The Reds and catcher Jose Trevino have agreed to an extension. The Paragon Sports International client was already under contract for $3.425MM for 2025 and set to hit free agency after that. This new deal now runs through 2027 with a club option for 2028. Trevino will reportedly get $5.25MM in each of the two guaranteed years. The option is valued at $6.5MM with a $1MM buyout. That means it’s $11.5MM in new money over two years, though the club option means the Reds extend their potential window of control by three years.
Trevino, 32, still hasn’t played a regular season game for the Reds. He was just acquired from the Yankees in December, with reliever Fernando Cruz and Alex Jackson going the other way. During his time with the Rangers and Yankees over the previous seven seasons, he was never much of a hitter but has emerged as a strong defender behind the plate.
The Yanks acquired Trevino from the Rangers in April of 2022, sending Albert Abreu and Robby Ahlstrom the other way. Through the end of the 2021 season, Trevino had a batting line of .245/.270/.364. That translated to a wRC+ of 65, indicating he was about 35% below league average at the plate. His defense was graded around par during his first few seasons but he seemed to take a leap forward in his final year with Texas. Publicly available metrics graded him as one of the best pitch framers in the league that year.
His first year in the Bronx went quite well and stands out as his best season yet. He hit 11 home runs, more than doubling his previous career high of five. His .248/.283/.388 batting line was still subpar overall, leading to a wRC+ of 90, but that’s about par for a catcher. When combined with his excellent framing and good work behind the plate overall, he was worth 3.8 wins above replacement, per the calculations of FanGraphs.
Injuries got in the way in the subsequent two seasons. A right wrist tear required surgery in 2023 and then a left quad strain sent him to the injured list last year. Over those two campaigns, he got into just 129 games total. His offense fell to a combined .213/.275/.336, wRC+ of 72, but he still produced 2.4 fWAR on the strength of his defense.
The Reds already had Tyler Stephenson as their primary catcher going into this year but clearly liked the idea of Trevino as a complement. They effectively have opposite profiles, since Stephenson is more of a bat-first guy with lesser work while donning the tools of ignorance. The Reds subtracted a big strikeout pitcher from their bullpen in order to get Trevino, sending Cruz to the Yankees. After a few weeks in camp, they are clearly comfortable enough to keep Trevino around into the future as well.
Trevino’s presence has become more important in the short term, as Stephenson is set to begin the season on the IL due to an oblique strain. Trevino himself got a bit of a scare, as he was recently hit on the hand by a foul tip, but his tests came back clean and he appears to be on track to start the season healthy.
Turning to the long term, the Reds are surely hoping this will solidify their catching corps, which was previously fairly uncertain. As mentioned, Trevino was set to hit free agency after 2025. Stephenson is only under club control through 2026.
The top catching prospect in the system is Alfredo Duno, but he’s not close to the majors. He’s only 19 years old, for one thing. His professional résumé consists of 45 games in the Dominican Summer League in 2023 and 32 Single-A games last year. All signs point to a bright future but he won’t be in Cincinnati for a while.
With this new deal, it’s possible for the club to roll with the Trevino/Stephenson pairing for the next two years. By then, perhaps Duno will have worked his way to the upper levels of the minors and put himself in position to replace Stephenson. Even if not, the Reds will have Trevino in place for 2027 and will just need to find a complementary player. If all is going well, they can bring Trevino back for 2028 as well.
The $5-8MM range is a fairly standard AAV for a veteran catcher in his mid-30s, as shown on MLBTR’s Contract Tracker. In recent years, Mitch Garver and Yadier Molina were the only two backstops age-33 or older to surpass that range. Garver was signed to be more of a bat-first catcher/designated hitter while Molina was a legend in St. Louis. Players like Travis d’Arnaud, Kyle Higashioka, Yan Gomes, Martín Maldonado and Roberto Pérez have been in that $5-8MM window.
Looking ahead to next winter, this takes one of the more notable catchers off the board. For the 2025-26 offseason, the top free agent catchers are going to be J.T. Realmuto and Danny Jansen. Realmuto will be going into his age-35 season and might sign an extension with the Phillies before then. Jansen has had good numbers at times but has had a hard time staying healthy. Trevino would have been an interesting glove-first option for clubs but that won’t be the case now that he’s sticking in Cincinnati.
Jon Heyman of The New York Post first reported that the Reds and Trevino agreed to a deal running through 2027 with the 2028 club option. Mark Sheldon of MLB.com reported the full financial details. Photos courtesy of Sam Greene, Imagn Images.
But why?
Same contract as Francona. I’d trust the tito process.
Why not? Reliable backup catchers are hard to find and the Reds traded for one they liked. He’s a free agent after this year and they’d be back to searching the trade market/FA for another backup catcher. Now they have some stability at the position.
