The Reds have added two more late-inning weapons to a bullpen that already had plenty going for it.
Luis Mey, called up from Triple-A, has started to look like the kind of reliever who can handle meaningful outs. Tony Santillan, meanwhile, came back on Friday after missing time since June with an oblique injury. With Emilio Pagán rolling through the best stretch of his career and Tejay Antone and Brock Burke turning in strong seasons, Cincinnati’s relief group suddenly looks even deeper at the top end.
Mey’s rise has been one of the more interesting stories in the Reds’ bullpen this year. He made his big league debut in 2025 and flashed real upside in limited chances, but his spring in 2026 didn’t bring the immediate step forward he was hoping for. The first half of the season was rough, and most of it played out in Triple-A.
“Things didn’t go his way in the first half of the season,” Mey said. “The walks.
Four pitches can ruin an outing. A leadoff walk can lead to a run in any situation.”
He’s also taken a bigger-picture view of the struggle.
“I looked at it as the process,” Mey said. “If I didn’t have the struggles to start the year, I wouldn’t be here.
I wouldn’t have found what’s better for me. It’s a process.
You’ve got to believe and go through it.”
A late-July meeting with the Triple-A pitching coaches changed his approach. Mey decided to exclusively pitch out of the stretch, and the adjustment paid off right away. Since getting recalled to the majors in early August, he’s shown real improvement and climbed his way up the depth chart.
“It’s his fastball command,” Terry Francona said. “It starts there.
And it ends there. It has so much movement.
He doesn’t have to always locate it. If he just throws it over that white thing, he’ll be ok.”
Santillan’s path back has been different, but just as important. He was one of the most valuable relievers in baseball in 2025, opened 2026 well, then hit the worst stretch of his career between May and early June. He recovered from that slump in late June, only to get derailed by the oblique injury.
“I finally had figured out what I had to figure out (on the mound),” Santillan said. “It took a lot longer than I had wanted it to.
But I figured it out and was getting back to who I was. The timing of it wasn’t ideal.
But I looked at it as, now I know what was out of whack so when I come back it should instantly click.”
He also said he pushed hard to get back sooner than expected.
“I was very stubborn in certain areas,” Santillan said. “Pushing myself when I probably shouldn’t have.
I was smart with it. No one knows their own limitations but themselves.
I was very confident. I made it a point to push it.”
Now Santillan is back alongside Pagán at the end of games, giving the Reds another proven arm to lean on as their bullpen keeps rounding into shape.
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