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At the time of writing this, we’re watching Emilio Pagán allow a pair of runs in the Top of the 9th inning of a game between the Cincinnati Reds and Pittsburgh Pirates. While writing that first sentence, he yielded another pair of runs on a mammoth 2-run dinger hit by Bryan Reynolds.
It
wasn’t a save situation, as Pagán came on with the Reds already trailing 4-3, but it was already a second outing this season where the 2025 Reds closer looked as shaky as could be. For now, he still has a pretty firm grasp on the closer’s role – his track record and salary are going to get him a pretty long leash – but we’ve already seen Connor Phillips flash some pretty elite stuff in picking up a save this season, too.
It’s easy to forget that Pagán wasn’t the Reds closer at the start of the 2025 season, and he only jumped into that role when Alexis Diaz completely fell off the face of the earth. So, it’s not at all outlandish to suggest that maybe, just maybe, someone else will pitch their way past him and into the role – especially if it’s a guy who’s got a ton of team control and looks like they’ll be around for awhile.
Coincidentally, I submitted to the SB Nation powers that be the below question regarding who leads the 2026 Reds in saves two days before Pagán blew up in this series finale loss to the Pirates. However, it’s pretty timely to ask it, I suppose.
Who do you think ends up leading this club in saves this season?
Let us know in the survey below!
