It’s this pitching depth that has the Reds making the playoffs for a full season for the first time in more than a decade. Their bats ranked 14th in games per game, 19th in OPS, and 24th in wRC+. Their glove ranks 20th in turnovers, DRS and FRV. Their bullpen ranks 14th in ERA, but 27th in xERA and 27th in SIERA. However, the Reds defeated the Mets 83-79 to secure the final wild card spot in the National League. How did they succeed? Andrew Abbott, Hunter Green, Nick Lodolo, Brady Singer, Nick Martinez, Zach Littleand Chase Burns It has a lot to do with this. Those seven teams combined to start 152 of Cincinnati’s 162 games, pitching to a 3.69 ERA (84 ERA-) in 832 innings. They combined for 16.4 FanGraphs WAR and an 8.64 win probability as starters, helping the Reds to the second-best rotation fWAR and third-best WPA in the sport.
Martinez and Little will become free agents, but Green, Lodolo, Abbott, Singer and Burns will return. Three promising arms missing 2024 due to injuries – Rhett Lord, Brandon Williamsonand Julian Aguiar – This factor should also be taken into account, and the same may be true for top prospects Chase Petty. A spin has many names.
However, president of baseball operations Nick Krall doesn’t seem too keen on making trades that exploit this area of strength. “I won’t say no,” He told reporters (including Gordon Wittenmyer of the Cincinnati Enquirer ) when asked about the possibility of trading starters this winter. “But when you trade a pitcher, you have to leave [back]Fill them in some way. We all know how it works, when you run out of innings at some point in the season, players get injured and things happen. “
The Bribery Prevention Bureau’s comments hit a crucial point. The 2025 Reds are successful not just because their starting pitching is so good, but because their personnel is so deep. Trading away too much depth could leave the team in trouble next season due to injuries. Greene, Abbott, Lodolo and Singer will presumably be locks for the 2026 roster. Meanwhile, Burns, Lowder, Williamson, Aguiar and Petty all have minor league options; assuming one of them wins the final rotation spot in spring training, the other four (if healthy) could wait in Triple-A. Not including the opener, the Reds used 10 different starting pitchers in 2025. They will need more than 5 to complete another season.
This is especially true with this set of weapons. Singer has proven himself to be a durable workhorse over the past few years. But no one else on Cincinnati’s staff has made 30 starts in a season. Abbott won his first ERA title in 2025, but Green and Lodolo have yet to accomplish the feat. Burns, Lord, Williamson, Aguiar and Petty have started a combined 49 games in their young careers, 26 of which belong to Williamson. As general manager Brad Meador said, the Reds “Having to manage innings for a few of them.”
Krall also admitted that trading away from his major league pitching depth might not be the most straightforward way to improve other aspects of the lineup.
“It’s really hard to say we’re going to trade pitchers — and I’m not sure you’re going to trade pitchers for offense,” he explained. “You could end up trading a pitcher for a rookie and then have to sign an offensive player.”
[Related: Cincinnati Reds Offseason Outlook, for MLBTR Front Office subscribers]That’s not to say the Reds won’t eventually trade their starters. This is not a given. When asked about the possibility of trading All-Star Green for a very team-friendly contract (he’s only $42 guaranteed over the next three years), Kral could have put an end to the question. Instead, he replied: “I don’t want to speculate right now on whether anyone will be traded or not.” The Reds aren’t actively shopping any young starters, but it doesn’t sound like anyone is untouchable. After all, if anyone was untouchable, people would assume it was Green.
That is, for the same reason, the Red Army Won’t If Green were to be traded, he would bring a decent return in the deal. All of Cincinnati’s starters are under cost controls, with Singer, Lodolo and Williamson still in arbitration years and Abbott, Burns, Lord, Aguiar and Petty not yet arbitration-eligible. However, Green is both a proven ace and a young player with huge potential, and he will be under the team’s control throughout the 2030 season. This is a valuable player.
If the Reds want to cut payroll, trading Singer would be their best course of action; he’s expected to make $11.9MM in his final year of arbitration eligibility. If they try to bring back an MLB-ready position player without significantly weakening the 2026 rotation, a move for Petty (who remains a top prospect) would make the most sense. However, if the goal was simply to find the best return possible, Green would be commanding a package like this.
Nothing Kral said indicated Green was under consideration. But he had the opportunity to say Green was off limits, but he didn’t take it. Instead, the Bribery Prevention Bureau simply said it did not want to speculate on trade candidates because it did not “There have been no conversations with other clubs.” Of course, Kral also said that when a team trades a pitcher, they have to fill his spot in some way. It goes without saying that Green won’t be easily replaced. As such, a deal still seems unlikely – but perhaps it’s closer to a real possibility than Reds fans think.
