cleared to return to action, and it’s worth noting that Stephenson’s bat speed dropped by nearly a mile per hour over the prior season. It’s not unreasonable to think that with better health, he could regain some of that contact. Either way, his quality of contact remained strong; Stephenson averaged 90.5 mph off the bat with an excellent 49.2% hard-hit rate and an even better 14.4% barrel rate.
Heading into the 2026 season, Stephenson will again be the Reds’ primary catcher, teaming with defensive-minded Jose Trevino to handle the majority of Cincinnati’s catching duties. He could also mix in at first base and designated hitter. A healthy platform season should put Stephenson in line for a nice multi-year deal as he heads to the open market ahead of his age-30 campaign next winter.
Following Stephenson’s victory, players have gone 6-1 against teams in this offseason’s slate of arbitration hearings.
Dodgers Claim Ben Rortvedt
The Reds announced that catcher Ben Rortvedt has been claimed off waivers by the Dodgers. Cincinnati designated him for assignment when they signed Eugenio Suárez earlier this week. The Dodgers have a full 40-man roster and will need to open a spot for Rortvedt.
The Dodgers clearly like Rortvedt as a depth catcher. They acquired him at last year’s deadline and he got some playing time down the stretch when Will Smith was hurt. After the season, he and the Dodgers avoided arbitration by agreeing to a $1.25MM salary for 2026.
They then tried to sneak him through waivers, hoping that the salary would be enough to make other clubs pass, therefore allowing Rortvedt be in the minors as non-roster depth. They tried a similar move with infielder Andy Ibáñez, signing him to a $1.2MM deal and then putting him on the wire. It didn’t work in either case. The Reds claimed Rortvedt in November and the Athletics claimed Ibáñez today.
The Dodgers are taking this chance to bring Rortvedt back again. For now, he appears to be the clear #3 catcher behind Smith and Dalton Rushing. They could option Rushing to the minors but seemingly don’t think he has anything left to prove there, which is why they called him up last year and moved on from Austin Barnes.
Assuming Rortvedt is indeed third on the chart, he could be bound for the waiver wire again in the future. He is out of options and would have to be nudged off the 40-man if he’s not going to be on the active roster.
Time will tell how that plays out. For now, he’s back with the champs. His performance has been up and down in recent years. With the Rays in 2024, he posted a .228/.317/.303 line in 328 plate appearances. His 87 wRC+ indicated he was 13% below league average but that’s not bad for a part-time catcher. Thanks to some solid defense, FanGraphs credited him with 1.4 wins above replacement in that role.
Things turned sour in 2025. He slashed .095/.186/.111 and got outrighted to the minors. As mentioned, he was traded to the Dodgers and got some time filling in for Smith. In his 58 plate appearances, he hit .224/.309/.327, somewhat similar to his 2024 production. Teams clearly view him as a useful depth catcher but what remains to be seen is if he can hold onto a roster spot or if he can be passed through waivers.
Photo courtesy of Jayne Kamin-Oncea, Imagn Images
Graham Ashcraft Wins Arbitration Hearing
Reds right-hander Graham Ashcraft won his arbitration hearing against the team, ESPN’s Jeff Passan reports. He and his reps at the Bledsoe Agency filed for a $1.75MM salary, while the team filed at $1.25MM. Ashcraft will receive the larger of those two figures in 2026. Players have won all five arbitration hearings that have been decided thus far in 2026.
Ashcraft, 28 next week, had a breakout season in the bullpen for Cincinnati. The former starter took to his new relief role, logging 65 1/3 innings with a 3.99 ERA. A forearm strain late in the season may have helped beef that ERA up a bit; he missed two weeks in late August/early September and was immediately tagged for five runs in his first two innings back on the mound, though he righted the ship thereafter, rattling off 5 1/3 shutout innings to end the year.
The 6’2″, 245-pound Ashcraft already threw hard as a starter, but his heater jumped to an average of 97.1 mph in relief. He paired that offering with a slider sitting 89.8 mph and showed more bat-missing ability than his 22.5% strikeout rate would otherwise indicate. That mark is right in line with league average, but Ashcraft’s 13.2% swinging-strike rate is more than two percentage points north of par. He also posted a solid 8.8% walk rate and a huge 55.9% ground-ball rate.
