The deadline for MLB players to be playoff-eligible with an organization comes at 11:59 PM ET on August 31st, so it’s unsurprising to hear that at least two prominent players landed on outright waivers off the Cincinnati Reds roster this week.
Those two – outfielder TJ Friedl and 3B Eugenio Suárez – both fit the profile of guys who’d land there. They’re both making much more than league minimum, both are playing poorly enough that they had no trade value at the trade deadline 25 days ago, and both play for
a team that has zero chance of making the playoffs. Of course, the first to qualifiers listed there are also precisely why those two players went unclaimed.
As C. Trent Rosecrans of The Athletic relayed earlier on Thursday, neither was plucked off the waiver wire by another organization. That means both return to the Reds roster, and both will likely be available on Friday.
That Friedl, who’s owed a bit over $630,000 for the remainder of the season, went unclaimed is hardly surprising. Not only has he been one of the worst, most light-hitting offensive players so far in 2026 with zero hot streaks to his name, a key aspect of his game that had been his calling card earlier in his career – his speed, and therefore his CF defense – has declined so much that the Reds mostly use him in LF when he actually gets off the pine. All signs point towards him being a non-tender at season’s end as the Reds surely won’t retain him at a raise over his nearly $4 million salary from 2026.
Suárez, though, is something of a different story. He’s making much more money – a bit over $2.5 million of which remains until season’s end – and he’ll be a free agent after the season once his mutual option is declined, but he also smashed a grand slam just yesterday. His overall .208/.295/.410 line this year is poor, obviously, but that’s also surrounding a nearly month-long IL stint for an oblique injury that are notorious for tinkering with players’ timing. Geno has a long, long track record of both slumping and getting hotter than a firecracker, and there was some thought a team desperate for power would roll the dice on him finding a way to get hot after being claimed.
On top of that, you don’t have to squin t to notice he’s hit .210/.315/.483 (.798) over his last 42 games with 11 homers in that time.
Anyway, both will be back with the Reds for Friday’s series opener against the Chicago Cubs. Unless, of course, the Reds put them back on waivers between now and then and someone bites this time around.
I do wonder what will happen if Geno goes ham in Wrigley this weekend…
