Fantasy Baseball Year in Review – Cincinnati Reds

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  • By Paul Williamson

    Last Updated on November 11, 2025 3:15 pm by Paul Williamson | Published: November 11, 2025

    The Reds went in to 2025 with some hope that young players like Christian Encarnacion-Strand and Noelvi Marte will take the next step along with pitchers like Nick Lodolo.

    Well, some of them did and some did not as there were some things to like about the Reds as they’re likely to count on the continued development of young dudes like Sal Stewart and Chase Burns to help get them over the hump into legitimate contention.

    Catcher

    Tyler Stephenson was a popular sleeper pick at the catcher position in 2025 but injuries got in the way as he only got to 342 plate appearances. The good news is he hit the ball with a ton authority this year with career-best marks in barrel rate (14.4%) and hard-hit rate (49.2%).

    The bad news was he struck out at career-high rate of 33.9%. He returned just a 72.8% contact rate and the in-zone contact rate dropped to 82.1%.

    He wasn’t a more aggressive hitter with a similar swing rate as the rest of his career with a 43.6% mark.

    Next year, I expect both the barrel rate and plate discipline numbers to normalize some but I think it is well within the cards for him keep a solid 9%+ barrel rate that we saw in 2024 with the kind of plate discipline that usually sees him return a low-20% K%. In a full campaign, that should yield 20+ homers and a decent batting average, making him a fringe 12-team, one-catcher league option.

    His backup, Jose Trevino, isn’t fantasy relevant, despite his solid hit-tool. His batting average was .238 with just four homers this year. There isn’t much in the metrics to show he is capable of much better.

    First Base

    Spencer Steer found himself at first for most of the season as he didn’t get enough games played in the outfield to maintain both 1B and OF eligibility for fantasy.

    Due to his seven steals, he did not live up to expectations as he did get to 20+ homers (21) for the third straight season. The thing to note here is that he got to that number in around 100 less plate appearances than the last couple seasons as a combination of leg and hand injuries helped keep him out of lineups this year.

    The leg issue, per Charlie Goldsmith, bothered him for as many as two months this year and can help explain the lack of steals.

    Steer does benefit from Great American Ballpark with 13 of his 21 homers coming at home and he saw his average go up to .254 there vs. .221 on the road.

    His ability to lift and pull the ball makes his slightly below league average 7.6% barrel rate play up, especially in Cincy as 20+ homers is easily in the cards. A full off-season to recover and get his leg healthy should see the steals come back as Steer might be a sneaky good late-round pick with 20/20 potential.

    Second Base

    Matt McLain had a ton of hype around his campaign after missing all of 2024 coming off a good rookie campaign in ’23.

    He ended the year with 15 homers and 18 steals, two respectable numbers but the average plummeted to just .220.

    McLain hit he ball with less authority with a drop in barrel rate (10.8% to 7.7%) and a hard-hit rate (42.4% to 40.5%). He also hit way less line drives as he became a more fly ball happy swinger with a line drive rate dropping to 17.2% (from 24.2%) and the fly ball rate going up to 44.2% (up from 37.1%).

    His plate discipline numbers were the same as ’23 but those are not stellar with a 73.9% contact rate and a 28% K%. A return to his 10%+ barrel rate and 20%+ line drive rate will do a lot to help over come that and get him 20 homers and a better batting average.

    McLain should be viewed as a fringe top-12 second baseman for draft season as he should be in line for at least a 15/15 campaign but has the ceiling to be much better than that.

    Third Base

    Santiago Espinal played most of the hot-corner for the Reds before the trade for Ke’Bryan Hayes.

    Neither of these dudes provide much fantasy upside. Espinal hit 0 homers with just two steals in 328 plate appearances. His metrics support that kind of production as well.

    Hayes still has not taken the next step with his bat with just five homers and a .235 average. He did get to 12 steals so that’s… something? He has seen a steady decline in hard-hit data with just a 4.5% barrel rate, 42.3% hard-hit rate and no lift nor pull.

    Hayes isn’t someone to draft in most leagues.

    Shortstop

    Elly De La Cruz had himself a mixed bag of a campaign.

    He got his season-long K% down to 25.9% but thanks to a second half power outage that saw him hit just four of his 22 homers with a 6% barrel rate, he wasn’t able to fully capitalize on the improvement.

    He still had a great barrel rate in the first half as it was 10.2% for the season with a 44.1% hard-hit rate. But he has to have an elite barrel all year to over come his low launch angle and high ground ball rates.

    But EDLC has tons of potential as he is a legit five-category asset dude with 35, 67 and 37 steals over his first three years a major leaguer and with 47 homers over the last two campaigns.

    If he can maintain that elite barrel rate from his first half through out out the campaign, he has 30+ homer potential to go with his elite steals production.

    The improved K% will also do a lot to help keep the batting average in the ball park of this year’s .264.

    He should be drafted in the first-round and he is worth that draft price.


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    November 11, 2025, 3:15 pm