The Cincinnati Reds have aged out of their rebuild.
This club that they put together from the draft, international signings, and prospects brought in via trade first assembled when they were mostly young, mostly inexperienced players breaking into the big leagues for the first time. That’s not at all so anymore.
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Spencer Steer is now 28 and entering the fifth season in which he’ll don a Reds uniform. He played with the likes of Tommy Pham, Brandon Drury, and Donovan Solano, and has just one fewer dinger as a Red than Dmitri Young. Another 20+ homer year for him in 2026 and he’ll pass guys like Ken Griffey, Edwin Encarnacion, Austin Kearns, and Hal Morris on the team’s all-time leaderboard, and will almost certainly pass Todd Frazier and even Tucker Barnhart on the team’s all-time PA list.
Along the way, we’ve seen flashes of brilliance from a handful of these now-prime Reds. Andrew Abbott surged to a 5.6 bWAR season last year, Matt McLain kicked the doors down in his 2023 rookie year, and even TJ Friedl tossed in a nearly ~4 WAR season in 2023, too. Still, aside from Elly De La Cruz flirting with superstardom at just about every turn, we’ve not yet seen any of the players around him break out in a way that has sustained itself for a full year (or beyond), with Hunter Greene – injuries and all – being the closest thing to it.
The question today is who, if anyone, will see 2026 be the year in which they launch?
Might it be McLain, for real, now that he’s two years beyond major shoulder surgery?
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Could 2026 be the year Nick Lodolo puts everything together?
Will Noelvi Marte live up to the hype now that he’s found a more cozy home in RF?
Can Sal Stewart really be as good as his minor league numbers have looked?
Sometimes, these breakouts come out of nowhere, though. That’s where Scooter Gennett came from, fresh off the scrap heap. Maybe it’s JJ Bleday now that he’s in a park that suits his strengths, the former top draft pick now in the stage of his career where he’s got to scrape and claw to get his opportunities. Maybe it’s Will Benson finally getting a bit of luck with the pitches he’s been smashing, luck that somehow eluded him all through 2025.
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It could even be Tyler Stephenson, who appears to be entering 2026 with no contract extension and therefore has this as a platform year into free agency. Or, it could be the season where Elly finally wreaks havoc on his opposition for a full six months.
What say you? Which Cincinnati Red is poised for a 2026 breakout?
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