It has been a busy day in Cincinnati Reds land here on Wednesday. It was announced earlier today that they were remaining with FanDuel Sports Ohio for the 2026 season. And now the team has announced that they have declined their options on three players for the 2026 season. Cincinnati had team options on relievers Brent Suter and Scott Barlow that they declined. They also had a mutual option with outfielder Austin Hays that they declined. All three players are now officially free agents.
The biggest option was for Austin Hays. He made $4,000,000 in the 2025 season but had the option for 2026 for $12,000,000 if both he and the Reds wanted to exercise that option. That also included a buyout of $1,000,000. The 30-year-old Hays got out to a torrid start in the first few weeks of the season, putting up an OPS of 1.200 in his first 12 games. But from that point forward he was inconsistent at best and had a .248/.296/.408 line in the remaining 91 games he played in the season.
Scott Barlow made $2,500,000 in 2025. He had an option for 2026 at $6,500,000 that the team declined to pick up. They instead chose to pay him $1,000,000 to become a free agent after the 32-year-old reliever threw 68.1 innings for the Reds with a 4.21 ERA this past season.
Brent Suter also made $2,500,000 for the Reds in 2025. He had a team option for 2026 at $3,000,000. Cincinnati instead opted to decline the option and pay him a buyout of $250,000 so he could become a free agent after posting a 4.52 ERA in his 67.2 innings for the Reds last year.
None of these moves are too surprising. And depending on how you want to look at it, declining all three options frees up $17,250,000 that otherwise would have gone to these guys if the team had kept them around. Cincinnati is going to have to replace them on the roster, but it’s possible that they could do so at a lesser overall price.
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