The Cincinnati Reds have a new assistant hitting coach, and that hire naturally drags Ian Happ back into the conversation.
Anthony Iapoce’s arrival makes the connection even easier to draw. He spent three seasons on the Chicago Cubs’ staff as hitting coach from 2019-2021, after being hired following the 2018 season, and that overlap matters because it came during Happ’s rise from a young big leaguer into an everyday force.
In that stretch, Happ settled into the Cubs’ lineup and put up a combined .809 OPS with 48 home runs. The two are known to have mutual respect, which is why the fit keeps getting mentioned.
But the idea of Happ landing in Cincinnati runs into a much bigger issue than familiarity.
The money gets tight fast.
A number of outlets expect Happ to get at least a two-year deal, while MLB Trade Rumors projects a three-year, $45 million contract. The Reds do have some payroll flexibility coming in 2027, and Emilio Pagán opting out of his final season opened another $10 million.
FanGraphs pegs Cincinnati’s estimated 2027 payroll about $37 million below what the club paid in 2026. Even if Happ came in at MLBTR’s projected $15 million average annual value, the Reds would still have roughly $22 million left to spend.
That sounds workable until you look at the rest of the roster.
Hunter Greene’s $15.3 million salary will be on the books even though he is expected to miss all of the 2027 season after undergoing Tommy John surgery for the second time this past summer. Cincinnati still has to replace that production, and any real middle-of-the-rotation starter is going to cost at least $12-$15 million. Brady Singer’s rotation spot is also unsettled, the Reds need a new catcher after Tyler Stephenson, and the bullpen still needs several arms.
That’s a lot of work for one offseason, and it’s why the Reds can’t afford to treat Happ as the answer to everything.
They already took a swing like this last year with Eugenio Suárez, and it didn’t really solve the bigger problem. Suárez’s second-half surge helped soften the blow, but the $15 million the Reds used to bring him in might have been better spent reinforcing the bullpen or adding another dependable starter.
So yes, the Iapoce-Happ connection is real. The fit on paper is easy to see.
But Cincinnati has too many holes and too little money to get seduced by a familiar face and a good relationship. If the Reds were one big bat away, this would be an obvious move.
They’re not.
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