Ashcraft will make $1.75 million, and Stephenson will make $6.8 million.
The end of the arbitration process means that Stephenson is set to enter 2026 in the final year of his rookie contract. He’s the first homegrown Reds player since Michael Lorenzen in 2021 to enter his sixth year on the Reds’ big league club without a contract extension in place. Stephenson is also the first Reds’ position player to be in that position since 2017.
Reds manager Terry Francona has said that players earn the right to be a free agent. Stephenson has done that with five solid years so far behind the plate.
“I’m obviously grateful to make it and be playing long enough to get in this situation,” Stephenson said. “Coming up on six years, it’s a long time. Me and wife, we’ve talked about it a lot during the offseason. It’s bittersweet. You never know what the future holds. I love being here, and we’ll obviously see what happens.”
Last season, Stephenson had the second-worst offensive campaign of his big league career. He missed most of spring training with an oblique injury that also keep him out for all of April. That resulted in a disjointed start to the season, and he was playing catch up for the entire first half of the year.
Stephenson also suffered a broken thumb that forced him to miss time in August.
“Guys get in a rhythm of playing, and that’s when you usually see the best of them,” Francona said. “Sometimes you get them in name, but they’re not ready to be who they are and it can get tough.”
With a chance for a normal 2026, Stephenson is expecting a bounce back year as a hitter. He had one of the six-worst strikeout rates in MLB last season, and he’s looking to put the ball in play more.
“The strikeout percentage, I know I’m a much better hitter,” Stephenson said. “Some of it was inflated with me coming back (from injury) and trying to get that rush off. There’s a balance. I know the type of hitter I’ve always been. It’s about finding that groove again.”
Ashcraft was the Reds’ seventh-inning reliever in 2025, his first full year in the bullpen. He posted a 3.99 ERA with great underlying metrics.
Credit: AP
Credit: AP
At the moment, roles for the bullpen in 2026 are less clear cut. Since the Reds signed Caleb Ferguson and Pierce Johnson and traded for Brock Burke, Francona will have different styles of relievers available for specific matchups in high-leverage innings this season. There’s also the chance that rookies Connor Phillips, Zach Maxwell and Luis Mey develop into impact pieces.
Ashcraft remains an important part of the puzzle, and pitching coach Derek Johnson that roles will get sorted out over the course of the spring.
“There’s some versatility,” Johnson said. “We have left-handers who can help us out and actually a couple of them are pretty good against right-handed hitters as well. There are a lot of moving parts, but there are a lot of possibilities.”
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