The Reds’ 2025 deadline haul helped push Cincinnati into the postseason, but that kind of move always comes with a cost. Last summer, the club landed Ke'Bryan Hayes, Zack Littell, and Miguel Andujar, and those three combined for 1.6 bWAR after the deadline. Cincinnati made the playoffs for the first time since 2020, then got bounced quickly by the eventual World Series champion Los Angeles Dodgers.
To get those upgrades, the Reds gave up left-handed reliever Taylor Rogers, right-handed pitcher Brian Van Belle, and three prospects: shortstop Sammy Stafura, pitching prospect Adam Serwinowski, and right-hander Kenya Huggins. Rogers was set to hit free agency after last season, while Van Belle’s 2025 season ended after a trip to the 60-day IL because of elbow inflammation.
A year later, the prospect side of those deals looks very different depending on which name you start with.
Stafura was the headliner in the trade with the Pittsburgh Pirates for Hayes. A second-round pick in 2023, he was hitting .261/.392/.410 when Cincinnati moved him, and by the end of the 2025 season his production had cooled enough that the trade was starting to tilt in the Reds’ favor.
That picture has changed. Hayes’ bat has not delivered, and he missed nearly two months on the IL, while Stafura has taken off after a slow start.
In his first full minor-league season with the Pirates, he’s up to a .274/.365/.575 line with 18 home runs. The strikeout rate is still a concern at 30.9%, but there’s plenty to like about where his game is headed.
Serwinowski’s path has been different. The former 15th-round Reds pick in 2022 never pitched in a game for the Rays, then was sent on to the Dodgers before the deadline.
He was always seen as a long-term project, and Los Angeles is living with that reality now. In 2026, Serwinowski has made 19 starts and thrown just under 90 innings.
The stuff has shown up in the strikeout numbers, with 11.17 K/9, but the control remains shaky at 4.97 BB/9. At 22, he’s Rule 5 eligible this winter, which makes his spot on the Dodgers’ 40-man roster worth watching.
Huggins, the fourth-round pick from 2022, has had the roughest line of the three. He never got beyond Low-A with the Reds, and Cincinnati had been trying to develop him as a starter.
The strikeouts never really came in bulk, even though he posted a 3.69 ERA over 63⅓ innings in 18 games before the deal, with just over 22% of batters faced going down on strikes. With the Athletics, the strikeout rate is nearly unchanged at 22.8%, but the walks have climbed to 12.6%.
Double-A hitters are batting almost .300 against him, and his 6.82 ERA stands out for the wrong reasons. Like Serwinowski, Huggins is Rule 5 eligible this winter.
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