Ashcraft began the season working in lower-leverage spots but was one of manager Terry Francona’s top options in tight situations by season’s end. By measure of leverage index, Tony Santillan worked in the most pressure-packed spots, but Ashcraft was only a bit behind him, ranking slightly ahead of closer Emilio Pagan, who was more typically reserved for more traditional ninth-inning work.
The Reds re-signed Pagan to a two-year deal this winter, the second season of which is a player option. Ashcraft, alongside Santillan, will reprise his role as one of Pagan’s top setup men. If Pagan opts out after the season and signs elsewhere, Ashcraft could be in the mix for closing opportunities in 2027. This was his first trip through arbitration. Ashcraft is controllable through 2028 and is owed two more raises in arbitration over the next couple offseasons.
MLBTR Podcast: Twins Front Office Shake-Up, The Brendan Donovan Trade, Eugenio Suarez, And More!
The latest episode of the MLB Trade Rumors Podcast is now live on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and wherever you get your podcasts! Make sure you subscribe as well! You can also use the player at this link to listen, if you don’t use Spotify or Apple for podcasts.
This week, host Darragh McDonald is joined by Steve Adams of MLB Trade Rumors to discuss…
- The Twins parting ways with president of baseball operations Derek Falvey (2:10)
- The Mariners getting Brendan Donovan in a three-team trade with the Cardinals and Rays (18:15)
- The Reds signing Eugenio Suárez (35:50)
- The Pirates reportedly just missing on Suárez and what they could still do at this late stage of the offseason (39:20)
- The Giants having an agreement Luis Arráez and also Harrison Bader (49:20)
- The White Sox acquiring Jordan Hicks from the Red Sox (58:35)
- The Athletics signing Jacob Wilson to an extension (1:12:20)
- Several players not being allowed to participate in the World Baseball Classic due to insurance issues (1:16:05)
Check out our past episodes!
- Examining MLB’s Parity Situation – Also, Bellinger, Peralta, Robert, And Gore – listen here
- What The Tucker And Bichette Contracts Mean For Baseball – Also, Nolan Arenado And Ranger Suarez – listen here
- The Cubs Land Cabrera And Bregman, Remaining Free Agents, And Skubal’s Arbitration Filing – listen here
The podcast intro and outro song “So Long” is provided courtesy of the band Showoff. Check out their Facebook page here!
Photo courtesy of Joe Puetz, Imagn Images
Reds Designate Ben Rortvedt For Assignment
The Reds announced that catcher Ben Rortvedt has been designated for assignment. That’s the corresponding move to open a 40-man spot for infielder Eugenio Suárez, whose signing is now official.
Rortvedt, 28, has never appeared in a game for the Reds. Cincinnati just claimed him off waivers from the Dodgers in November. At the time of that waiver claim, it was reported that Rortvedt and the Dodgers had already signed a deal for 2026 to avoid arbitration. The backstop will make $1.25MM this year.
The Dodgers were likely hoping that figure was high enough that no other club would claim him off waivers. Rortvedt is out of options and therefore can’t be sent to the minors while staying on the 40-man roster. Since he has at least three years of big league service time, Rortvedt has the right to reject outright assignments. But since his service clock is less than five years, he would have to forfeit his salary commitments in electing free agency. Had he cleared waivers, he likely would have stayed with the Dodgers as non-roster catching depth.
Instead, the Reds claimed him and have held him for the past few months. They might now be hoping that they get to keep Rortvedt as non-roster depth instead of the Dodgers. With this DFA, Cincinnati now has Jose Trevino and Tyler Stephenson as the only two catchers on the 40-man roster. Will Banfield is their most experienced non-roster guy at the moment, even though he has just seven big league games on his track record.
