The Reds have a catching problem, and the fix on the trade market may be clearer than it first looked.
Tyler Stephenson appears headed toward a price tag Cincinnati can’t match. The free-agent class doesn’t offer much relief either.
Outside of Ryan Jeffers, who the Reds also can’t afford, the available names don’t project as true upgrades over Jose Trevino. That leaves trades as the most realistic path forward, even if the options are thin.
For a while, Dodgers catcher Dalton Rushing looked like an interesting possibility. He has a blocked path in Los Angeles with three-time All-Star Will Smith holding down the job and tied to a $140 million contract through 2033. Rushing’s 2025 debut was rough, when he posted a .582 OPS, but 2026 brought a much better line: .246/.328/.460 with 12 homers in 80 games.
Even so, the profile came with plenty of volatility. Rushing opened the season on fire, putting up a 1.271 OPS in April, then cratered to a .385 mark once May arrived.
His season also ended early because of a tear in his UCL, and the latest news removes him from Cincinnati’s radar entirely. He will undergo hybrid internal brace surgery and will not catch for nine months.
That shift points the Reds toward another Southern California catcher: San Diego’s Luis Campusano.
Campusano posted .265/.363/.433 with eight homers in 71 games in 2026, which is the kind of offense that plays very well at catcher. The reason he’s available is simple enough. The Padres are crowded behind the plate, and the future is already starting to take shape.
Late in the season, San Diego brought up top prospect Ethan Salas for a brief stint. The 20-year-old, MLB Pipeline’s No. 21 overall prospect, also earned a spot on the Padres’ postseason roster.
A.J. Preller said Salas won’t be handed the starting job in 2027, but the direction is obvious.
Campusano is also sharing the room with Freddy Fermin, a veteran whose value comes mostly from his glove and enough bat to stay on a big league roster. Add in the fact that the Padres traded for Fermin at last year’s deadline partly because of Campusano’s struggles, and the picture gets even clearer. San Diego also sent Campusano down after he went hitless over 10 games in 2025, after he had once been their No. 3 overall prospect and the No. 2 catching prospect in the league behind Adley Rutschman.
There’s another reason Campusano makes more sense for Cincinnati than Rushing: the timeline.
Top prospect Alfredo Duno is the Reds’ catcher of the future, but if he reaches the majors in 2027, it would only be as a September call-up. His target arrival is 2028, which lines up with the end of Jose Trevino’s contract.
Campusano, meanwhile, is under team control through 2028. Rushing wouldn’t reach free agency until 2032.
That matters. Campusano gives Cincinnati a useful bridge and insurance for Duno without setting up a future playing-time logjam.
Rushing also carried some baggage in 2026, with maturity issues becoming a concern. That kind of thing can be handled more easily in a veteran-heavy Dodgers clubhouse. It’s a different story for a younger Reds team, where the same issues could drag the whole group off track.
As for the cost, Campusano should be attainable. San Diego has a real need in its rotation, and if the Reds were willing to move an arm with a shot at competing for a fifth starter job, the Padres would likely be interested. Cincinnati has enough low-end pitching depth to part with a Quad-A type and still land a catcher with real upside.
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