The Cincinnati Reds have every intention of trying to win as many games as possible in 2026. That was the plan when they first hired future Hall of Famer Terry Francona to be their manager before 2025. That was certainly the plan after the 2025 club snuck into the playoffs and gave fans the thrill of real postseason baseball for the first time in a decade.
It was the plan, though it seemed farfetched, when they tore things down in 2022. It’s been the plan as they sat patiently with a youthful core, watching it slowly but surely turn into the nucleus of a decently rostered baseball franchise.
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Those plans don’t come without bumps in the road, however. The Reds were jettisoned from the playoffs by the Los Angeles Dodgers in just two (non-home) games last fall. The Reds waived goodbye to a number of good players in free agency, yet came to define themselves over the last nine months by a pair of deals that added a few square pegs to a roster full of otherwise round holes.
First, they committed big to Ke’Bryan Hayes in a deal with Pittsburgh. He came over with a long-term deal guaranteeing him a minimum of $36 million through the 2029 season, and was immediately established as the team’s 3B of the present and future. Despite 3B Sal Stewart knocking on the door, the Reds then swung big on AAV to reunite with 3B Eugenio Suárez this winter, doing so to bring in his much needed power even though he’d be forced to DH more than he’d ever done in his life.
In the process, they up and moved Noelvi Marte to RF – a position he’d literally never played before in his life. The former shortstop had his issues as the team’s 3B before the Hayes deal, but the thought was that his athleticism would translate well out there quickly despite the team, y’know, having every intention to win as many games as possible in 2025. For a hot minute it looked brilliant, and his home-run robbery in the season’s final week earned its own bobblehead giveaway, but Marte was abysmal at the plate over the final 25 games of the season (.186/.215/.275 in 107 PA).
He backed that up with a .138/.194/.138 start to the 2026 season across 31 PA, and the Reds officially sent him back to AAA on Monday because of it.
The expectation, per C. Trent Rosecrans of The Athletic, is that the Reds will call up Rece Hinds prior to Tuesday’s game to take Marte’s place. It’s the rational call as Hinds has mauled AAA pitching this year after he mauled Cactus League pitching this spring after he mauled AAA pitching all last year, too.
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What that move underscores, though, is the lack of rationality the Reds used to get themselves here in the first place. In shoveling so many square pegs into their infield mix heading into 2026, they pooled almost all of their minuscule resources into that part of their project, and it left them with an outfield mix that was mis-matched at best. Marte’d never played RF for 95% of his life. TJ Friedl, who’s struggling almost as badly right now, is being used in LF more after being exclusively a CF for more than two years. Spencer Steer, a Gold Glove finalist at 1B, is now being tasked with LF more often than not.
The outfield, which the Reds chose to patch instead of truly fix, simply hasn’t worked.
That brings us to Hinds, who hit just .116/.136/.279 in 44 PA at the big league level last year. I’m saying that the Reds owe it to themselves to let that guy play almost every single game in RF going forward.
One big part of that is that Hinds, a former 2nd round pick who has a superstar grade in terms of power and plus speed and arm grades, is a supremely talented individual. He’s still just 25 years old, an age where plenty of players who have struggled before can still very much have a breakout year (see: Will Benson in 2023, among many others). He’s also shaved off over 10% of his once atmospheric strikeout rate at the AAA level dating back to early 2025, and his walk rate so far this year has spiked accordingly, too.
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He’s been maturing slowly, but surely. He’s also a guy who hit right-handed pitching much better last year (.914 OPS) than left-handed pitching (.769) at the AAA level, something that has continued in a much smaller sample there in 2026.
Most importantly, though, is that he’s been a corner outfielder for over five years since moving off the diamond as a 20 year old, with the overwhelming amount of that work coming as a RF. He’s a guy you put out there and know that while he may not be Roberto Clemente, he’s experienced with reads, with where his throws will go, and how to read the spin of the ball off the bat. He’s consistency in an area where there’s been turmoil, and provides that with pretty much the same type of star-caliber upside offensively that we’ve heaped on Marte for years, too.
If the Reds aren’t truly going to go out and address their outfield situation appropriately – which they didn’t do last summer or last winter – the least they should do to try to fix it now is roll out something there that they can at least count on in one aspect. No more counting on just throwing someone out there and assuming it will work out despite red flags waving wildly, no more daily rotation in hopes that miraculously kicks all players into gear despite choppy reps. Give Hinds his glove and tell him to go be the RF going forward, and see if just a little bit of well-earned stability there helps the rest of the jumble fall into place.
On top of everything else, Hinds deserves it. He went right back to AAA after his electric first week in the bigs two years ago and kept working, kept refining his game so that his best assets can more adequately shine. The Reds slow-played him and did a poor job trying to render him redundant, and now he’s more than ready at a time when the club needs him now more than ever.
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