The Reds made a low-risk add this week, bringing in veteran outfielder Dominic Fletcher on a minor league deal to give the organization more depth.
Fletcher’s most recent major league action came in 2025, when he played 12 games for the Chicago White Sox. This year, he spent 63 games with the Pittsburgh Pirates’ Triple-A affiliate and put together a strong line, hitting .301/.386/.485 with 22 extra-base hits, including eight home runs.
In August, Fletcher used a release clause in his contract to leave the Pirates and join Cincinnati.
The 29-year-old has appeared in 112 big league games and owns a .233/.280/.325 line with 23 extra-base hits. He also brings the kind of defensive versatility teams value in a depth piece, with the ability to handle all three outfield spots.
The move follows the same logic as the Reds’ Orlando Arcia signing: add another layer of organizational insurance and give the club a fallback if injuries hit. Fletcher is not expected to play a major role right away, but he could surface in the final month of the season if the outfield gets thin.
Fletcher was drafted in the second round of the 2019 MLB Draft by the Arizona Diamondbacks.
While that signing adds depth, the bigger Reds story remains Elly De La Cruz, whose season may be getting overlooked for just how good it has been.
De La Cruz leads all MLB shortstops in OPS and wRC+, and he also sits second in WAR, fourth in home runs and stolen bases, and 10th in Outs Above Average. His impact goes beyond the position group, too: he ranks fourth among all MLB position players in WAR.
And this isn’t just a hot stretch. De La Cruz’s 5.2 fWAR already places him 12th on the Reds’ list of best single-season marks by a position player since 1999. His 2024 breakout is on that same list as well, when he finished with 6.8 fWAR, the third-highest total over that span.
With roughly a month still to play, De La Cruz has a chance to keep moving up a leaderboard filled with some of the best Reds position players of the last 25 years.
In Other News...
Reds Face An Elly De La Cruz Decision They May Not Win
Elly De La Cruz has already become the kind of player who forces a franchise to think bigger than its usual comfort zone, and Joey Votto only added to that conversation by floating the idea that the Reds young star could someday command a deal on the scale of the sports biggest superstars. The speculation is easy to understand when you factor in De La Cruzs age, his defensive value and the kind of impact he has already shown, but it also underscores just how rare that financial tier is in Major League Baseball.
For Cincinnati, the question is less about whether De La Cruz belongs in that conversation than whether the club can realistically stay in it. Only a tiny handful of players have ever signed contracts in that range, and the Reds would have to navigate not just the size of the eventual number, but everything it would mean for the rest of the roster and the organizations long-term planning. De La Cruzs current contract situation leaves the door open for all of that to come into focus sooner rather than later, even if the final answer still feels a long way off. [Read more 🡒]
Reds Fans Have A New Ownership Rumor To Watch
The recent sale of the Los Angeles Angels has stirred up more than one ripple around baseball, and Cincinnati is now part of the conversation. According to MLB insider Bob Nightengale, rival owners believe the Reds could be the next club on the market, a notion that immediately gets attention in a city where the Castellini familys stewardship has long been a source of fan frustration.
There is still no official indication that the Reds are actually for sale, which is why the rumor lands more as a sign of league chatter than confirmed reality. Even so, the speculation adds another layer to a franchise that has spent years trying to convince its followers that better days are ahead, while executives continue to face the same underlying question every big-market team does when ownership talk starts to circulate: what happens next, and who decides it? [Read more 🡒]
Reds Just Sent Edwin Arroyo A Tough Message Before Dodgers Series
The Reds got a little healthier before their series with the Dodgers, activating KeBryan Hayes from the 10-day injured list and sending infielder Edwin Arroyo back to Triple-A Louisville. It was the kind of roster move that comes with a clear message, especially for a young player trying to establish himself in the majors while Cincinnati is trying to keep pace in a tough stretch of the schedule.
Arroyos latest look with the big club never really got going, as he managed just one hit in 18 at-bats and struck out seven times over six games. With fellow rookie Juan Brito having already played better and taken over that spot, Arroyo is now headed back to Louisville with work to do before he gets another shot. [Read more 🡒]