The Reds and right-hander Brady Singer are in agreement on a $12.75MM salary for the 2026 campaign, reports Mark Feinsand of MLB.com. It’s the final year of arbitration for Singer, who is set to hit free agency next offseason. The contract is slightly above MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz’s projection of $11.9MM. Singer is represented by Excel Sports Management.
Cincinnati acquired Singer in a November 2024 trade that sent Jonathan India and Joey Wiemer to Kansas City. He had an up-and-down season in his first year with the club. Singer was bombed for seven earned runs in his first start out of the All-Star break, pushing his ERA to 4.84 on the year. He closed the season with a strong 12-start stretch, posting a 2.81 ERA with a 25.7% strikeout rate. The final result was a pretty standard Singer season, with an ERA just above 4.00 and slightly less than a strikeout per inning.
The Reds had a hefty 12 arbitration cases this offseason. Singer was easily the most expensive. Cincinnati agreed to a $5.525MM contract with Gavin Lux and a $4.725MM deal with Nick Lodolo today. None of the other cases settled by the club exceeded $4MM. Singer’s settlement was the second-highest of the day across the league, behind only Randy Arozarena ($15.65MM). As things currently stand, Singer will be the highest-paid player on the roster next season. Jeimer Candelario’s unfortunate deal is still on the books for $12MM, but no other active Red will make more than $10MM, barring a big free agent addition.
Singer will be joined by Lodolo, Hunter Greene, Andrew Abbott, and Chase Burns on the 2026 staff. Cincinnati also has youngsters Rhett Lowder and Chase Petty waiting in the wings, along with injury returnees Julian Aguiar, Brandon Williamson, and Carson Spiers. It’s a deep group, which led MLBTR’s Steve Adams to ponder whether the club would trade pitching for hitting this offseason. President of baseball operations Nick Krall has downplayed moving any of his starters, though maybe seeing the ample returns for Shane Baz and Edward Cabrera could cause the club to reconsider that stance.
Photo courtesy of Cary Edmondson, Imagn Images
What did Castellini hit the Lottery or something? He must be crying right now.
With the nine teams (they being one) not getting their money from FanDuel, probably really bawling.
A lot of middle range players probably too as they see their chances of big money go out the window.
In Bob’s defense, Carl Lindner would be going into cardiac arrest if he was still alive.
Isn’t it interesting that Marge Schott for all her faults, was the last Reds owner to pay the players? They were constantly top 5-10 in payroll then.
@This one belongs to the Reds, because despite all of your persistent whining about the Dodgers and your weird “baseball is dying in the Midwest” schtick, you actually have to spend to win at times no matter the market size.
I noticed that you really have a hate hard-on for that guy. Maybe take a break from the Internet?
Tyler Stevenson probably not long for the team after not reaching an agreement. He probably didn’t like being low balled.
I saw it coming since they extended Trevino. Then they brought in a third catcher for a million plus.
Singer may be gone in a trade too.
There’s barely any difference between the team ($6.55M) and Stephenson ($6.8M). It’s kind of hard to believe they’d go to arbitration over that.
Kind of hard to believe they didn’t reach an agreement before the deadline, actually.
This one has an amazing “seeing” ability. Too bad he can’t see how annoying his negativity is.
Almost $13MM seems a little steep for Singer, they should had non-tendered him and sign a more needed power hitter.
Plenty of teams would be more than happy to have Singer on a 1-year $12.75M contract if the Reds offered him up. Unlikely that the Reds will get enough healthy innings from their remaining arms to risk trading him though.
Marge also destroyed the farm system turning into a bottom 5 after saying. “What do we need scouts for? All they do sit around watching games.” That’s been quoted enough times and then you see the exodus of great scouts leaving in the late 80s and the struggle to find any or develop any pitching. Brett Tomko the only developed starting pitcher in the 90s with any success at all and that was barely. Bowden had to sign ML FA or discarded players to Minor League contracts just to get any depth at all and did a great job at it.
Jacob Brumfield. Scott Bankhead. Darnell Coles. Jeff Shaw.
This team has more money than you think even with Fan Duel fiasco too.