There was consistently a positive relationship between Cincinnati Reds closer Emilio Pagán and manager Terry Francona during their three-year run in the Queen City. The future Hall of Fame manager trusted Pagán with the closer’s job early in 2025 with Alexis Diaz fell completely apart, and the move paid off in spades both for the Reds and Pagán, who turned his 2025 success into a new 2-year, $20 million contract after the Reds made the playoffs.
That deal, though, included an opt-out at the end of
the 2026 season, an opt-out that Pagán exercised just days after the Milwaukee Brewers won the World Series.
In the wake of that decision, Tito clearly maintained contact with his former closer, even revealing to MLB.com’s Mark Sheldon last week that he’d recently been texting him.
I texted him last night and he was at dinner. I said, “Do I need to come over there and kick your [butt]?” The reason I said that is I love the guy. He’s such a phenomenal teammate. He bailed us out. When we made him the closer, it allows you to work from back to front, when you know there’s an end in sight. I’m not giving up on him coming back. He has the right to test the market. But I don’t think it’s any secret how much I enjoyed him and how much I respect him and how much I love him.
Just a week after turning down the chance to pitch for the Reds again at a $10 million rate, Pagán agreed to an $11 million deal to pitch for the Detroit Tigers for the 2027 season.
I am not one to put words into another person’s mouth. I will merely point out that it’s a little bit curious that Pagán opted out in a ‘bet on yourself after a couple good years’ kind of move and ended up signing elsewhere at almost exactly the same rate that was already guaranteed to you from an organization that, per Francona, still had a lot of love for you – all after testing the market for roughly one whole week.
There are a million different ways to interpret this, quite literally. The Reds sure do look like a mis-managed sinking ship, and for Pagán to recognize that while having an opportunity to bail deserves neither fault nor scorn. Frankly, I wouldn’t blame him one single bit if that was all he was looking to do. Detroit’s home park offers a fly-ball pitcher like him a whole lot more room to succeed with his own methods than do the cozy confines of Great American Ball Park.
Perhaps he simply wanted to get a guarantee on the books before the looming December 1st lockout, and did so with a team in whom he has more confidence than he has in the Reds.
Cincinnati did change pitching coaches from Derek Johnson to Joe Torres, too. There could very well be a philosophy clash behind the scenes we’ve not yet seen play out publicly.
One thing is cut and dry, though, and that’s that Pagán is not going to be back on the Reds in 2027 in any capacity, and the search for a new closer amid a bullpen that needs an entire overhaul is firmly front and center on Nick Krall’s to-do list this winter…along with about thirty other things that, if accomplished, would’ve made this club a lot more attractive to a closer on the open market in the first place.
