Terry Francona may have revealed the Reds’ offseason reality check

The Cincinnati Reds’ 2025 season has been built on grit, speed, and situational hitting. What it hasn’t been built on is power. The numbers don’t lie, Cincinnati ranks just 23rd in Major League Baseball in home runs, a far cry from the days when Great American Ball Park was one of the league’s most feared launching pads.

At this stage of the season, that lack of slug has become part of the Reds’ identity. They doubled down on it at the trade deadline too, when instead of chasing a middle-of-the-order bat, they acquired glove-first third baseman Ke’Bryan Hayes. That decision sent a pretty clear message: the Reds weren’t going to patch their power problem in 2025.

But as manager Terry Francona hinted this week, that doesn’t mean the conversation is going away. In fact, it might define the Reds’ offseason, as he told Charlie Goldsmith of FOX19.

Terry Francona’s comments underline Reds’ biggest weakness heading into winter

“I wish it had a bigger role,” Francona said about the team’s home run production. “We are who we are. You can complain about it, or you can try to win. Our goal during the season is to win and make it reach, even if sometimes it doesn’t look like it might reach. That’s what competing is. But when the season is over, then you can look up and say maybe ‘here, here and here.’ But not now.”

That’s as close as Francona will come to acknowledging the obvious. The Reds can’t keep trying to manufacture runs forever. They’ve survived 2025 with hustle and timely hitting, but the offseason will force the front office to take a hard look at how sustainable this model really is.

Catcher Tyler Stephenson, meanwhile, defended the current approach.

“Home runs happen,” Stephenson said. “I don’t feel like we have a group of guys who are going up there with an all-or-nothing approach. We’ve got guys who can for sure hit home runs. We’ve got guys who put together good at-bats, we’ve got guys who can steal. We’ve been able to manufacture runs. (Situational hitting) is something we take a lot of pride in. You look at some games that we’ve lost and won that have been because of situational hitting. There’s a lot of value in that.”

He’s not wrong. The Reds’ offense has won plenty of games this year by stringing together singles, running the bases aggressively, and taking advantage of mistakes. But October baseball is different. When the weather cools and pitching staffs shorten, the clubs with power bats tend to survive.

Will the Reds front office answer Terry Francona's call for more power?

That’s where the “reality check” comes in. Francona and Stephenson can only play the cards they’ve been dealt this season. Once the winter arrives, Cincinnati’s front office has to decide whether this team needs another dynamic power threat.

Could the Reds swing for a big-name bat like Kyle Schwarber? On paper, sure — but in reality, it’s unlikely. Schwarber’s price tag and fit don’t line up with how Cincinnati has typically operated, making him more of a dream scenario than a realistic target.

The more realistic options? Banking on Elly De La Cruz to rediscover his home run stroke, or leaning on other up and coming bats like Rece Hinds or Will Benson to finally prove they can provide the consistent thump this lineup has been missing.

The Reds’ identity in 2025 has been about contact and chaos. But if they want to move from scrappy to scary in 2026, the conversation Francona just nudged into the open will have to be answered with a big bat.

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