{"id":377285,"date":"2025-12-30T05:43:07","date_gmt":"2025-12-30T05:43:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/377285\/"},"modified":"2025-12-30T05:43:07","modified_gmt":"2025-12-30T05:43:07","slug":"reds-remain-open-to-outfield-addition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/377285\/","title":{"rendered":"Reds Remain Open To Outfield Addition"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Reds made a pair of depth additions to the outfield last week. They brought in glove-first center fielder Dane Myers<\/a> in a small trade with Miami while signing JJ Bleday<\/a> to a $1.4MM reclamation deal. Neither player should be locked into everyday roles, but they\u2019ll each compete for playing time alongside TJ Friedl<\/a> and\u00a0Noelvi Marte<\/a>. Both acquisitions have a minor league option remaining and can be sent to Triple-A Louisville without going on waivers.<\/p>\n

Will Sammon and Katie Woo of The Athletic<\/a> write that the Reds are open to acquiring another outfielder, which they suggest is likelier to come via trade than free agency. Their left field mix is likely to feature Bleday, Gavin Lux<\/a> and\u00a0Will Benson<\/a> \u2014 each of whom hit from the left side. Friedl is also a left-handed hitter, leaving Marte and Myers as their top right-handed options. Marte is going to be the everyday right fielder. Myers has good career numbers against left-handed pitching (.297\/.360\/.456) but has been almost unplayable against righties.<\/p>\n

The Reds have some flexibility in their positional alignment. They limited\u00a0Spencer Steer<\/a> mostly to first base this year after he suffered a shoulder injury in Spring Training. If they feel better about testing his arm after a healthy offseason, he could pick up a few more starts in left field. Playing Steer in the outfield against left-handed pitching would free more first base at-bats for\u00a0Sal Stewart<\/a>, who is coming off a .309\/.383\/.524 showing in Triple-A. Stewart reached the big leagues late in the season and connected on five home runs in 18 games. He\u2019s one of the organization\u2019s most exciting offensive players, though it remains to be seen if he can handle more than spot starts at a position other than first base or designated hitter.<\/p>\n

Acquiring a center fielder could also push Friedl into a full-time left field role. That\u2019s easier said than done given the limited supply of center fielders on the trade market. Houston dangled\u00a0Jake Meyers<\/a> for starting pitching before trading\u00a0Jacob Melton<\/a> as part of a package to acquire\u00a0Mike Burrows<\/a> from Pittsburgh. The White Sox have discussed<\/a>\u00a0Luis Robert Jr.<\/a> with the Reds, among other clubs, but his $20MM salary is a significant obstacle. Even if Chicago might be willing to pay down a portion of the contract, that\u2019d increase their prospect demand for their talented but inconsistent center fielder.<\/p>\n

Sammon and Woo report that the Reds have not considered trading Friedl. He\u2019s under arbitration control for three seasons and led the team with a .364 on-base percentage (min. 200 plate appearances). Friedl was at the top of Terry Francona\u2019s batting order for the entire year. He has serviceable range in center field but a below-average arm that would make him a better fit in left if the Reds were able to land a clear upgrade in center.<\/p>\n

Cincinnati\u2019s payroll projection sits around $111MM, as estimated by RosterResource<\/a>. The Reds opened the 2025 season at just under $116MM. President of baseball operations Nick Krall said at the beginning of the offseason that he anticipated a similar number next year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Reds made a pair of depth additions to the outfield last week. They brought in glove-first center…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":377286,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[65],"tags":[363,99,94558],"class_list":{"0":"post-377285","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mlb","8":"tag-mlb","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-tj-friedl"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/377285","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=377285"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/377285\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/377286"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=377285"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=377285"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=377285"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}