Saturday was an ugly day on the field for the Cincinnati Reds. In a blowout 10-3 loss to the Colorado Rockies, Reds starting pitcher Rhett Lowder left way too many pitches over the heart of the plate. Shortstop Elly De La Cruz lost a fly ball in the sun and allowed a double because of it. Too many plays weren’t made in the field.
None of that took anything away from how positive of a day Saturday was for the Reds organization as a whole. As much as the team has struggled this season, the breakthrough of Chase Burns has been a big bright spot. Burns officially signing a seven-year, $105 million contract extension wi on Saturday morning immediately became one of the highlights of the entire season.
Things aren’t looking good for the Reds as they get closer to the trade deadline. It’s been an overall disappointing season for the Reds, who have taken a major step back in 2026. Instead of making a run for a division title, they’re 17.5 games behind the Brewers and trending toward finishing the season well under .500.
There are some silver linings, and the contract extension for Burns may go down as the season’s biggest silver lining. He joins Hunter Greene as the two Reds players on long-term contract extensions. President of Baseball Operations Nick Krall says, “We love our core group, and we do think they’ve got a lot of talent. We’ve tried to lock a few guys up (with contracts) over the years and were successful with Chase and Hunter. We think (Burns) is a really good building block.”
The Reds are the only team in all of baseball with multiple position players (Elly De La Cruz and Sal Stewart) as well as multiple pitchers (Greene, Burns, and Andrew Abbott) who are 27 years old or younger and have been All-Stars over the last three seasons.
As much as this season has been full of frustrating moments like Saturday’s loss to the Rockies, the young core is still something to be excited about. “We’ve got five homegrown All-Stars under the age of 27 years old,” says closer Emilio Pagán. “If you ask any club across baseball, that’s a really good place to start.”
The building blocks are in place, and Burns is embracing his role in the Reds’ future. After signing his contract, he spoke about the goal of pursuing championships in Cincinnati. He says this organization feels like “family” to him, and he has full confidence in the pieces in place.
At the same time, the young core players are well aware of the fact that this season hasn’t lived up to expectations. “We just have to continue working,” says Greene. “Just because we have hit (individual) accolades doesn’t mean there’s any guarantee of consistency with that. It’s all contingent on our work ethic and how we continue to get better and how we continue to look ourselves in the mirror to get better.”
You can picture Greene, Burns, Abbott, De La Cruz, and Stewart being the core of a strong National League contender with the right pieces in place around them. The Reds haven’t had enough of those supplemental pieces in 2026, but the young core is still about as well-rounded as any young in MLB. Veteran pitcher Brady Singer says, “When we’re going good, it’s a hell of a team and it’s fun to be a part of.”
Ideally, the Reds are able to get more contract extensions done with their best young players. Krall says he isn’t in the process of negotiating any extensions at this time, but a deal with Stewart makes all of the sense in the world to consummate over the next couple of years. De La Cruz hasn’t expressed interest to this point in a long-term contract with the Reds, but he’s still under team control through the rest of the decade. A lot of pieces are in place.
Discussing Burns’ extension, several young players in that core made a point to push a high standard that the Reds are working to meet. The team has a lot of room to grow, but Burns’ extension was a win—even if the result on the field was a loss.
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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