I live Trevino as a backup but yikes that seems expensive
“That seems expensive”…I can easily thinks of 4 or 5 reasons I’d want Jose Trevino on my roster. I’m not in favor of inflated salaries for players, but anything less than what he got would have been embarrassing to him and his agency representatives.
He’s a very capable player who started games quite a bit of the time in New York. The terms don’t seem crazy to me at all and the stability at catcher will likely be worth it.
Clearly, Tito signed off on this and I’m very inclined to trust Tito and his staff and let them implement his process of building a baseball team.
Hate to burst anyone’s bubble but we all know what this means. The Reds, or any small market team for that matter, aren’t paying a great deal of money for two guys at the same position.
Sounds like Stephenson wouldn’t sign an extension because he has a good memory of the lack of support from the front office during their last run. I can’t blame him.
They will probably send him away next offseason, if not before.
I’d guess that Stephenson would likely have declined a similar extension offer – and maybe he did. He might just want to bet on himself and test free agency.
Maybe the Reds just valued having the veteran Trevino behind the plate to work long term with their young pitching staff.
We don’t know.
lol they are not trading Stephenson, and if they were going to, they would have done it this offseason coming off of his best season yet with two years of control remaining.
I agree. Fans of small market teams often, and maybe correctly, think every move is a prelude to dumping a better player.
Trevino is a good backup and this has Tito written all over it.
They weren’t going to trade India either. Luis Castillo before that, etc. going back a decade.
Those who do not know history are doomed to repeat it.
India was shopped for a trade the year before he was actually traded. You know better but fabricate facts to fit your narrative. Find something in life that makes you happy.
Yes. This signing will not be “in addition” to Tyler Stephenson, it will be “instead” of signing Tyler Stephenson.
Sorry I trust “This One”…before I would trust Phil Castellini.
Now if they could just sign LEE Trevino !!
As a former amateur, when asked if he felt a lot of pressure putting for a $1M prize, he said no. He said real pressure is putting for a $100 wager when you only have $50 in your pocket.
My kind of guy.
No, just take it. TAKE IT TAKE IT TAKE IT TAKE ITTTT!!!
Solid glove
And good clubhouse dude.
But he is terrible at controlling stolen bases.
Teams run wild on him.
Wtf
You need two good catchers these days, I like it.
Define good
Alive
Someone better than Austin Wynns, Will Banfield, Michael Trautwein, Luke Maile, or Curt Casali.
Very fair hahaha
IMO great catchers are rare so if you find one that’s either good defensively or offensively they’re a good catcher.
Smart move, I like the trade a lot more for them now. As long as he hits even a tiny bit he’ll be a productive player and he’s shown offensive upside.
Makes sense. The Reds control Stephenson only through 2026. And their top catching prospect Duno is still a couple years away.
So let me get this right we won’t offer and extension to any of our young players outside of Hunter Greene but will sign basically a glove only 32 year old catcher coming off back to back years of 86 and 56 ops+ seasons. All due respect Jose seems like a great guy and his defense is good. But I genuinely don’t understand what exactly is going on with our cheap ownership
Not all extensions are the same. A McLain or Elly extension is a lot more difficult to work out than a Trevino extension. They didn’t sign Trevino to be a 110 OPS+ hitter. They signed him for his defense and they clearly like what he’s done with their staff in the short time he’s been here. They have no depth at the position beyond Duno and he’s a long way away from the Bigs. This is a good move.
Do you want to offer extensions to guys that aren’t eligible for arbitration yet? It’s not like extending Trevino impacts any of the other guys; if anything, it provides some cost certainty to future rosters. You deride cheap ownership for spending money to extend someone they obviously want?
It’s already too late to extend Elly and Stephenson for what the Reds are willing to pay. . It’s probably too late to extend McLain as well. If CES has a good year, it will be too late for him as well.
You nailed it.
They let Stephenson go for two years without one, supposedly one of your cornerstone, but lock up his backup.
Yeah, right.
I told folks after India, Stephenson was next up. This proves it.
Enjoy Elly for a couple more years before he is out the door too.
#SelltheteamBob
Maybe they have offered to extend Stephenson and can’t come to terms. MAYBE the thought is they can trade Stephenson after this year with Trevino being a bridge to Duno. Ty Steve should bring back a decent haul and Duno looks pretty good. As far as Elly goes he has already said he wants to play in LA. India was a decent hitter but his defense was under par and was traded for what seems to be a quality starter. Point is, your constant criticism of the FO is really stale. This team is WAY better than recent years and I’m deciding to enjoy the ride.
“Enjoy Elly for a couple more years before he is out the door too.”
You mean 5 more years?
