“This could be fun,” Reds manager Terry Francona said. “Let’s go. That’s part of the messaging. We might be younger than some of the teams we’re competing against. But we’ve got to go toe-to-toe. It’s time. These guys have a few years under their belt now. Let’s go.”
While the Reds had a feel-good 2023 season, they only won 83 games. Also, a lot of players had down years. Tyler Stephenson took a step back offensively, Spencer Steer was banged up, Elly De La Cruz had a bad second half, Matt McLain wasn’t himself and Noelvi Marte and Will Benson opened the year in Triple-A.
Even with all of that, the Reds made the playoffs. They’ve also seen all of those players show that they can make a significant impact.
“It’s time means that we’ve grown up,” All-Star Andrew Abbott said. “The younger guys, we know what to expect and what we have to do. Now, we have to go apply it. There’s no excuse now. Let’s do it right now with no questions asked.”
The Reds added to the mix with an aggressive offseason, going over budget to sign Eugenio Suárez while also bolstering the middle relief core with Pierce Johnson, Caleb Ferguson and Brock Burke.
“Nick (Krall) and Brad (Meador) did a great job this offseason putting us in position to take that step,” starting pitcher Nick Lodolo said. “When everyone is bought in and pulling on the same side of that rope, it’ll make it a lot easier.”
The Reds focused a lot on the details during the first full-squad workout of the spring. They trained their bunt plays, doing game like reps at this fundamental part of the game. Players also worked on base running reads where they stood at first base and picked the ball off the bat.
In 2026, the Reds have to play a much cleaner brand of baseball than they did last year. They need to be better situational hitters, more consistent defenders and more heads-up base runners.
“We are fast, for the most part,” Francona said. “I know we weren’t as aggressive last year as before, but we’re still one of the more aggressive teams. When guys are sliding into second and the ball is in the outfield because they don’t know where it is, we’ve got to do better at knowing where the ball is. We’ll work on that a lot.”
There’s a good energy in camp so far. The players showed up in shape, and they arrived early in Goodyear, Arizona. Every day, they make it to the ballpark early for extra work.
It’s a focused group looking to prove that it can fight with the big teams in the National League.
“There’s no learning curve,” Abbott said. “We know basically everybody in here. We added some good pieces to the mix. We’ve got depth in places I think we haven’t had depth in years. I’m fired up to be here in general. It’s great to hear your manager is behind you. We want to take it to the next level and build off what we did.”
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