Jay Allen II may end up getting a helping hand from the Reds’ 40-man roster math, and Leo Balcazar could be the odd man out.
Allen was Cincinnati’s compensation pick in the 2021 MLB Draft after Trevor Bauer left for the Los Angeles Dodgers on a three-year, $102 million deal. His climb has been slow, shaped by injuries and inconsistency, but he finally reached Triple-A last season after putting together a strong run at Double-A Chattanooga. In 2026, he hit .280/.374/.483 there before the Reds bumped him up for the final month.
That late push could matter now. Allen is still only 23, still a premium athlete, and still at the point where Cincinnati may want to protect him from the Rule 5 Draft by adding him to the 40-man roster next month. The Reds’ roster currently sits at 35, and with half a dozen players heading for free agency, they don’t appear to need a major purge to make room.
Instead, one of the cleanest paths could be moving Balcazar off the roster.
The Reds already outrighted Ivan Johnson to the minors, and Balcazar looks like a logical next candidate once the offseason roster churn really gets going. He drew attention in the Arizona Fall League last year and earned his way onto the 40-man, but he hasn’t done much to strengthen that hold since then.
Balcazar, like Allen, got a late-season look at Triple-A. His Double-A and Triple-A numbers were nearly identical, and across both stops he finished with a .239/.329/.364 line and an 83 wRC+. That’s a steep drop from what he posted in 2025, when he hit .263/.339/.381 with a 106 wRC+.
The concerns have also shown up in his prospect stock. MLB Pipeline pushed him down to No. 25 in its updated rankings, pointing to doubts about whether he can stick at shortstop over the long haul and to a tendency to chase pitches outside the zone.
No one is in a hurry to move on from Balcazar, but these kinds of roster decisions tend to get made in a wave. Last year, the Reds outrighted Santiago Espinal, Ian Gibaut, and Sam Benschoter around this same stretch.
In 2024, Austin Wynns, Nick Martini, and Ty France went through a similar process. Balcazar could easily follow that same track, with Allen taking the spot that opens up.
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Reds Linked To Familiar Catcher As Bigger Question Still Looms
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For the Reds, the appeal is pretty straightforward if they want a steady backup while they keep waiting on Alfredo Duno to be ready for the majors. Rortvedt fits the kind of short-term bridge teams often use behind the plate, but the bigger question remains how long Cincinnati wants to hold that spot together before its top catching prospect is actually ready to claim it. [Read more 🡒]