The Reds have declined their 2027 mutual options for third baseman Eugenio Suárez and right-hander Pierce Johnson, the team announced. Both players are now free agents, leaving the Reds with five openings on their 40-man roster.

Neither decision comes as a surprise, especially considering it has been over a decade since both a team and a player triggered a mutual option. Suárez’s $16MM option did not come with a buyout. Meanwhile, the Reds chose to pay Johnson a $1MM buyout in lieu of the $8MM they would have owed him had both sides exercised the option.

Unless the 35-year-old Suárez sticks around on a new deal, this will wrap up his second stint in Cincinnati. The right-handed slugger previously played there from 2015-21, when he put together three seasons of at least 4.0 fWAR and two with 30-plus home runs. He also earned his first of two All-Star nods during that stretch.

The Reds first moved on from Suárez when they sent him (and outfielder Jesse Winker) to the Mariners in a blockbuster trade three weeks before the 2022 season opened. He then spent two seasons with Seattle and one and a half in Arizona, which traded him back to the Mariners ahead of the 2025 deadline. Between the D-backs and AL pennant-winning Mariners last year, Suárez swatted 49 homers for the second time in his career and slashed .228/.298/.526. Despite a low batting average and on-base percentage, he put up a solidly above-average wRC+ of 125.

The Reds likely expected more of the same from Suárez when they guaranteed him $15MM last offseason, but the move didn’t pan out as hoped. When the All-Star break rolled around in mid-July, Suárez owned a dismal .208/.285/388 line. Thanks in part to his struggles, the Reds were sitting on a 43-52 record then. Suárez woke up in a big way from August onward, as he recorded an .852 OPS that month and a .935 mark in September, but the Reds finished 75-87 and fell miles short of a second straight playoff berth. In late August, a month before their season ended, the Reds placed Suárez on revocable waivers. They would have saved around $2.5MM had somebody claimed him, but the rest of the league passed.

More to come…