Rortvedt’s career has been up and down but he would be a solid depth option. He showed his potential by having a decent showing with the Rays in 2024. He stepped to the plate 328 times and put up a .228/.317/.303 line. That line led to an 87 wRC+, indicating he was 13% below league average. But since catchers are usually about ten points below the rest of the league, that’s not bad for a part-time backstop. Rortvedt’s glovework also got decent reviews, enough for FanGraphs to credit him with 1.4 wins above replacement for the year, even with that so-so offense.
Things backed up with Tampa last year. He hit .095/.186/.111 in his 70 plate appearances before getting outrighted off the roster. He was flipped to the Dodgers at the deadline as part of the three-team trade which saw the Reds gets Zack Littell. The Dodgers called him up in September when Will Smith was injured and Rortvedt bounced back somewhat, with a .224/.309/.327 line in a small sample of 58 plate appearances for the eventual World Series champs.
The Dodgers liked him enough that they seemingly hoped to keep him around as relatively expensive depth behind Smith and Dalton Rushing. The Reds will now have a maximum of one week of DFA limbo to work with. The waiver process takes 48 hours, so they could field trade interest but will likely place Rortvedt on waivers at some point in the next five days. If another team claims him, the Reds would likely need to add some veteran depth via minor league deals.
Photo courtesy of Jayne Kamin-Oncea, Imagn Images
Reds Sign Eugenio Suarez
February 3rd: The Reds made the Suarez deal official today. Catcher Ben Rortvedt was designated for assignment as the corresponding move.
February 1st: Eugenio Suarez is returning to Cincinnati, as ESPN’s Jeff Passan reports that the slugger has signed a one-year, $15MM deal with the Reds that includes a mutual option for the 2027 season. Jon Heyman of the New York Post reports that the option is worth $16MM, though mutual options are rarely triggered by both sides. The deal will become official once the Reds clear a spot on their 40-man roster, and presumably when Suarez passes a physical. Suarez is represented by Octagon.
Reports emerged last week that the Reds had interest in a reunion with the third baseman, who hit .253/.335/.476 with 189 homers over 3730 plate appearances during the 2015-21 seasons. The continued uncertainty over the Reds’ broadcast deal with Main Street Sports was said to be a holdup for the team in how much money they had available to pursue Suarez or other targets like Austin Hays (who signed with the White Sox yesterday).
With an agreement now in place with Suarez, it could be that the Reds have gotten some clarity about how they’ll proceed with MSS or perhaps a new broadcasting agreement with Major League Baseball itself. Alternatively, Suarez’s acceptance of just a one-year deal and arguably a discount price may be another reason why the two sides were able to line up on a contract.
MLB Trade Rumors ranked Suarez 20th on our list of the winter’s top 50 free agents, and projected him for a three-year, $63MM deal. The one-year, $15MM pact falls well short of that prediction in both years and average annual value, as it could be teams were wary of making a larger commitment to a strikeout-prone player who turns 35 in July. Suarez’s third base glovework also dropped in 2025, as he posted -6 Defensive Runs Saved and -3 Outs Above Average.
With the bat, however, Suarez hit 49 home runs in 2025, matching his career high set with the Reds in 2019. Suarez’s overall slash line of .228/.298/.526 reflects his power-heavy output, as he delivered a below-average walk rate for the second consecutive season. Though Suarez’s 29.8% strikeout rate put him in the fifth percentile of all batters, he maxed out when he did make contact, with strong hard-contact and barrel rates.
It has been a strange two-season run for Suarez, who sandwiched a superstar-level campaign in between two mediocre half-seasons. Suarez had only a .591 OPS over his first 315 PA of the 2024 season with the Diamondbacks, before he caught fire and hit .276/.336/.593 with 60 homers over 766 PA from July 1, 2024 to July 31, 2025. Unfortunately, Suarez then drastically cooled off after he was dealt to the Mariners at the trade deadline, but he somewhat rebounded to get some key hits during Seattle’s postseason run to Game 7 of the ALCS.
This rather extreme streakiness could be another reason Suarez’s market never really took off this winter, as teams were justifiably not sure exactly which version of Suarez they’d get in his 13th big league season. The Mariners had some interest in a reunion, and other teams like the Cubs, Red Sox, and Pirates were also linked to the slugger.
