Eugenio Suárez hasn’t delivered the season many imagined when he came back to Cincinnati on a one-year, $15 million deal, but that doesn’t mean the Reds should shut the door on a return after 2026.
The numbers tell the story. Suárez still hasn’t reached 20 home runs, and his line sits at .210/.288/.419 with an 88 wRC+.
He also missed a month earlier this year because of an oblique strain. Cincinnati has mostly used him as the designated hitter, though he has also spent time at third base when Ke'Bryan Hayes was on the injured list.
Even there, the defensive results have been rough: three errors, -4 defensive runs saved (DRS) and -5 outs above average (OAA).
And yet, the bat has started to wake up. Since the All-Star break, Suárez has gone 27 games hitting .213/.296/.500 with seven home runs, 15 RBI and a 106 wRC+.
Before the break, he was at .208/.285/.388 with 11 home runs, 35 RBI and an 80 wRC+ over 67 games. If that second-half pace holds, he’d finish with 29 homers and 72 RBI.
That still might not be enough for Cincinnati to pick up the $16 million mutual-option, and it probably shouldn’t. But declining that option doesn’t have to mean the end of the relationship. The Reds could still circle back and try to bring Suárez back on a more team-friendly deal for 2027.
There’s a practical case for that, too. The Reds already learned last winter that landing a top bat isn’t easy after Kyle Schwarber turned down Cincinnati’s five-year, $125 million offer.
Looking ahead to the next free-agent class, the fit list isn’t exactly overflowing. Jazz Chisholm Jr. is chasing a big payday, Randy Arozarena looks out of range, and the other choices don’t clearly offer more than Suárez.
There’s also recent precedent for a veteran bat rebounding after a down year. Reds fans saw Nick Castellanos follow a disappointing 2020 with an All-Star season in 2021. Suárez has that kind of bounce-back in him, and both sides could find a middle ground.
Josh Bell signed a one-year, $7 million deal with the Washington Nationals last winter after posting a .741 OPS with 22 home runs in 2025. Austin Hays got a one-year, $6 million deal from the Chicago White Sox after hitting .266/.315/.453 with 15 home runs in Cincinnati last season.
A similar arrangement for Suárez would make sense for both sides. The Reds would get a middle-of-the-order hitter on a short, affordable deal, and Suárez would have a chance to reset his value in one of MLB’s most hitter-friendly parks.
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Reds announcer John Sadak added some public backing to Stewarts side of the debate, and his view only adds another layer to an already familiar award argument: how much should production matter compared with positional value and all-around completeness? For Cincinnati, the interest is obvious because Stewarts case is not just about a promising start, but about whether his bat can carry enough weight to outshine a rival whose best traits show up in a different part of the game. [Read more 🡒]
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Joey Votto Shares The Hitting Truth Reds Fans Still Obsess Over
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For Reds fans who watched Votto evolve over a long career in Cincinnati, the most interesting part may be how directly he tied that theory to his own adjustment. In his later years, he said, he moved more toward pulling the ball himself, a change that fit both the era and his understanding of what works at the highest level. It is the sort of reflection that keeps Votto relevant well beyond his playing days, because he is still talking about hitting like someone who never stopped thinking about it. [Read more 🡒]