The Cincinnati Reds enter another winter with a hole at second base and a fan base that has grown tired of watching the front office explain why the next move has to wait.
Great American Ball Park still sells the idea of a young core, led by Elly De La Cruz and Sal Stewart, but the middle infield never kept up in 2026.
Cincinnati finished with the majors’ worst production at the keystone, a combined minus-0.7 rWAR, and its left-handed hitters managed only a 90 wRC+, tied for the second-worst mark in the league.
That is the kind of vacancy that makes a free-agent conversation inevitable, even for a club that rarely starts one. But could the Reds actually pursue Jazz Chisholm?
Bleacher Report’s Zachary D. Rymer ranked Cincinnati fifth among Chisholm’s possible landing spots, and the logic is narrower than the need.
Rymer argued that the Reds are a realistic match only if Chisholm settles for a one-year deal, because anything longer runs into a franchise history of sitting out the expensive end of free agency.
Since 1991, the Reds rank 26th of 30 clubs in free-agent spending, and their largest commitments in that span have topped out at $64 million for Nick Castellanos and Mike Moustakas.
A prove-it contract would fit that pattern. A multiyear chase almost certainly would not.
Chisholm is not arriving as the player who talked about a 50-50 season and an eight- to ten-year deal worth $35 million a year.
The 28-year-old, a two-time All-Star, hit 19 home runs, stole 41 bases and posted a .711 OPS and 1.7 rWAR in a disappointing 2026, then watched New York get swept by Tampa Bay.
Jon Heyman of the New York Post has already questioned whether he is even worth a $23.1 million qualifying offer.
If the market treats him the way it treated Marcus Semien in 2021, a one-year reset becomes the practical path, and that is the only path that puts Cincinnati in the conversation.
On the field, the fit is cleaner than the payroll history. Chisholm is a left-handed bat with speed and enough pop to change the look of a lineup that was short on both.
Sliding him in beside De La Cruz and Stewart would give the Reds a louder middle of the order for at least one summer in Cincy, and it would hand a restless crowd something more concrete than another promise about the future.
Ownership and the front office spent much of 2026 absorbing criticism for how little they added around a roster that never quite broke through. A short-term bet on Chisholm would not rewrite that reputation. It would, for one winter, look like an answer instead of another explanation.
