October 31 was a brutal day on the Reds‘ roster. Cincinnati declined mutual options on both Eugenio Suárez ($16M) and Pierce Johnson ($8M) for 2027, and closer Emilio Pagán turned down his own $10M option. In a single afternoon, the 40-man roster dropped from 38 to 35 players — and a Cincinnati offseason that was already going to be complicated got a whole lot more urgent.
Suárez: Real Power, Rough Average, and Nobody Claimed Him on Waivers
Suárez came back to Cincinnati in 2026 on a one-year, $15M deal after clubbing 49 home runs split between Arizona and Seattle in 2025. His second stint with the Reds was messier. He slashed .212/.307/.433 with 26 home runs and 74 RBI in 498 at-bats — a line that looks modest on the surface but hides a more interesting Statcast story underneath.
His barrel rate was 12.3% and his average exit velocity came in at 88.5 mph. Projection models had him on pace for 20.5 home runs based on his contact quality; he hit 26. When he connected, the ball traveled. The problem was making contact consistently — and by August, the team had placed him on waivers without a single club putting in a claim.
The second half told a different story: .852 OPS in August, .935 OPS in September. Too late, and not quite enough, to convince the Reds to move $16 million. At 35 years old with 351 career home runs and 1,023 RBI, Suárez has a market. Just not in Cincinnati.
Pierce Johnson and the Logic of a $1M Buyout
The call on Johnson was more straightforward. The 35-year-old right-hander arrived on a $6.5M deal with that $8M mutual option attached. In 56 appearances in 2026, he posted a 4.62 ERA — a significant step back from the 3.05 ERA he put up with Atlanta in 2025. The Reds paid the $1M buyout and moved on.
It’s worth clearing up how mutual options actually work, because there’s often confusion: it’s not that Johnson rejected it or that the Reds exercised it and he said no. A mutual option only activates if both sides agree. The Reds said no — and that ends the conversation. According to MLB Trade Rumors, it’s been over a decade since both a team and a player have simultaneously agreed to activate a mutual option.
Losing Johnson means Cincinnati loses one of its two best relievers from 2026, alongside Pagán. That’s a significant blow to a bullpen that already finished the season with 668 walks — the worst total in all of MLB — and a 4.83 team ERA that ranked 28th out of 30 teams.
What Cincinnati Is Facing This Winter
The Reds finished 2026 at 75-87, last in the NL Central. Three roster pieces walked out the door in one day, the 40-man sits at 35, and the front office still has decisions pending on Tyler Stephenson and Brady Singer, among others.
Free-agent negotiations officially open Monday at 5 p.m. ET. Cincinnati needs a closer, a third baseman, and bullpen arms — and they need all of it without the spending power of a playoff club. This offseason started complicated.
