Jonathan India's Royals fate will have Reds front office taking another victory lap

When the Cincinnati Reds flipped a popular clubhouse figure for innings, it was met with mixed reactions. Trading offense for a mid-rotation arm is never sexy, and shipping Jonathan India to Kansas City for Brady Singer felt, at the time, like a cold, analytical bet that might sting in the short term. But roster building is about anticipating who a player will be next, not who he was yesterday. Cincinnati wagered that stable, reliable starting pitching would pay a bigger dividend than a bat trending down with no clear defensive home. They were right.

Zoom out, and the logic looks even sharper. The Reds needed someone to take the ball every fifth day, settle games into the sixth, and keep the bullpen from living on a razor’s edge. Singer brought exactly that brand of predictability while the infield logjam cleared itself. Meanwhile, India’s value hinged on his bat rebounding enough to wash out the defensive givebacks. It didn’t.

Reds’ Brady Singer trade already looks like a masterstroke over Royals

Now, at season’s end, India finds himself as a strong non-tender candidate for the Royals. The reasons stacked up: a tough platform year at the plate, defensive struggles, one more pass through arbitration, and a crowded infield picture that reduced his margin for error. The stat line told the story plainly — .233/.323/.346 with an 89 OPS+, 9 homers, and 45 RBI across 136 games, career lows nearly across the board and production that didn’t offset his glove. That combination made him, harsh as it sounds, a net negative in 2025.

Park effects can explain a sliver of the slide but not the whole thing. Leaving Great American Ball Park, one of the game’s most hitter-friendly environments in recent seasons for Kauffman Stadium, which plays closer to neutral, was always going to shave a bit of thump. Still, this wasn’t a case of a bat crushed by a cavernous outfield. The deeper issue is that India never truly reconnected with his 2021 rookie form (.269/.376/.459, 21 HR, 69 RBI, 4.1 WAR), and as the bat cooled, the defensive warts grew harder to hide.

Cincinnati, meanwhile, got exactly what it shopped for. Singer didn’t lead highlight packages, but he answered the bell: 14–12, a 4.03 ERA, 163 strikeouts in 169 2/3 innings, and maybe most valuable of all, a second straight year of 32 starts. In a league where rotations are constantly patched with opener days and shuttle arms, that durability is currency. He stabilized the middle of the rotation, gave the bullpen clean handoffs, and allowed the Reds’ higher-octane starters to be deployed more aggressively.

The ripple effects extended to the dirt, too. Even in a down year at the plate (.220/.300/.343, 15 HR, 50 RBI), Matt McLain still outproduced India while offering superior range and sure-handed work at second base. That defensive upgrade tightened the run-prevention machine behind Singer and aligned perfectly with the philosophical shift the trade telegraphed: prioritize outs saved and innings banked over the hope of a bat bouncing back.

In hindsight, the contours of the deal feel obvious. The Reds exchanged uncertainty for reliability, leveraged their infield depth, and bet on a pitcher whose calling card is availability. The Royals took a swing on a bounce-back that never materialized and are now staring at a non-tender decision. That’s not just a tidy win for Cincinnati, it’s proof that the front office read its roster, the market, and the risk profiles with uncommon clarity.