The Terry Francona reclamation project has worked with yet another team, as the legendary manager has led the Cincinnati Reds to the playoffs in his first season with the club.
Cincinnati clinched the final wild card spot in the National League thanks to the New York Mets’ 4-0 loss against the Miami Marlins in Sunday’s regular-season finale.
With the entire postseason field set, here are the updated standings and matchups following Sunday’s results.
Projected AL Playoff Matchups (Based on Current Standings)
*Denotes clinched playoff spot
The road to this point was certainly bumpy, but the Reds were ultimately able to hold off the New York Mets and Arizona Diamondbacks to secure their first postseason berth since 2020.
It’s their first time the Reds have made the playoffs in a 162-game season since 2013.
Francona, who was hired by the team in October 2024 after stepping down from the Cleveland Guardians the previous year, has now made the playoffs in his first season with each of his last three teams. He did it with the Guardians in 2013 and Boston Red Sox in 2004.
The Reds got to this point largely on the strength of a terrific starting rotation, led by Hunter Greene and Andrew Abbott. Their entire rotation finished eighth in MLB in ERA and 12th in strikeouts per nine innings.
There aren’t many teams in the playoffs that boast a better 1-2 pitching duo than Greene and Abbott. If the Reds are going to make any noise in October, it will be because they performed great.
Cincinnati will need that to happen because the offense was disappointing in the regular season. Elly De La Cruz is capable of putting up eye-popping stats, but his 108 OPS+ was down 11 points from 2024.
Austin Hays was the only other Reds player to post an above-average OPS+. Their issues scoring runs nearly cost them a playoff spot after losing back-to-back games against the Pittsburgh Pirates on Sept. 23-24 right after they moved ahead of the Mets in the standings.
If the Reds can get the best version of De La Cruz, Hays continues to hit well and Miguel Andujar remains on his hot streak, they have the pitching to give any team in the NL a lot of problems.
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