Pittsburgh was the other finalist for Suarez’s services, according to MassLive.com’s Chris Cotillo. As per MLB.com’s Alex Stumpf and Jason Mackey of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, the Pirates were willing to offer a $15MM average annual salary to Suarez and also offered him a second guaranteed year. In taking just a one-year contract, Suarez seems to be hoping to fully re-establish his market by having a big season in 2026 and then re-entering free agency next winter. It was also very likely to Cincinnati’s benefit that Suarez is already very familiar with the organization from his previous seven-year run in the Queen City.
While the Pirates are on the way up, Suarez may have been more interested in joining a Reds team that actually did make the playoffs in 2025. Cincinnati reached the postseason on the strength of its rotation, as the lineup was average at best in most offensive categories, and 21st of 30 teams in home runs. Elly De La Cruz and Spencer Steer combined for 43 homers as the Reds’ top two home-run hitters in 2025, so Suarez alone tops that total.
Suarez steps right into an everyday role in the Reds’ lineup, though it will be interesting to see where exactly Suarez is deployed. Ke’Bryan Hayes is arguably the best defensive third baseman in the game, so Suarez is more likely to see a lot of action as a DH and possibly at first base. Suarez’s MLB history as a first baseman consists of just three late-game appearances, all of which came last year. The Reds will surely give Suarez plenty of time at the position this spring to see how Suarez fares at the cold corner, and Steer and Sal Stewart will also receive at-bats in the first base/DH mix. Stewart can also play some second base and Steer could play left field, with Steer’s right-handed bat complementing the left-handed hitting JJ Bleday on the grass.
Bleday and Dane Myers were the only notable offensive adds the Reds made prior to today, with the two outfielders more or less replacing Hays and Gavin Lux (who was dealt to the Rays as part of the three-team deal with the Angels that brought reliever Brock Burke to Cincinnati). Suarez now represents a major boost to the Reds’ lineup, and a source of stability on a team that is still waiting to see what it has in players like Steer, Stewart, Matt McLain, or Noelvi Marte. Even De La Cruz was more good than great in 2025, but EDLC figures to benefit with Suarez providing protection behind him in the lineup.
RosterResource estimates a $126.1MM payroll for the Reds at the moment, which is a minor increase over their $118.7MM figure from the 2025 season. President of baseball operations Nick Krall said in early November that the Reds would be spending at “around the same” levels as 2025, so it could be that the team is essentially done with significant offseason moves unless they can unload some salary.
This could again change depending on what happens with the Reds’ broadcast deal, or ownership might potentially green-light some more spending either now or during the season (perhaps once some ticket revenue starts rolling in). The Reds seem to be well-positioned to make another run at a postseason berth in 2026, even though within the NL Central alone, the Pirates will be better and the Brewers and Cubs each figure to keep battling for the division crown.
Inset photo courtesy of Stephen Brashear — Imagn Images
MLB To Take Over Broadcasts For Six Additional Teams
4:37pm: Tom Friend of Sports Business Journal reports that the Tigers, Angels and Braves are all moving on from Main Street Sports as well. Friend writes that it’s likely that the Detroit and Los Angeles clubs will also turn their broadcasts over to MLB, although they haven’t closed the door on working out some kind of independent streaming deal on a different platform than MLB.tv.
Friend’s reporting is most interesting regarding the Braves. He writes that the team could launch its own network rather than turning distribution to the league. The Rangers went that route when their deal with Diamond collapsed last offseason. The Texas franchise created its own network that negotiated directly with distributors to set up cable, satellite and streaming deals on different platforms.
The Braves haven’t made anything official, though they’ve more or less confirmed they won’t be returning to Main Street. “The Atlanta Braves are aware of the reports regarding Main Street Sports Group,” the team said in a statement. “While disappointed with this development, we have been actively preparing for this outcome and are well on our way towards launching a new era in Braves broadcasting. … We look forward to sharing our path forward in the coming weeks.”
