The Cincinnati Reds’ Michael Toglia chapter lasted barely a month of big-league games, and it closed Friday when the Seattle Mariners claimed the switch-hitting first baseman off waivers, via the MLB transaction log.
Toglia arrived in January on a minor-league deal after the Colorado Rockies non-tendered him.
The Reds were buying a lottery ticket: a 6-foot-5 former first-round pick (23rd overall in 2019 out of UCLA) who had hit 25 home runs for Colorado in 2024, but who had never solved major-league pitching.
In 2025, his strikeout rate climbed past 39 percent and his line fell to .190/.258/.353. Cincinnati needed corner depth more than a finished product.
For most of 2026 the ticket looked promising. In 97 games with Triple-A Louisville, Toglia hit .273/.373/.547 with 22 home runs, 26 doubles and 65 RBI, a .920 OPS in 402 plate appearances.
When injuries and thin production opened a spot, the Reds selected his contract on August 11.
The majors did not cooperate. In 10 games he went 3-for-26 with two walks, 12 strikeouts and one RBI. The Reds also asked him to do something he had almost never done: start in left field.
On August 21 against the Arizona Diamondbacks, he dislocated his right shoulder diving for a ball. The injury required season-ending surgery to repair a labrum tear.
He was moved to the 60-day injured list on September 4, and that was the end of his Reds season.
Friday’s waiver claim ends the affiliation. Toglia is out of minor-league options, and a recovering shoulder plus a career .198 average over 290 games made him an easy name to expose once the roster math tightened.
Seattle, his hometown area — he played at Gig Harbor High School — took the claim. The Mariners’ 40-man roster sits at 39.
From Cincinnati’s side, this is a low-cost experiment that never got a fair sample. The Louisville power was real.
The big-league contact problems that followed him from Colorado showed up immediately, and the shoulder ended the trial before anyone could tell whether the Bats version was a mirage.
The Reds get a 40-man spot back heading into the offseason. Toglia, 28, gets another organization willing to hold the rights through rehab and see whether the bat that produced 42 career home runs can still play somewhere other than Triple-A.
