Reds should jump on Mets' midseason pickup who's sure to draw significant interest

While the Cincinnati Reds have a surplus in the starting rotation, that doesn't mean that their pitching staff is complete. There are a lot of needs in the bullpen, with late-inning arms, at least one lefty, and a swing man to replace Nick Martinez all on the docket. With a tight budget and a need for a power bat in the lineup, that doesn't leave a lot of room to fill all of those gaps, at least not satisfactorily.

A lot of attention is on the closer market with Devin Williams and others standing out as candidates to replace Emilio Pagán. But signing a player in free agency means paying a premium for the closer label if the player in question has prior ninth-inning experience, even if his numbers are equal to those in the setup tier who have never received the closer moniker. At a certain point, paying for that high-end label becomes moot if the pitchers in the seventh and eighth innings can't hand him the ball with a lead.

Besides, the Reds have some internal options like Tony Santillan, who could ascend to the closer role, leaving them with a cheaper path forward to flesh out the pen. If they were to go that route, swiping the New York Mets' trade deadline pickup, Tyler Rogers, would be a dream scenario.

Stealing Tyler Rogers would be the dream Reds' bullpen addition

Rogers won't exactly be a bargain basement find, but, entering his age-35 season, the submarining right-hander has the goods without the closer label to drive his price up to astronomical levels.

Over the past five seasons, Rogers has pitched at least 70 innings per season with an ERA of 3.57 or less each year, including three campaigns with sub-3 marks. In fact, since 2021, no reliever has pitched in more games (374) or logged more innings (378⅓) than Rogers. On the innings front, it isn't particularly close, with him slinging 39⅓ more frames than runner-up Scott Barlow, who the Reds recently cut loose.

Rogers gets his outs not by overpowering hitters, but by confounding them with his sinker-slider mix from a knuckle-dragging arm angle. The result is a 56.7% career ground ball rate that was even better in 2025, with a 62.1% mark. That allows him to keep the homers down, with a career 0.59 HR/9, which is exceptionally important in Great American Ball Park.

Contract projections range a bit for Rogers. Jim Bowden of the Athletic predicts a one-year, $15 million deal for his services. Spotrac pegs his market value at two years, $22.7 million, and MLB Trade Rumors' projection is the most affordable at two years, $18 million.

Not bank-breaking, but not exactly a bargain, but there's something else to consider. Rogers' ERA since 2021 is 2.71, which ties him with Josh Hader, whose five-year, $95 million contract with the Houston Astros set the record for the largest deal ever given to a reliever in terms of present-day value. Of course, Hader's 165 saves in that time frame are over ten times more than Rogers' 16, but Rogers has logged nearly 90 more innings than Hader while achieving that performance.

In that context, it's easy to see just how much of a premium you pay for saves, and in turn, how much of a bargain Rogers could be. He might be the single best addition Nick Krall could make to the bullpen, and in doing so, would still leave room in the budget to fill the other pressing holes. Seems like a no-brainer.