December 18th: The Reds officially announced Ferguson’s signing today. He’ll make $4.5MM, per Wittenmyer.
December 16th: The Reds are reportedly in agreement with reliever Caleb Ferguson on a one-year contract, pending a physical. Salary terms for the Excel Sports Management client have not been reported. Cincinnati has an opening on the 40-man roster.
Ferguson adds a needed left-handed option to Terry Francona’s bullpen. The Reds bought out Brent Suter at the beginning of the offseason. That left them with Sam Moll as their only lefty reliever. He had been up-and-down from Triple-A this year and gave up 16 runs across 18 1/3 MLB innings. Moll gets a decent number of whiffs and ground-balls and was a solid middle reliever between 2022-24, but the Reds couldn’t enter the season relying on him as their best option.
The 29-year-old Ferguson is coming off a solid season split between the Pirates and Mariners. He made a career-high 70 appearances and posted a 3.58 earned run average through 65 1/3 innings. He recorded 14 holds while relinquishing five leads. Ferguson got a lot of weak contact, but he benefitted from an unsustainably low home run rate and batting average on balls in play. That will probably tick back up in 2026, though it’s possible he compensates by missing more bats than he did this past season.
Ferguson is coming off an 18.9% strikeout rate that is by far the worst mark of his career. He had punched out at least a quarter of opposing hitters in each of his first six seasons. That’d be greater cause for concern if it were accompanied by a drop in his raw stuff. Ferguson’s 94 MPH average fastball speed was in line with that of prior years. He cut back on the four-seam fastball to more frequently use a sinker against left-handed batters. The result, as one might expect, was a drop in whiffs but a spike in ground-balls. Ferguson also did a much better job throwing strikes against southpaws, whom he held to a .184/.261/.204 line with zero home runs in 115 plate appearances.
Against left-handed opposition, Ferguson used his sinker roughly half the time and threw his four-seam fastball and cutter at a near-25% clip. He only sporadically mixed in a slurve. That was a much more frequent pitch for him without the platoon advantage. Ferguson almost never threw the sinker to righties, against whom the pitch’s arm-side run could leak back out over the heart of the plate. He instead mixed the four-seam, slurve and cutter versus opposite-handed opponents.
Ferguson is the second addition to Cincinnati’s bullpen this offseason. They also brought in out-of-options swingman Keegan Thompson on a split deal to compete for a long relief role. Their biggest move was to re-sign closer Emilio Pagán to a two-year, $20MM contract. He’ll be joined in the late innings by Graham Ashcraft, Tony Santillan and Ferguson. Power righties Connor Phillips and Zach Maxwell have the stuff to pitch their way into leverage roles as well, though it’s questionable whether either pitcher will throw enough strikes to earn that level of responsibility.
An already thin free agent lefty relief class is dwindling. The Pirates finalized their contract with Gregory Soto this morning, while Caleb Thielbar agreed to a new deal with the Cubs. Sean Newcomb, Danny Coulombe, Drew Pomeranz, Justin Wilson and Taylor Rogers are among those who remain unsigned.
Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic first reported the sides had an agreement, which Gordon Wittenmyer of The Cincinnati Enquirer specified was for one year. Image courtesy of Jordan Godfree, Imagn Images.
Relief pitching market is enfuego.
He was my favorite middle inning reliever in the Pirates pen last year.
God speed Turd!
Man that is a hard last name when you think about it.
Not a favorite in the Mariners pen tho
Alright. Good signing Reds. He’ll be pretty good against lefties. Nice move bolstering ‘pen before all the goods are out.
Indeed, this was a very good signing. The bullpen looks much better than it did at the beginning of the offseason.
Actually, finally a nice lefty reliever for the pen. They got one of the things they needed finally, at least.
It will be interesting to see the cost.
Bader wouldn’t be bad I think.
What is your opinion on CES , Hinds and Hector Rodriguez at AAA. CES was coming off injury much of last season. Hinds actually put up some good numbers at AAA but it hasn’t translated to the majors yet. Rodriguez has a good bit of potential with the bat. If Marte follows through as expected for a full season, EDLC expands on his stats with more rest/protection and Stewart continues as expected, the Reds have a good amount of power. If any one of the previously mentioned 3 AAA players produces, they should be ok offensively given Stewart and Marte play and produce a full season in 2026.. Hopefully McClain bounces back (same situation as CES) and Steer plays a whole injury free season as well. Resign Andujar and get maybe another lefty for the pen and we are set.
I like the optimism but I think there are too many ‘if’s’ in that breakdown. Truth is Elly, McClain, Fridel Steer… they all took steps backwards in varying degrees and Marte was good for a short amount of time. We need to go get someone.
The major obstacle with going and getting someone is money. I don’t think the Reds are willing to pay the price.
Freidl took a step forward, now that he was healthy he really produced. Now that Marte has he short ink RF, he’ll continue to produce. McClain was coming back from being hurt. His issue is fixable. Steer to was hurt last year. If we can stay healthy, we have a chance.
