Emilio Pagán just sent a clear message to the Reds front office as trade deadline looms

Cincinnati Reds reliever Emilio Pagán notched his 10th save of the season on Friday night against the St. Louis Cardinals. The veteran right-hander entered during the ninth inning for the fourth time since the All-Star break and shut down the Cardinals lineup on just 11 pitches — 10 of which landed for strikes.

Pagán has now converted three consecutive save opportunities and the Reds have a 5-2 record to begin the second half of the season. Cincinnati is still six games back in the chase for the final Wild Card spot in the National League and have a meager 2.1% chance to make it back to the playoffs. But don't tell Pagán (or any other player in the Reds clubhouse) the odds.

"I said this a couple weeks ago, we didn't make it easy on ourselves, but games like this are why we've stayed so adamant that we have a good team in here," Pagán said after the win. "We're just trying to make it weird, you know?"

Is it too late for the Reds to save their season?

"We're trying to win as many games as we can to hopefully put us in a spot where guys aren't leaving and maybe we're adding some guys, and we can go on a run," Pagán continued. "We know what we're capable of. We know we can string together a lot of wins in a row. We put ourselves behind the eight ball, and that's on us, but we have a chance to do something special and kind of rewrite the script."

The threat of losing some of their teammates at the trade deadline seems to have lit a fire under the Reds. But is it too little, too late? Stranger things have happened, though reports seem to suggest the Reds will look to trade away a number of veteran players who are expiring contracts before the August 3 deadline passes.

The trade buzz around names like Tyler Stephenson and Brady Singer is likely to become much louder next week. Spencer Steer, a player who has two years of team control remaining after the 2026 season, appears to have captured the attention of the Seattle Mariners. And Eugenio Suárez's recent hot-streak could make him a coveted right-hander bat at the deadline as well.

Pagán's optimism is offset by reality, unfortunately. Not only is Cincinnati six games back in the hunt for the final NL Wild Card spot, but there are also six teams in front of them — most of whom are likely to add, not subtract at this year's trade deadline.

There's a myriad of reasons the Reds should sell at this year's deadline, but don't tell the 26 guys in the Reds' clubhouse that. Until the first domino falls, look for Pagán and the rest of the players on Cincinnati's roster to give it their all as they hope to return to playing baseball in October.

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