1:10pm: Major League Baseball will take over the broadcasts of six new teams in 2026, reports John Ourand of Puck. The six clubs are the Brewers, Marlins, Rays, Royals, Cardinals and Reds. That represents six of the nine clubs who terminated deals with Main Street Sports last month. That leaves the Braves, Tigers and Angels as the three clubs from that group of nine who still need to formalize broadcast plans for this year.
The company has seemingly been hanging by a thread for a long time. Cord cutting and streaming have been eroding the regional sports network (RSN) model for years. Previously known as Diamond Sports Group and operating under the Bally Sports logo, the company was in bankruptcy for most of 2023 and 2024. When they emerged from bankruptcy late in 2024, they changed the company name and switched to the FanDuel Sports branding. More trouble emerged recently as they reportedly missed payments to several teams, which is what prompted the nine teams to walk away last month.
In recent years, MLB has handled the broadcasts of several other clubs who saw RSN deals collapse. The Padres, Diamondbacks, Rockies, Twins and Guardians were with the league in 2025. In those instances, the league largely kept TV broadcasts the same, retaining most of the personnel. For fans, this arrangement worked better as it did not involve local blackouts. Customers without cable packages could buy streaming packages directly from the league.
For teams, this expanded viewership but the financial situation wasn’t as good. Instead of a guaranteed fee from the RSN, they instead got a fungible amount of money based on streaming numbers. Clear numbers haven’t been made available but the industry consensus is that teams bring in less money via this model than they did via the previous RSN system. Travis Sawchik of MLB.com says the new model only brings in about 50% of the previous RSN set-up.
This often has on-field implications. Some of those teams, particularly the Padres and Twins, saw their player payrolls decrease in recent years. The lower spending capacity seemingly had an impact on Juan Soto being traded from the Padres to the Yankees a couple of years ago and Carlos Correa getting traded from the Twins to the Astros last summer, among other moves.
It was reported in September that ESPN would be acquiring the local rights for those five teams for the next three years. It’s unclear how that will impact local customers who have been paying the league directly to stream games. Also in September, it was reported that the Mariners would also be moving to the league. Last month, the Nationals announced that they would be moving to the MLB model.
Assuming the league will still be selling streaming packages for the five teams it was handling last year, then the league will have at least 13 teams in its portfolio in the coming season. With three clubs still outstanding, it’s possible MLB could get to more than half the league.
Commissioner Rob Manfred has previously spoken of his desire to market a streaming package like MLB.TV but without local blackouts. Controlling the rights for roughly half the league will make that more viable. Expanding the portfolio even further will be challenging. Most of the larger-market clubs still have pretty healthy RSN situations and would have less interest in jumping into a pooled system with these clubs.
That is part of a broader league strategy that will come into play in the next few years. A large number of the league’s broadcast deals expire after 2028. Manfred’s hope is to maintain as much flexibility as possible until then, at which point he could try to sell companies packages of combined rights. As an example of how this might play out, ESPN’s deal recently fell apart but then MLB pivoted to split it up and sell it to various companies. ESPN bought back some bits and acquired some new ones, while Netflix and NBC/Peacock acquired other components.
It will take a few years to see how that all plays out. In the shorter term, it could impact the upcoming collective bargaining agreement negotiations. The current CBA expires December 1st of this year. Presumably, MLB doesn’t want those talks to lead to canceled games in 2027. Ratings and attendance have been up lately, with the faster pace of the pitch clock a possible explanation. Missed games due to a lockout would hurt that momentum, which wouldn’t help the league in selling rights the following year.
For fans of the teams involved in today’s news, new information about broadcast options should be forthcoming. The Cardinals already announced their streaming prices, which are $19.99 monthly or $99.99 for the full season. Barry Jackson of the Miami Herald outlined the situation for Marlins fans today, with some more details still to be determined.
This could also impact player payroll for some clubs. Though the streaming model is a less certain source of revenue, these teams now at least have some clarity on what kind of money should be coming in this year. As of less than two weeks ago, the Reds were reportedly interested in players like Eugenio Suárez but reluctant to make more moves until they figured out the broadcast puzzle. They reportedly reached an agreement with Suárez yesterday.
Photo courtesy of Ron Chenoy, Imagn Images