Reds decline mutual options for 2027 third baseman Eugenio Suarez and right-handed Pierce Johnsonthe team announced. Both players are now free agents, leaving the Reds with five openings on their 40-man roster.
Neither decision is surprising, especially since it’s been more than a decade since a team and player triggered a mutual option. Suárez’s $16 million option did not come with a buyout. Meanwhile, the Reds opted to pay Johnson a $1 million buyout instead of the $8 million they would have owed him if both sides had exercised the option.
Unless Suárez, 35, stays on a new contract, it will end his second stint in Cincinnati. The right-handed slugger previously played there from 2015-2021, when he had three seasons of at least 4.0 fWAR and two with 30-plus home runs. He also earned his first of two All-Star nominations during that stretch.
The Reds first moved on from Suárez when they sent him (and the outfielder Jesse Winker) to the Mariners in a blockbuster trade three weeks before the 2022 season opened. He then spent two seasons in Seattle before moving to Arizona for a season and a half. The Diamondbacks dealt him to the Mariners before the 2025 deadline. Between the D-backs and the pennant-contending Mariners last year, Suárez hit 49 home runs for the second time in his career and slashed .228/.298/.526. Despite a low batting average and on-base percentage, he had a wRC+ well above the average of 125.
The Reds probably expected the same from Suárez when they guaranteed him $15 million last offseason, but that move didn’t go as hoped. When the All-Star break rolled around in mid-July, Suárez owned a dismal .208/.285/388 line. Thanks in part to his struggles, the Reds were then sitting on a 43-52 record. Suárez turned it on in a big way starting in August, recording an .852 OPS that month and a .935 in September, but the Reds finished 75-87 and fell miles away from a second straight playoff berth. In late August, a month before the end of their season, the Reds placed Suárez on waivers. They would have saved about $2.5 million if anyone had claimed it, but the rest of the league came through.
While Suárez was productive over the final two months of the season, he was only able to muster an overall line of .212/.307/.433 in 498 plate appearances. He racked up 26 home runs, but his output was only 2% above the league average. A career-worst 33.9% strikeout rate didn’t help his cause. Suárez offered even less at the hot corner, where he earned negative grades (minus-7 putouts above average, minus-6 field run value and minus-4 defensive runs saved) over 50 games and 401 innings of work. For the first time in his career, most of his actions came at designated hitter.
Ke’Bryan Hayeswho was one of the least valuable players in the game this year, was the Reds’ main option at third. Hayes is still under contract and the Reds added Oswaldo Cabrera via waivers last month, but they could seek a better option in free agency or on the trade market if they don’t bring back Suárez.
A year ago at this time, Johnson was coming off a season in which he gave the Braves 59 innings of 3.05 ERA ball. He parlayed that into a $6.5 million guarantee with the Reds in free agency, but it was another signing that didn’t work out in the team’s favor. Despite averaging 95.8 mph on his fastball, Johnson struck out just 19.9 percent of batters (compared to an average walk rate of about 9 percent) and had a 4.62 ERA with similar underlying numbers in 48 2/3 frames. The 35-year-old is now on track to join his bullpen mate in 2026. Emilio Paganwho declined his player option on Saturday, on the open market.
Photo courtesy of Katie Stratman, Imagn Images
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