Hyperbole? Perhaps. Perhaps not.
You could say the Cincinnati Reds simply are not playing well. That’s easy if you check the schedule, as they just dropped a series to the woeful Pittsburgh Pirates before losing a home series to the division rival Chicago Cubs.
You could say the Cincinnati Reds are banged up. Jeimer Candelario is mired on the injured list for the second straight year as the team’s ‘big’ money guy, while Christian Encarnacion-Strand – the other hopeful big bopper in the lineup – has been broken and out for a second straight year, too. Jake Fraley is out, Noelvi Marte is, too, and the offense has looked disjointed for almost the entire season.
We’re beginning to reach the point of the 2025 season where you could say the Cincinnati Reds are just a bad baseball team. Their +25 run differential on the season looks rosy, sure, but the discrepancy between their handful of excellent offensive outbursts and what we’ve seen from them the rest of the year is stark, and the end result is a 26-28 team that’s 6.5 games out of their division lead, stuck in 4th place (again), and 4.5 games back of the final Wild Card spot in these ever-expanded playoffs.
The Reds are precisely 1/3rd of the way through this season, so it is no longer early – especially with the trade deadline looming as a make-or-break moment after roughly 100 games. If they don’t pick up the pieces, pick up the pace soon, this season is going to torpedo just like so, so many other Reds seasons since the advent of the internet.
That makes their trip to Kansas City to face the Royals that much more vital. The Royals themselves are fighting for their 2025 lives, holding on currently to the final AL Wild Card spot at 29-25 overall despite an anemic offense that has scored the fewest runs of any American League team (and 3rd fewest overall ahead of just Colorado and Pittsburgh).
If the Royals fancy themselves as a true postseason contender, they’ll have winning this series against the Reds circled as paramount.
If the Reds fancy themselves as a true postseason contender, they’ll have winning this series against the Reds circled as paramount.
Here we are, final weekend in May, with two clubs backed into corners already being tasked with duking it out – and there’s a very real scenario where the Reds finish it at 5 games under the .500 mark.
Time to start figuring it all out, Reds.
Pitching Matchups
Monday, May 26th (4:10 PM ET): RHP Nick Martinez vs. RHP Michael Lorenzen
Tuesday, May 27th (7:40 PM ET): RHP Brady Singer vs. TBD
Wednesday, May 28th (7:40 PM ET): RHP Hunter Greene vs. LHP Noah Cameron
How to Watch
All three of these games will be broadcast on FanDuel Sports Network. You can watch FDSN in-market through cable packages, though it’s also available to be streamed in-market with no blackout restrictions even without a cable subscription. You can check the link in the above sidebar (which I’ve re-linked right here) for more information on how you can do just that.
Per usual, you can view these games from outside the Reds TV market by catching the FDSN stream through MLB.tv.
Photo by Ben Jackson/Getty Images