After recording a career-high 32 saves in 2025, right-hander has expre sed interest in rejoining the Reds. Id love to be back and run it back with them and take another run at it, Pagantold . The pending free agent has spent the past two seasons in Cincinnatis bullpen. Pagan stepped in as manager Terry Franconas preferred 9th inning option after went down with a hamstring injury in the spring. He entered the year with 33 career saves acro s eight MLB seasons. Pagan nearly doubled that mark as the Reds stopper, going 32-for-38 in save opportunities. He notched a 2.88 ERA acro s a career-high 70 appearances. Pagan was tied with and for fifth in the league in saves. A solid campaign with Minnesota in 2023 earned Pagan a two-year, $16M deal with Cincinnati ahead of the 2024 season. Injuries limited him to 38 innings in his first year with the team. He spent time on the IL with triceps tightne s and a lat strain. The latter i sue cost him more than two months. Pagan struggled when healthy, pitching to a 4.50 ERA with a bloated 1.34 WHIP. He was set to open the 2025 season on the periphery of Cincinnatis late-inning mix, but Dazs injury opened the door for another reliever to step forward. Despite having former closers and on the roster, it was Pagan and who emerged Philipp Kurashev Jersey as the top candidates for the role. Both pitchers earned a save within the teams first 10 games, but Santillan wouldnt get his second save until early June. By then, Pagan had run away with the job. The closer role wasnt completely foreign to Pagan, but it had been a while since he had spent the majority of a season in the position. He served as Tampa Bays primary closer in 2019 after and faltered. Pagan earned 20 saves that year. He was dealt to San Diego in the offseason, and then to Minnesota a couple of years later. Pagan opened the 2022 season as the Twins closer, but lost the job to Duran after an extended stretch of poor performance. Pagan will be one of many intriguing names on the closer market this offseason. , , and are free agents. and could opt out of their current deals and hit the open market. , , , , and have extensive late-inning experience. Pagans best choice might be to stick with the club where he just posted a career season. It sounds like the interest is mutual, too. Team president Nick Krall told Wittenmyer that Pagan would be tremendous to have back. Krall added that the veteran fits in the culture of our bullpen. The Reds should certainly have the financial flexibility to add in free agency. FanGraphs tool has them below $100MM for next years payroll, though the team does have an ample group of arbitration-eligible players. The club had a payroll of around $120MM this past season. Cincinnati is stuck paying $13MM to next year, but hes currently the only player on the books for more than seven figures in 2026, a suming they decline the $12MM mutual option on . If the Reds dont make any additions to the bullpen, theyre likely looking at patching together the closer gig with Santillan and converted starter . Chicago Blackhawks Jersey