Nick Martinez accepted the Reds’ $21. 05MM qualifying offer this week, making him the lone player of the 13 who received a QO to accept that one-year deal. The two parties talked about a potential multi-year deal before the 34-year-old righty accepted, and while talks on a multi-year deal are reportedly on hold for now, Martinez suggested that he’s still open to such an arrangement and has received no indication from the club that talks won’t pick up down the line (links via Mark Sheldon of MLB.
com and C. Trent Rosecrans of The Athletic). “Accepting the qualifying offer doesn’t limit us from talking, so I’m definitely still open to it if that helps mitigate costs for this year or sign more guys,” Martinez said yesterday (via Rosecrans).
Via Sheldon (on BlueSky), he added: “To my understanding, [discussing a multi-year deal] is still on the table. ”Martinez’s $21. 05MM salary puts the Reds right back at their 2024 payroll level, per RosterResource’s projections.
Reds COO Doug Healy said last week that the 2025 payroll would be “at or above” last year’s roughly $100MM level. A $21MM salary for Martinez doesn’t leave tons of wiggle room, and the Reds haven’t divulged just how far “above” that $100MM level they’d be comfortable spending. Working out a two- or three-year deal with Martinez that might reduce his 2025 salary would give the Reds more flexibility and also allow them to further extend their control over a player who president of baseball ops Nick Krall called a “great team guy” and a “lead-by-example guy.
”Prior to the Reds’ surprise decision to tender a QO to Martinez, MLBTR had penciled Martinez in for a three-year, $39MM contract on our annual Top 50 Free Agent rankings. The Athletic’s Tim Britton offered a very similar three-year, $40MM prediction. A deal in that range could allow the Reds to trim several million off Martinez’s 2025 salary — perhaps even more, if the team is willing to backload the deal so Martinez’s salaries are greater in 2026-27, when other contracts will be coming off the books.
Emilio Pagán is earning $8MM in 2025 but is a free agent at season’s end. Jeimer Candelario is signed for two more years and earning more in ’25 ($15MM) than in ’26 ($12MM). Among the Reds’ other goals in free agency are adding a bat to the lineup, deepening the bullpen and, per Sheldon, improving the team’s overall defense.
Landing a corner outfield bat has long seemed like a viable target for the Reds, with Anthony Santander, Teoscar Hernández, Tyler O’Neill, Jurickson Profar, Michael Conforto and Max Kepler are among the non-Soto tier of free agent possibilities. Again, bringing Martinez back at a weighty price point complicates the pursuit of such hitters, but all should sign contracts that are within reasonable proximity to the Reds’ prior free agent thresholds. Cincinnati has in the past signed both Nick Castellanos and Mike Moustakas to four-year, $64MM free agent deals, for instance.
Santander will very likely command a larger guarantee than that, but the others should come in at or below (well below, for Conforto and Kepler) that type of total commitment and/or annual value. One other area of focus for the Reds this winter will be making incremental improvements to Elly De La Cruz’s already impressive game, per Gordon Wittenmyer of the Cincinnati Enquirer. One of the game’s most dynamic talents and still just 22 years old, the 6’5″ De La Cruz wowed with 25 homers, 67 steals and a .
259/. 339/. 471 batting line while playing 160 games and spending every inning he was in the lineup at shortstop.
Krall specifically voiced a desire to work with De La Cruz on whittling away at his 31. 3% strikeout rate — a mark that’s already down a bit from his 33. 7% rate as a 21-year-old in 2023.
Interestingly, Krall noted that “a lot of our guys” are in that same boat, perhaps foreshadowing one of the traits he’ll look for as he looks to bolster his lineup this winter. With regard to De La Cruz, however, both Krall and GM Brad Meador emphasized to Wittenmyer that even with a crowded infield mix and prospect Edwin Arroyo on the rise, De La Cruz is the team’s shortstop for the foreseeable future. Krall and Meador spoke of working with De La Cruz to tighten up his defense on routine plays and scale back outs made on the basepaths, though the team is surely thrilled with the overall quality of their budding star shortstop’s performance.
De La Cruz is under club control for at least five more seasons and likely won’t be eligible for arbitration until the 2026-27 offseason. This post was originally published on this site be sure to check out more of their content.
