If you told me at the start of Spring Training that Chase Burns and Sal Stewart were going to be All-Stars for the Cincinnati Reds in 2026, I’d have expected the Reds to be enjoying a great season. Burns was competing for a spot in the starting rotation at the start of the year, and Stewart was supposed to be a role player in the lineup. They’ve become two of the best young players in baseball this season.
It shows a lot about the 2026 Reds that, as good as Burns and Stewart have been, the team is seven games below .500 in what’s been a disappointing season so far. A defining aspect of this roster is how top-heavy the roster has been. Outside of Burns, Stewart, Elly De La Cruz, JJ Bleday, Andrew Abbott, and a couple of role players, just about the entire Reds’ roster has underperformed.
That reality leaves several Reds players with a lot to prove during the season’s second half. But four players stand out as having the most to prove over the next three months.
TJ Friedl
Between 2023 and 2025, Friedl was one of the more valuable center fielders in MLB. His intense style of play and ability to find a way to do whatever it took to win made him one of the franschise’s best center fielders in years. But he simply wasn’t able to make an impact during the first half of this season.
The Reds hope that Friedl’s demotion to Triple-A can reset him going forward. He was pressed back into action last week when the Reds lost Blake Dunn and Dane Myers to injuries. Dunn showed some positive glimpses, and prospect Carlos Jorge is turning heads in Triple-A. This is a big opportunity for Friedl to remind the Reds what he can bring to the table.
Nick Lodolo
Lodolo has been grinding through the season. After missing the first month with a blister issue, he hasn’t quite hit his stride yet. His two most recent starts have been encouraging, though, as he allowed one combined run across 11 innings and rediscovered his breaking ball. That’s his signature pitch and the key to him reaching an All-Star caliber level for long stretches of the 2024 and 2025 season. “When I’m going, (my breaking ball) is my calling card,” says Lodolo. “You expect yourself to go out there and instantly start spinning it great. That hasn’t been the case. It’s been getting better. I’ve been working every day on it.”
He’ll wrap up his fifth full season in the big leagues this fall. He’s shown the potential to be one of the better left-handed starting pitchers in the game, and he’s at a stage of his career now where he’s looking to take that next step.
Noelvi Marte
While the Reds’ lineup hasn’t been particularly deep in 2026, the corner outfield spots have been the toughest positions to break into this year. With Spencer Steer’s veteran presence and JJ Bleday’s resurgent season, Marte has had to compete with two of the Reds’ top hitters for playing time. Nathaniel Lowe’s presence in the DH spot also makes it challenging to get Marte in the lineup every single day.
Marte has won the Reds a few games since he was called back up from Triple-A in June, though he hasn’t gotten hot like he was in August 2025, when he carried the Reds’ lineup. The Reds need more star power. Marte has all of the talent in the world. He just needs to swing at the right pitches on a more consistent basis and avoid chasing pitches outside of the zone.
Ke’Bryan Hayes
Hayes is on a rehab assignment as he comes back from a chronic back injury that’s impacted him for several years, and he’s expected back in the next couple of weeks. Before he went on the injured list in late May, he was hitting .142. Since then, Stewart has proven that he can play a solid third base after starting the season at first base.
Hayes hasn’t had a good offensive season since 2023. The Reds believed that some underlying metrics painted a more positive picture of his offensive potential when the team traded for him in 2025. The hope was that Hayes’ ability to make consistent contact was something that he could build upon more in Cincinnati, but he hasn’t hit much yet in a Reds uniform.
Charlie Goldsmith has covered the Reds and Bengals since 2020, and his newsletter on the teams can be found at charlieschalkboard.substack.com.
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