The 2026 Reds have been too topheavy

Elly De La Cruz exited Sunday’s game in the fifth inning on Sunday with right hamstring tightness. There was optimism postgame about De La Cruz’s status. Nothing will be certain until he gets the results from an MRI scheduled for Monday morning. But De La Cruz said that he was able to stop himself before the hamstring tightness turned into something worse, and that he doesn’t believe the injury is something bad.

Still, the injury scare and finishing the game without him fit the theme of this weekend for the Reds.

They’re an incredibly top-heavy team dependent on a few stars and aren’t getting enough from whatever depth they have.

Here’s how the weekend went for the Reds: After losing Graham Ashcraft to the 60-day IL on Friday, Yunior Marte crumbled in his Reds debut as the Braves beat the Reds, 8-3. He was pitching in an important situation with the Reds trailing by a run due to a short start from Chris Paddack. On Saturday, after Pierce Johnson went on the 15-day IL, another shaky and short start from Brady Singer cost the Reds in a 5-2 loss. On Sunday, the Reds rebounded with the best of the season from Nick Lodolo, one of the Reds’ best players, as well as a great game from breakout outfielder JJ Bleday to avoid the sweep.

It was the Reds’ depth (Paddack, Singer, Marte, the bottom-third of the lineup) that represented the difference between a series win and a series loss. The depth has let the Reds down too often this year.

The Reds have had eight position players appear in at least 10 games and post a negative WAR (entering Sunday): Will Benson, TJ Friedl, Ke’Bryan Hayes, Rece Hinds, Noelvi Marte, Matt McLain, Eugenio Suárez and Jose Trevino. That number of players with negative WARs is tied for the third-most in MLB.

The Reds’ pitching staff entered Sunday with a 3.0 WAR. Chase Burns had a 2.9 WAR. The entire rest of the pitching staff accounted for a net total of .1 WAR. The Reds entered Sunday with eight active pitchers with a WAR of 0 or below, plus two pitchers on the IL with negative WARs, two in Triple-A and one in DFA limbo.

For any team, when your star misses any time, the entire group has to step up. The Brewers did that very well early in the season this year.

If De La Cruz misses any time for the Reds with this hamstring injury, what can they expect to get from their depth?

Outside of De La Cruz’s injury status, the most pressing issue with the Reds right now is their bullpen.

Injuries have exposed a problem in pitching development.

At the end of the offseason, the Reds’ bullpen looked genuinely and meaningfully deep.

Every team deals with relief pitching injuries over the course of the season. The Reds looked more poised to withstand that for a couple of reasons.

Their veterans — Emilio Pagán, Pierce Johnson, Caleb Ferguson and Brock Burke — had impressive track records of durability in the big leagues.

Graham Ashcraft and Tony Santillan looked poised to take the next step.

And, most importantly for the overall depth, there was a really exciting wave of inexperienced pitchers with real upside, huge stuff and tangible signs of their potential based on results from the 2025 season. The plan was that if something happened to one of the Reds’ top relievers, the Reds had a group of pitchers ready to step up.

Connor Phillips was a great weapon in the Reds’ bullpen last September and looked like a future closer. Lyon Richardson, Zach Maxwell and Luis Mey all had stretches as leverage relievers for the Reds in 2025, and their stuff allowed each of them to go on a nice run at one point in the season. Kyle Nicolas, acquired via trade, ended the 2025 season on a very strong note in Pittsburgh.

Now, with a rash of injuries to the veteran relievers in this group. The idea was that a couple among Phillips, Richardson, Mey and Maxwell would be ready to carry the Reds through a stretch like this.

The Reds aren’t even close. As a result, Yunior Marte is in the big leagues right now over pitchers like Phillips and Mey.

Pitching development is the reason why the Reds had Yunior Marte pitching in a one-run game, and why they have to stick with Tony Santillan in the ninth inning.

Brock Burke and Sam Moll have been the only dependable relievers recently, and even they’ve had stretches this year where they’ve really struggled with command.

It also isn’t helping that Chris Paddack and Brady Singer haven’t been able to pitch deep into games (also, in Triple-A, Chase Petty and Jose Franco haven’t taken the next step).

On Saturday, in his return after being skipped in the rotation, Singer allowed three runs in five innings while surrendering two homers and walking three. Singer, who dealt with a blister in spring and took a comebacker off his foot a few weeks ago, has been grinding all season. He has a 6.18 ERA.

“You go through a lot during the season and stuff like that,” Singer said. “There are a lot of ups and downs. I’m not doing great as of late. I’ll keep pushing. You can’t back down. You can’t shut it off. You can’t complain. Keep working on stuff and try to get better every day… Velocity going up would help a lot. It’s something we’re working on. It’s hard to gain velocity in the middle of the year. We’re doing things that can help that.”

Getting five inning starts from Paddack (who’s walking too many guys) and Singer and then using five relievers a night isn’t sustainable. Rhett Lowder’s expected return in the next week or two should help, but the Reds will have to keep an eye on him as he returns from a shoulder injury.

Seeing Nick Lodolo look more like himself over the last few weeks has been a huge deal. His breaking ball isn’t humming yet, but it’s a reflection of his talent that he’s still managing to win the Reds games. He gave the team 6 ⅔ strong innings (three runs allowed) in Sunday’s win.

Looking at the lineup, with how things have been going before De La Cruz’s injury scare, the positions up for grabs have been second base and center field.

Blake Dunn is taking on a ton of responsibility as the leadoff hitter and center fielder.

The Reds’ entire bench right now is backup center fielders: Dane Myers (dealing with illness), TJ Friedl (in the lineup on Friday against a pitcher he had historic success against, he showed bunt in both of his at-bats) and Will Benson (hitting .177, and .111 over his last 15 games). Francona can shuffle pieces around (like Spencer Steer from right field to second base) to get one of these backup outfielders in the lineup in the place of McLain, who has one hit in his last 21 at-bats.

McLain, who still provides elite defense and base running, has been on the bench in three of the Reds’ last four games.

“He has really tried to work on some stuff with (the hitting coaches),” Terry Francona said. “We try to have the lineup make the most sense. We’re obviously trying to balance a lot of different things.”

I’ve written about how the Reds should call up Arroyo to fill a super utility role while competing with McLain for the second base job going forward.

Whenever it’s Arroyo’s time for a call-up, is giving him every day playing time a must?

“He has played different positions,” Nick Krall said on Friday. “He has only played a few games at third. He has only played a few games at second. We’re trying to get him at different spots and get him to a point where he can come up and contribute. That’s what we’re looking for.”

Arroyo has made 32 minor league starts at second base and four at third base.

“When you call up (a guy) and he’s going to be a bench guy, he’s got to be able to play multiple positions,” Krall said. “We’re trying to get him reps at different positions where there are more options than just one.”

If De La Cruz needs to miss time due to the hamstring injury, Arroyo almost has to be called up. The Reds have zero infield depth behind their every day players on their big league roster, and Arroyo is the only Triple-A infielder who’s on the 40-man roster. Arroyo could slot in at shortstop or second base (with Matt McLain at shortstop), or you could still call Arroyo up to play a super utility role (McLain at short, Steer at second, Benson or Noelvi Marte getting called up to play right and Arroyo bouncing around the field).

If De La Cruz doesn’t miss time, the Reds still have the option and the flexibility to call up Arroyo to play second base or a super utility role, or to call up Marte to play right field (with Steer moving to second base), or both.

Because of the lack of depth and all the bullpen injuries, the Reds are deep down the depth rabbit hole.