The Cincinnati Reds’ 2026 season has landed them in a bleak neighborhood, and the numbers make that hard to argue with. As of September 25, they sit at 74-85, out of the playoff picture and headed for a last-place finish in the NL Central.
The most telling stat might be run differential, and Cincinnati’s number is ugly: minus-159 after a 7-6 win over the Atlanta Braves on September 24. That puts the Reds in the bottom five, alongside the Los Angeles Angels, Kansas City Royals, Colorado Rockies, and Athletics. At the other end of the scale, the Milwaukee Brewers, Los Dodgers, Chicago Cubs, New York Yankees, and Atlanta Braves lead the league in run differential and are all on track for the playoffs.
Run differential isn’t a perfect snapshot by itself. The Washington Nationals, for instance, own a +9 mark and are only 1½ games better than the Reds at 75-84.
A team can win a bunch of blowouts, lose a pile of tight games, and still end up with a misleading-looking record. But when the numbers get this extreme, they usually tell the truth about how a season has gone.
And the truth here is that Cincinnati has been poor across the board in 2026. The Reds rank 27th in runs scored with 655 and sit 25th with a .699 OPS. They have hit 211 home runs, which is good for fourth in the league, but that power hasn’t been enough to carry an offense that struggles to get runners on base and doesn’t deliver when the chance is there to break a game open.
The pitching hasn’t rescued them, either. Reds starters rank 28th in ERA at 4.95, and the bullpen hasn’t been much steadier, posting a 25th-ranked 4.72 ERA. Too often, the relief corps has given back the leads the rotation has managed to create.
There’s no simple repair job waiting here. Cincinnati has some talented pieces in place, but those players need better support around them in the lineup, the rotation, and the bullpen. The coaching staff’s approach and its idea of winning baseball also have to be part of the fix.
It’s a big lift, and the Reds are doing it in a tough division. Still, with a serious effort, they can start climbing the run differential standings in 2027. If that happens, the place in the standings should follow.
In Other News...
Reds Leak Reignites Debate Over Who Really Drove The Offseason
The Reds offseason is back under the microscope after a report from The Athletic described real tension between the front office and owner Bob Castellini over how free agency was handled. Cincinnati ended up bringing back Eugenio Surez on a one-year deal, but the larger picture is more revealing, especially after the club missed on re-signing Kyle Schwarber and watched another target, pitcher Nick Martinez, land with the Tampa Bay Rays instead.
What makes the story resonate in Cincinnati is the question it raises about who was actually driving the plan and what the club thought it needed most. The report suggests Nick Krall and the front office had a different preference than the one that won out, adding another layer to a winter that now looks less like a simple roster-building exercise and more like a case study in competing voices inside the organization. [Read more 🡒]
Reds Rallied Past Atlanta With One Response Fans Loved
An early hole against Atlanta could have made for a long night, but Cincinnati kept swinging and kept the pressure on until the game flipped in the sixth inning. Carlos Jorge, Elly De La Cruz and Hector Rodriguez all left their mark with home runs, giving the Reds the kind of offensive punch that has a way of changing the mood of a series in a hurry.
From there, the bullpen made sure the comeback stuck. Connor Phillips, Tejay Antone, Brock Burke and Emilio Pagan helped shut the Braves down over the final innings, turning a 4-1 deficit into a win and sealing the series victory in a game Cincinnati had to work to earn. [Read more 🡒]
Edwin Arroyo's Reds Future Suddenly Feels Far Less Certain
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The roster picture around him has only gotten tighter. With Juan Brito and Oswaldo Cabrera now added to the mix, the competition for middle infield spots looks even more crowded, and that matters for a club trying to balance present needs with future upside. If the Reds decide they need to move a young player to fill another hole, Arroyo could be one of the names they weigh as they look for bullpen help and other offseason fixes. [Read more 🡒]