The players' only meeting that turned around the Reds' season

Right before the playoffs last season, the Los Angeles Dodgers had a players’ only meeting. Gavin Lux was the second-youngest regular contributor on the team. In the moment, he learned from veterans like Freddie Freeman and Mookie Betts.

The Dodgers’ veterans told the team, “If we go down early, we’re going to fight our (tails) off to scratch every single run across that we can. In San Diego, we went down 2-1 (in the series). It was like, ‘(Expletive) yeah. Let’s go.’ Let’s street fight this (thing).”

Lux saw the message translate to success in the postseason as the Dodgers won the title.

“In the World Series Game 5, we were down five runs,” Lux said. “We came back and won. Battle your (tail) off every pitch. One-through-13, let’s be in every pitch together. If you take a really nasty pitch (for a ball) with two strikes, everyone should be fired up.”

The meeting, the message and the impact all really stuck with him.

This year, the Reds entered June 6 with a 30-33 record. They had lost a lot of games where they had beaten themselves, and they didn’t have a single late-game comeback victory all season. Something was missing.

Around 4 p.m., the team was late getting onto the field for batting practice. Lux and catcher Jose Trevino were leading a players’ only meeting in the Reds’ clubhouse.

“Let’s talk about this,” Lux said. “Let’s get on the top step for each other. Let’s watch the game and see what the pitcher is doing instead of being so focused on ourselves. One through nine, let’s be in every pitch together. Let’s make this a street fight. If we go down early, let’s battle our (tails) off and try to make a comeback.”

Since that meeting, the Reds are 12-5. They grinded out a comeback in the pouring rain and walked off the Diamondbacks. They completed the sweep over Arizona two days later with a seventh-inning rally in the rain. They took the series over the Guardians with two close, clutch wins.

The eighth-inning comeback to complete the series win over the Tigers was as impressive as it gets. In the series opener against the Twins, the Reds responded to a crushing top of the sixth inning with a comeback of their own. And Tuesday’s walk-off win over the Yankees was dramatic and thrilling.

In Lux’s words, the Reds are “winning street fights” against good teams. Everyone is crediting the players’ only meeting on June 6 as the turning point.

Tyler Stephenson: “We had a good sit down with everybody. Since then, we’ve been playing our version of baseball.”

Matt McLain: “There was a thing that we hadn’t come back late in games. We had a meeting about it. A lot of those times, those are the most fun wins. It takes a lot to win those games.”

Brent Suter: “It was the best players only (meeting) or players talk that I’ve ever been a part of because it translated into real steps and real results. It wasn’t just rah-rah. It was, here’s what we’ve got to do to get where we need to be.”

Heading into 2025, as the front office navigated the offseason, the team made a point to target players who had been a part of winning teams. Brady Singer and Austin Hays have had success on big stages. Trevino and Lux had just faced off in the World Series.

The idea was that these veterans would know how to lead the clubhouse when times were tough. On June 6, times were tough for a Reds team that had no spark late in games.

“It was holding guys accountable,” Trevino said. “The guys who are here doing the thing every day understand that it’s a grind. You can pick each other up in those moments.”

Lux said, “It felt like for a while that everyone was pressing. We were struggling to score runs. As soon as we got down early, we had a hard time coming back. I felt it. Everyone probably felt it. In our dugout, everyone started to look inwards and sit with the iPads and just look at their swings over and over.”

Lux, Trevino and some other veterans felt like the energy in the dugout during games was lacking.

“In LA, when we were good, we were really pulling for each other,” Lux said. “Let’s watch the game, pull for your teammates in the box and see what the pitcher has that day.”

Reds’ players started making a point to be on the top rail of the dugout to show support to the teammate that’s at the plate. Instead of watching film on an iPad when someone else is at the plate, players are more locked into the game.

“We’re engaged in the game,” Suter said. “We only have one iPad going in the dugout. We have everyone paying attention and talking shop on and off the field. We’re having fun together playing. That’s translating into these great pesky at-bats, especially late. When we’re down late, we’re right in there coming back.”

It should come as no surprise that Trevino played a significant role in the players’ only meeting. In January during the Reds’ caravan, Terry Francona said that he immediately spotted leadership qualities in Trevino. From the first day of spring training, Francona said that the 32-year-old catcher had “carte blanche.”

The Reds were so impressed with Trevino’s makeup that they gave him a contract extension before he even played a game with the Reds. Leading the players’ only meeting earlier this month was nothing new for Trevino.

“He’s our vocal leader,” Lux said. “He’s a really smart baseball player. He has been around. He knows what it takes to win. He’s a great clubhouse guy every day. On top of it, he’s a great baseball player. He’s hitting .300 with like 17 doubles. He has meant a lot.”

But stepping up as a vocal piece of a players’ only meeting was new ground for Lux. He debuted in 2019, and that made him the young guy in the Dodgers’ clubhouse. In Cincinnati, that makes Lux more experienced than Tyler Stephenson, TJ Friedl and the entire Reds’ young core. Add in Lux’s extensive postseason experience, and he has a very different role in the Reds’ clubhouse.

In Cincinnati, Lux is a veteran.

“He has come from a winning organization,” Trevino said. “He has every right to speak up and say what he needs to say. Everything that he says, he has seen it. He has been there and he has done it. I saw it first hand (in the World Series). He’s doing an unbelievable job. He brings it every single day. Every single day, Gavin is ready to go out there from when the first pitch is thrown.”

Trevino and Lux have been terrific additions. Trevino is an elite game caller and has a sterling defensive reputation. He’s also hitting .304 and leads the Reds in doubles.

Lux is one of the Reds’ best hitters against right-handed pitching, provides some valuable versatility and is one of the team’s best clutch performers. On Tuesday, he ended the win over the Yankees with a pinch-hit walk-off single.

They’ve both been vocal all season.

“The little things matter,” Lux said. “I’m sure we’ll go through another struggle at some point. Now, we know what it takes to get out of that. We scuffled for a bit there. After that meeting, we went on a run. Now, we all feel together what it takes to come back and win games. That’s our default now. We’ll just fall back to that.”