Earlier this offseason, we talked about how the Reds and Pirates projections had them looking plausibly competitive in 2026 in the NL Central, particularly if they made certain offensive additions over the offseason.
In both cases, the teams desperately needed to add offense in the outfield and at DH, and, for the Pirates, their acquisitions of Ryan O’Hearn and Brandon Lowe could very much help in those regards (and possibly also the acquisitions of outfielders Jhostynxon Garcia and Jake Mangum). Adding Kazuma Okamoto could help even more, depending on where he plays and how others are moved around. I very much hope they do not pull it off.
For the Reds, however, there had been a whole lot of nothing done on the offensive side this offseason until this weekend. Some rumors about Kyle Schwarber and Luis Robert Jr., sure, but no action.
Then the Reds double-dipped, almost simultaneously, on a couple outfield moves, signing J.J. Bleday, and trading for Dane Myers. They needed outfielders, so, you know, mission accomplished?
Well, the thing is, Bleday, a former top prospect, was DFA’d by the A’s in November, rather than pay him the $2.2-ish million he was set to make in arbitration. The Reds were able to get him for a reported $1.4 million because, despite a solid 2024 season, things fell way off this past year. The peripherals turned very sour, and he seemed to get worse as the year went on. Absolutely a player worth taking a flyer on, but not necessarily an offensive upgrade, particularly in a corner outfield spot, where the metrics say he needs to stay.
Myers, by contrast, is probably a pretty good defender all over the outfield, but the 29-year-old hit just .235/.291/.326/72 wRC+ this season, and just .245/.299/.354/82 over 172 career big league games. An offensive upgrade, he probably is not.
So why did the Reds do this? Well, I suppose it’s possible they’re trying to take two meh outfielders and cobble together one decent outfielder in a platoon (Bleday hits lefty and has modest traditional splits for his career; Myers hits righty and has really pronounced traditional splits for his career).
But then again, you’re talking about a 40-man roster that already had seven outfielders on it, and now has nine. Heck, it’s ten(!) if you count recent-maybe-conversion Noelvi Marte. Maybe they’ll be able to carry five of them on the active roster, and rotate guys around constantly to optimize match-ups and create something close to average production overall, but that’s a big maybe.
What the Reds needed in the outfield was one singular big bat. Instead, the added two question marks. From here, it’s much harder to see them adding a big outfield bat to an already-overcrowded group, so it’s probably going to come down to the DH spot if they want to really make an impact. Not sure how or if that realistically happens this offseason.
If that’s all the Reds do on the offensive side, then this is going to have been a tremendous missed opportunity to bolster a club that made the playoffs in 2025, and has so much young pitching talent available and on the way. I’m not saying I *want* them to do more, mind you. I just think it’s odd.
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