Other than too many ifs (which is why I said they needed a veteran bench last off-season and still believe that), the fact is the Reds have not really let CES and Hinds play for a prolonged period to get adjusted to MLB, though CES has had injuries. I fear it will be the same for Rodriguez. To be honest, Benson, Lux, Espinal got a lot more ABs in the outfield than they should have and blocked Heinz and Dunn from getting more. You say you are going with youngsters and yet don’t let them play but on the other hand don’t sign an impact guy either. Bottom line, you still don’t really know what you have in those first two you mentioned. I think you will see Rodriguez this year and that’s what they are counting on, which is why no additions. Same old story.
I agree on you don’t know what you have in CES, Hinds or Rodriguez. If you bring someone in, you will never get that chance to find out. At the same time you are trying to win in 2026. It may be a case of the young pitchers are ready and the young hitters are not. I don’t think the Reds are going to pay what it will take to bring a top hitter in. All the talk and fluff is just that until they actually do it. Then again, you may have that hitter already that is just unproven at this point.
I am not familiar with Rodriguez but CES and hinds are both right handed hitters. Yes with Stewart, Marte, Steer and even Stephenson in 162 games which he won’t play as a catcher we have 4 right handed hitters that can hit 20 home runs a season. We lack a left handed hitters that can hit 20 unless they are comfortable giving benson 600 plate trips even though he struggles against left handed pitching.
Speaking of hinds and benson I could see a platoon there. Both have good power and speed. Both good defenders with enough speed & range to play center and enough arm strength to play right. One seems to be above average hitter against right handers and the other better than average against left handers.
The problem with young players trying to break in with the majors is that they need to play every day to get adjusted to the league. A platoon doesn’t allow that and will probably produce poor results. A platoon works best with vets.
The thing is, all of a right handed hitters are hitting better against right handed pitchers, they shouldn’t get hung up on which side of the plate the guy bats on. Or if anything we need andujar back
Whatever they do they will have to do it on a trade because the 40 man is full now. If we don’t do a trade we will have to keep 3 catchers on the 26 man roster assuming nobody is hurt. Also assume Stewart, EDLC & Marte are the 3 league minimums of the 13 position players we have one more slot to fill which I see as between CES, Hinds, Dunn and Calihan, which I am leaning toward Hinds as maybe a platoon with Benson.
Looking at last year yes our right handed hitters hit about as well against right handed pitching as they did left but that is likely a statistical anomaly and probably won’t happen in 2026. We only have 3 left handed hitters on what would be the current 26 man. Friedl out leadoff hitter, benson who can’t play against left handed pitching and lux who wouldn’t hit over 8 home runs if he had 600 PA’s. We have 3 or 4 capable of hitting 20 or more from the right side if 600 PA’s and EDLC a switch but we need a middle of the order 4,5,6 hitter with at least 25 home run power from the left side.
Steer marte and Stephenson all hit the majority of their hr off right handers
I like it on the surface but we still haven’t signed anyone that can hit. I really hope they have some trades on the back burner.
I hope they have something. At least the hand prints on Krall’s backside are not as deep now.
I think this completes the 40 man roster so we will have to get someone via trade. We now also have 3 catchers that are on the 40 man with none of the 3 optionable to Louisville so look for Stephenson to be traded.
Agreed. I said when they signed the other guy that meant they were looking to give Tyler the India treatment this off-season.
He is getting to the point he makes too much in arbitration for them and they already extended Trevino.
Take THAT Brewers and Cubs! Now the NL Central is OURS, obviously.
/s
Good pickup, glad to see something happening.
Very solid move
Great guy Getting to pitch close to home as well
Looks like Reds have added 3 quality arms to their bullpen (Pagan, Thompson, & Ferguson) at about a $15 MM or so. Now Krall can concentrate on adding a bat or 2.
Thompson a quality arm? He was so quality, that at the youthful age of 30 last year he wasn’t good enough to crack the Cubs 26 man roster. They still need at least one more good right handed reliever imho. As well as a power LF’er, and a backup SS.
McLain is backup SS.
McLain is the starting 2Bman. They need to replace Espinal.
Stewart, lux and steer can all play 2nd base. On day EDLC needs a day as DH any of the 3 can play second and McClain can play short so no need to replace espinal. We need a left handed power and now our 40 man is full we will have to trade to get it.
Lux shouldn’t be on this team, he’s wasting 5M$ that can be spent on a LF’er. Yes, they must sign a backup SS. A player like DeJong on a spring invite would be sufficient. There is still dead weight on the 40 man, so it being full means nothing.
Both Arroyo and Balcazar can handle that job defensively if needed.
Arroyo and Balcazar can handle that job defensively if needed.And then there is Francisco Urbaez.
I would agree with you except for the quickness with which they signed Thompson to a ML contract. DJ and Krall had already seen what they needed to commit. I anticipate Keegan will be healthy and effective in 2026.
Meanwhile the Angels just paid almost the same money for a 10 yeR older pitcher who they signed in and cut in 22 and 24. Go reds
Last paragraph- Drew Pomeranz got signed by the Angels
2 day old article. Pomeranz signed yesterday.
I thought initially it would be around a 1 year 3M deal, but looking around seeing what other people got so far this off-season in the reliever market this actually isn’t bad at all.
we need a big bat