A little more than a year after the Reds made a big defensive bet at third base, they still don’t seem ready to walk away from it.
That move brought in Ke’Bryan Hayes, who was billed as the sport’s top defensive third baseman and came with the kind of glove-first reputation Cincinnati clearly valued. Terry Francona was all in on the idea at the time.
“He might be the best defender in baseball. If not, he’s right there.
He’s that good," Francona told MLB.com's Mark Sheldon. "We’re trying to find ways to get better.
Sometimes it might not be the sexiest move, but we care so much about trying to play clean baseball, and this will be a huge step in that direction.”
Nick Krall framed the deal in the same way, pointing to the offensive numbers and the possibility that Hayes could get back to where he’d been before.
"We think there’s a lot of underlying metrics to where he is and what he’s doing offensively to improve and get back to where he was a couple of years ago,” Krall said. “We’re really excited. It’s not every day you get a chance to get a guy that is an elite defender."
The glove has held up. The bat, though, has been another story. Hayes has battled injuries, and when he has been available, his offense has been among the weakest in the league.
The trade also forced Cincinnati to shift Sal Stewart, one of its top prospects, away from third base and over to first.
Hayes did show a bit of life after arriving from Pittsburgh at last season’s deadline. His OPS climbed from .569 with the Pirates to .656 with the Reds. But that bump never turned into anything more, and this season has been brutal.
In 79 games, Hayes is hitting .151/.210/.246 with eight extra-base hits.
The Reds even sent him to their complex in Arizona to work on his swing, but that hasn’t produced the kind of turnaround they were hoping for.
Cincinnati has seen this movie at third base before. Mike Moustakas signed a four-year, $64 million deal in 2019, then struggled so badly the Reds designated him for assignment in December of 2022. Jeimer Candelario followed on a three-year, $45 million contract in 2023, only to falter on both sides of the ball before being designated for assignment in June of 2025.
The club eventually moved on from both of those contracts. With Hayes, that point doesn’t appear to be coming anytime soon, since he remains under team control through 2030.
For now, Hayes stands as another veteran addition that hasn’t delivered. And while no single decision explains why the Reds missed the postseason, misses like this have piled up.
When a team doesn’t have much room for error, it can’t keep whiffing on veteran pickups. The Reds have done that too often, and now they’re headed into the offseason after another year outside the playoffs.
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