Reds are becoming dangerous in a way last year’s team never was

There is a difference between a team getting off to a nice start and a team starting to look genuinely annoying to deal with. The 2026 Cincinnati Reds are sitting firmly in that second category, and that’s what should get everybody’s attention.

Through April 22, Cincinnati is 16-9, sitting in first place in the NL Central, with a 10-3 road record that already looks wildly different from the version of this club we watched a year ago.  

Last year’s Reds could be talented and occasionally explosive, but they didn’t consistently feel built for the grind. This year’s group is starting to under Terry Francona who’s entering his second season as the Reds manager.

They have become a team that keeps games alive, hangs around long enough to make one more play than you do, and then leaves town with a win. Cincinnati is a perfect 10-0 in games decided by two runs or fewer. That’s an indicator that tells us this team is getting more comfortable in tension instead of folding inside it. 

Reds’ gritty road success is showing why this team feels different already

In 2025, the Reds went 35-38 in games decided by two runs or fewer, which is not ideal. This is why the early reversal matters. Don’t expect them to live off nail-biters forever and expect that pace to hold, that’s just nonsense. But when a club goes from being that bad in close games to suddenly looking calm, functional, and opportunistic in them, we should probably pay closer attention. Sometimes it means a team has actually grown up. 

The road record might be the loudest part of all this. Good teams travel well. Real contenders don’t need perfect conditions and friendly matchups to look like themselves. Cincinnati being 10-3 away from home while sitting only 6-6 at home is a weird split on the surface, but it also hints at something encouraging: this team is not fragile. It is not built only for comfort and it can win in other people’s parks.  

Cincinnati is still near the bottom of the league in several major offensive categories, which makes this start even more interesting. Sal Stewart has been a huge reason they have avoided offensive flatlines, and the club has gotten needed help from Elly De La Cruz and Eugenio Suárez at times.

On the pitching side, Rhett Lowder and Chase Burns have already delivered meaningful innings, and the bullpen has done a lot of the dirty work that winning teams need without always getting much glamour for it.  

The 2025 Reds could still tease people. These Reds are starting to pressure people. There’s a difference. One kind of team gets your attention for a minute. The other starts to feel like a genuine issue. Right now, the Reds are looking a lot more like the latter.

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