There simply are not a lot of MLB players who do what Spencer Steer does for the Cincinnati Reds. A Gold Glove Award finalist at 1B last year, Steer has spent time at 1B, 2B, 3B, and all three of the outfield spots so far during the 2026 season, all while on pace to top his single season best of 23 homers.
He boasts a slightly above average OPS+ of 102, and his .327 wOBA rests above the league average of .317. That latter mark is actually quite below his xwOBA of .343 – he does own just a .271 BABIP
– and he has absolutely destroyed LHP to the tune of a 1.062 OPS so far this season.
I’ve long held that both bWAR and fWAR underrate defensive versatility, and that’s certainly the case with Steer. Despite all the things mentioned above, being dinged for his defense at most every position he’s played has limited his value this year (and in other years) to jsut 0.4 bWAR and 0.9 fWAR. It’s as if the ability to play passable, if not excellent, defense all over the place in order to allow for days off and mid-game rotation by managers simply doesn’t get enough credit, and the latter is precisely what Steer provided David Bell before Terry Francona.
He’s a skeleton key. He can help a manager unlock just about any mid-game scenario since said manager can react to every single PA with a bat of his choice and backfill the defensive ramifications with Steer. In other words, Steer is precisely the kind of complementary/luxury piece that can help make good teams great.
The Cincinnati Reds, though, are not a good team. Despite their solid start to the season’s second half, they are still mired in last place and 6 games out of the final NL Wild Card with a half-dozen teams they’d have to leap to claim that spot. As a result, ‘good’ teams are beginning to make calls to Nick Krall, and Steer’s name has already come up as being of interest by the Seattle Mariners.
All of those accolades about Steer come with the caveat that he is not at all a pending free agent at season’s end. He’s under team control for two whole seasons beyond 2026 via the arbitration process, though that comes with the added reminder that he’ll earn raises off the benchmark $4 million he’s earning in this, his first trip through arbitration. If he continues to plod along the way he has by hitting 20-25 dingers and racking up 15 or so steals, he’ll earn something akin to $7 million in 2027 and perhaps as much as $10 in 2028, so any team looking to acquire him both a) takes on that kind of salary expectation and b) relieves that kind of salary obligation from a Reds club who is notoriously stingy.
That makes him quite the interesting trade chip on the surface. That the likes of the New York Yankees, Philadelphia Phillies, and Boston Red Sox are all also in the market for a right-handed hitter who can play OF and elsewhere means that I found it an appropriate time to ask you, dear readers, whether this trade deadline was the right time for the Reds to shop Steer.
As it turns out, you couldn’t have been more divided on the concept.
The half of you who think it’s a good time to shop Steer clearly lean on the same information I’ve spelled out in the start of this post. The other half, though, are probably of the ilk that see Krall’s comments about ‘retooling’ instead of ‘rebuilding’ and realize the Reds are still going to try to be a ‘good’ team in both 2027 and 2028, and having Steer around for that – even at his rising salary – is something that will help the Reds achieve that goal.
It’s not outlandish to expect that. A starting rotation of Chase Burns, Hunter Greene, Andrew Abbott, Nick Lodolo, and Rhett Lowder should be formidable, and it’s impossible to think the bullpen could ever be as injured as it is this year with Graham Ashcraft, Tony Santillan, and Emilio Pagan all missing tons of time. Get that pitching staff healthy like it was in 2025, and even a subpar offense with Elly De La Cruz, Sal Stewart, and Steer can’t be too far away from a playoff push.
It’s a fascinating thought exercise, one that Krall & Co. will get to play out in real time over the next two weeks.
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