For JJ Bleday, it was about getting closer to home (“Midwest, east coast, however you want to say it”), about the talent and manager and about an opportunity to perform, and win, he said.
For the Cincinnati Reds, it was about this. Everything the former No. 4 overall draft pick and sweet-swinging lefty hitter has done since getting that chance.
“Coming into spring training I felt good, I felt like there was some opportunity here, and when I got optioned out of spring I still felt like I was in a good spot mentally and physically,” said Bleday, who signed a $1.4 million free agent deal over the winter after a frustrating season with the Athletics.
“I just kept rolling with what I was doing in spring and took advantage of playing every day down there in Triple-A and worked on my approach and continued to get better,” he said. “I was able to get the call and be up here, and it’s just about trying to keep on carrying it through.”
Nobody has been better at that for the Reds since the kid from western Pennsylvania earned that call April 25 when Eugenio Suárez was forced to the injured list by an oblique injury — so good that Bleday might put himself into consideration for a first All-Star bid if he keeps it up.
Meanwhile, two months into the season, he tops our list of the Reds’ best off-season acquisitions for 2026, a list that so far is missing some of the bigger investments.
The top 5:
1. OF JJ Bleday, 28, free agent ($1.4 million)
Bleday homered in his first game in a Reds uniform and hasn’t looked back. Through Saturday he was hitting .295 with a .395 on-base percentage, nine home runs and 1.024 OPS in just 29 games.
As struggling Opening Day regulars such as TJ Friedl and Matt McLain have dropped from the top of the order (and alternately out of the lineup), Bleday has taken on larger roles toward the top and middle of the order for a team that has struggled offensively as a group much of the season.
If there was a Reds MVP award for May, he’d own it.
2. CF Dane Myers, 30, trade from Marlins (for OF prospect)
Myers doesn’t earn the elevated spot on the list as much for the numbers he has produced as the valuable fit he has provided.
His exceptional fielding in center made him a late-inning replacement when he wasn’t starting early in the season, a valuable platoon piece with lefty-hitting Friedl and eventually an option for more playing time when Friedl struggled so badly the first two months.
Myers also has come up with big hits along the way for a team that hasn’t had a lot of them.
3. 1B/DH Nathaniel Lowe, 30, free agent ($1.75 million)
The hard-hitting lefty with the Gold Glove and World Series-champion credentials didn’t sign until the first week of spring training, looked like a tough roster fit for a team with three regulars capable of playing first base and then started only two of the Reds’ first 12 games.
But as his playing time increased out of need for offensive options, Lowe has become one of the most productive bats on the club.
From April 24, when he hit his first home run of the season (actually two), through Saturday, when he hit No. 9, Lowe hit .286 with a 1.011 OPS and 20 of his 25 RBIs, in 27 games.
4. RHP Pierce Johnson, 35, free agent ($6.5 million)
This one hurts. Literally (just ask Johnson).
When the veteran stabilizer in a beat-to-hell bullpen landed on the injured list with elbow inflammation over the weekend he took one of the last reliable relievers still standing for a Reds bullpen that has the second-highest walk rate in the league and has been a team weakness for much of May.
Johnson’s IL move came one day after the club lost key leverage reliever Graham Ashcraft for what might be the season with an elbow injury and three weeks after closer Emilio Pagán suffered a long-term hamstring injury.
Johnson had a 3.27 ERA in 24 appearances, a respectable walk rate and the coveted trust of the manager to get big outs.
LHP Brock Burke, 29, 3-team trade (Gavin Lux to Rays)
With all due respect to $15 million slugger Eugenio Suárez, who doesn’t make our list (so far) because of a no-show start to the season, Burke has quietly been the closest thing to a workhorse, if not a rock, in the struggling bullpen, leading the league in appearances along the way.
Given the otherwise pen-crushing injuries to key late-inning relievers, the moves to bolster that group over the winter look especially valuable now.
Burke has walked too many guys but gotten the job done often enough to have a 3.60 ERA at the one-third mark of the season despite his role in the bullpen’s struggles in May.
Wait for it? DH/3B Eugenio Suárez, 34, free agent ($15 million)
The highest-paid guy on the team has been a protective presence in the middle of the lineup for Elly De La Cruz and Sal Stewart when he was healthy.
But he’s played barely half the Reds’ games because of an oblique injury and through Saturday had as many strikeouts (38) as hits (25) and walks (13) combined. And just three home runs.
The Reds don’t need him to slug at the 49-homer pace he produced last year. But they need a reasonable facsimile of the hitter he’s been throughout his career (.462 slugging percentage) over these final four months.
This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Where would Cincinnati Reds be without these offseason moves?
Reporting by Gordon Wittenmyer, Cincinnati Enquirer / Cincinnati Enquirer
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