Yeah I can handle that. 5 more years of Elly is going to be pretty fun so I’ll worry about 5 years from now…5 years from now.
The owner is probably cheap, but the rest of your post is comparing tomatoes to bridges. The $5M they pay Trevino will have absolutely -0- impact on the $300M it would take to extend DLC.
Fantastic move! Gotta lock up that young core! Future at C is secure!
Young core??? He’s 32
Sarcasm
Bill is rather late to the party.
As a Yankee fan I’m thrilled to see this. Trevino was a great guy and a good catcher. I was sad to see him go but I’m happy he’s getting some run and an extension.
Enjoy Cruz. He is nasty as hell.
For a few innings here and there.
As an avid fantasy baseball player and strikeout enthusiast I’ve always liked Cruz. I’m excited to have him in pinstripes. This was a good trade for both teams.
agree
i enjoy win-win trades
@tdelo A small market team dealing a pre-arb RP with a 3.06 career FIP in 150 innings for a backup C was insane.
I know Cruz is pre-arb, but it’s not like he’s 24. He is 35. Maybe the Reds don’t think he will be able to continue his effectiveness. Backup catcher has been a huge black hole for the Reds for years so it was definitely a need since the org has no help coming there any time soon until Duno (who is 19.)
Good trade for both sides, but I think you’ll see Cruz in the 8th a lot for NYY this year.
Cruz is having a rough spring training for the Yanks. 11.00 plus ERA. As hitters learned to recognize he cannot throw his split finger fastball for a strike they stopped swinging at it.
JackStrawb is smarter than every front office in MLB. Listen up. The brilliance is free of charge.
When he throws strikes, which is every third or fourth outing.
I like this move, decent backup guy to have around with Stephensons injury history. From all accounts he’s a great clubhouse guy as well.
Trevino calls really good games and is solid with rookies and vet pitchers. he is a f’ing awesome clubhouse guy.
It’s real easy to root for guys like that. I believe that players like that’s value is understated!
Great move by the Reds. Far better backup than we have had the last few years. No effect on any of the young guys as far as locking them up. Much easier deal to do with him.
Definitely a good thing when your backup catcher was a platinum glove award winner. I wish him all the best in Cincinnati.
It would be a good move if the Reds are paying Trevino to be a back up, which they are not.
Should do the same with Austin Hays
For what it’s worth, there is a second year mutual option for $12M.
He literally can not reach second base with his throws. If you watched Yankees games last year you’ll know he was basically unplayable due to his throwing arm. I don’t know if he was injured or what but there is a reason the Yankees traded him. Good luck Reds.
Trevino’s terrible pop time is the issue while his arm strength is average for the position. His excels at pitch-framing and ball-blocking. The former skill won’t matter as much once MLB implements a auto- balls and strikes system. The Yankees traded him because rookie Austin Wells is ready to be a full-timer with a good hitter profile and overall defense.
Reds gonna Red. Who knows why they do the things they do.
Every once in a while they have an okay team through luck and happenstance. Certainly nothing to do with the ownership group and front office.
no idea if this makes sense for the reds but i’m happy for him. by all accounts a great guy and a great teammate
My brother is a great guy, but I don’t want him playing for the Reds.
Trevino is an under rated catcher
He is a good signing for them
Good for Trevy! He seems like a great guy and I am happy for him.
Jiust shows that Krall will pull the trigger when he gets the deal he wants.. Got some stability at catcher and more important – pitching receiver. Still short in the outfield department.
Teams are desperate for catchers. AT his age to get a multi year deal? The guy is hurt now? Ouch.
Just tap…it in. Just tap…it in. Priceless words of wisdom from Chubbs when the clown is mocking your misses on putt putt
Trevino nolo likey Happys unprofessional public outbursts amidst professional shortcomings. #thinkofthewomenandchildren. Finger wag and shake of the head. Sorry Trevino!
Some people here must think quality backup catchers grow on trees.
This deal is essentially 11 million over 2 years with an option. Kyle Higashioka, who’s two years older and has never topped 100 games played in any MLB season in his career, got 13.5 over 2 years with an option from Texas this winter.
Remember 2022, when TySteve got hurt and instead of having a quality backup option, they had gems like Aramis Garcia, Chris Okey, and Michael Papierski? That’s why Trevino got an extension; they have a backup they liked and want to keep him for stability.
I like it.
Everyone saying that this is Tito’s idea is wrong. He has said many times that he does not have anything to do with setting the rosters. His main goal is to just do the best with what he is given.
Reds catcher depth has been exposed. They truly need to focus on getting a defensive catcher first to handle the staff and keep the run game down.
The Reds might have just voluntarily boxed themselves into a declining asset at a position where they need flexibility, all while limiting their ability to retain their better catching option.