{"id":324313,"date":"2025-12-04T06:49:11","date_gmt":"2025-12-04T06:49:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/324313\/"},"modified":"2025-12-04T06:49:11","modified_gmt":"2025-12-04T06:49:11","slug":"reds-to-re-sign-emilio-pagan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/324313\/","title":{"rendered":"Reds To Re-Sign Emilio Pag\u00e1n"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Reds are reportedly bringing back closer Emilio Pag\u00e1n<\/a> on a two-year, $20MM contract. The deal, which is pending a physical, allows the Ballengee Group client to opt out after next season. Cincinnati\u2019s 40-man roster count will climb to 39 once the signing is finalized.<\/p>\n

Pag\u00e1n returns on another two-year deal after one of the best seasons of his career. The Reds surprisingly signed him to a $16MM contract over the 2023-24 offseason. There was obvious risk in adding a fly-ball pitcher to work in high-leverage spots at one of the sport\u2019s most hitter-friendly parks. Pag\u00e1n didn\u2019t post great numbers and missed a couple months with a lat injury in 2024, so he had an easy call to bypass an opt-out and return to Cincinnati.<\/p>\n

This year went a lot more smoothly. Pag\u00e1n took over the closer role from\u00a0Alexis D\u00edaz<\/a> and recorded a career-high 32 saves. He did blow six save chances but had a strong season overall, pitching to a 2.88 earned run average across 68 2\/3 innings. He punched out 30% of opponents against a solid 8.1% walk rate. Pag\u00e1n avoided any injuries and pitched well against left- and right-handed batters alike. He got swinging strikes at a strong 14.6% clip while sitting in the 95-96 MPH range with his fastball.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Pag\u00e1n has always had an elite strikeout and walk profile. He hasn\u2019t had the year-by-year consistency of the sport\u2019s best closers, though. The fly-ball approach still leaves him vulnerable to the home run ball. Pag\u00e1n has only had one season in his nine-year career in which he has allowed fewer home runs than the average reliever. He has surrendered 85 home runs since entering the league in 2017. That\u2019s 19 more than any other reliever over that stretch.<\/p>\n

The longball is always going to be an issue, but Pag\u00e1n sticking around as a high-leverage reliever despite the homers is a testament to his effectiveness in other areas. He\u2019s a reliable control artist with above-average velocity. His splitter gives him an option to attack opposite-handed hitters, while he mixes in a cutter as his main offspeed pitch versus righty batters. Pag\u00e1n has generally been durable outside of the aforementioned lat strain. He has topped 50 innings in every other full schedule of his career, including six years with 60+ frames.<\/p>\n

Pag\u00e1n\u2019s strong walk year earns him a nice contract for his age 35-36 seasons. The guarantee narrowly beats our two-year, $16MM prediction<\/a>. Pag\u00e1n also gets the upside of the out clause, which allows him to get back to free agency if he has an equally strong \u201926 season. Another two-year deal at age 36 would be rare but not unprecedented, so it\u2019s not out of the question that he pitches well enough to consider that route.<\/p>\n

Assuming Terry Francona slots Pag\u00e1n back in the ninth inning, he\u2019ll pitch behind a solid setup group that includes\u00a0Tony Santillan<\/a>,\u00a0Connor Phillips<\/a> and Graham Ashcraft<\/a>. Cincinnati should add a left-hander at some point. The only southpaw who\u2019d be in their bullpen at the moment is Sam Moll<\/a>, who was up and down from Triple-A Louisville throughout the year.<\/p>\n

Cincinnati has $32.275MM in guaranteed contracts to six players: Pag\u00e1n,\u00a0Hunter Greene<\/a>,\u00a0Ke\u2019Bryan Hayes<\/a>,\u00a0Jose Trevino<\/a>,\u00a0Ben Rortvedt<\/a>, and Moll. They owe $15MM in dead money ($12MM salary and a $3MM option buyout payable after the World Series) to Jeimer Candelario<\/a>. Cincinnati has a sizable arbitration class which MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz projects to cost around $45MM. They\u2019d owe another $8-10MM in minimum salary players, which puts their current commitments in the $100-105MM range. President of baseball operations Nick Krall said he expects payroll to be around the $116MM at which they opened the 2025 season.<\/p>\n

That\u2019d leave them with roughly $15-20MM to spend. They\u2019re in the market for an impact bat and reportedly trying to bring\u00a0Kyle Schwarber<\/a> back to the Cincinnati area. That would surely cost more than $20MM annually. It\u2019s possible ownership would make an exception for someone like Schwarber or\u00a0Pete Alonso<\/a>. The front office could also look to trade a player or two from the arbitration class to free up more spending capacity if they feel they\u2019ve got a strong chance to sign an elite hitter.<\/p>\n

Ken Rosenthal and C. Trent Rosecrans of The Athletic<\/a> first reported that the Reds and Pag\u00e1n had reached a two-year, $20MM deal with an out. Image courtesy of Imagn Images.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Reds are reportedly bringing back closer Emilio Pag\u00e1n on a two-year, $20MM contract. The deal, which is…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":324314,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[435],"tags":[49,48,143463,462,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-324313","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mlb","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-emilio-pagan","11":"tag-mlb","12":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/324313","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=324313"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/324313\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/324314"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=324313"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=324313"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=324313"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}