So far during the 2026 Major League Baseball season, the Cincinnati Reds have received a collective .207 wOBA from the 3B position. That ranks dead last in the entire league.
That’s side by side with a 21 wRC+ (last), .157 average (last), .219 OBP (last), .229 SLG (last), and 12 RBI (last). It will likely not surprise you to hear, then, that the -1.2 fWAR they’ve received from their 3B position this year is also last among all clubs.
As a whole, Cincinnati’s offense ranks towards the bottom of the league,
their 93 wRC+ checking in tied with three other teams at 21st in the game. So, having a complete black hole at 3B while simultaneously needing to add offense somewhere, anywhere means that it’s a pretty fortuitous time for them to have a readymade slugger who plays the position on the cusp of joining their lineup.
That’s where the Reds are officially on Wednesday. They’ve sent Eugenio Suárez to AAA Louisville to begin a rehab assignment as he works his way back from the oblique strain that sidelined him mid-April.
He’ll likely be there for the better part of a week as he ramps back up. How the Reds manage their roster and their lineup when he’s ready to return, though, remains to be seen.
Tuesday night’s game against the Philadelphia Phillies was a win for the Reds, the rocket arm of burgeoning ace Chase Burns and Philly’s own poor defense guiding Cincinnati back into the win column for once. It also was a game in which the severe underperformance of Ke’Bryan Hayes was once again squarely in the spotlight as he grounded meekly into a pair of double plays, a fielder’s choice at home with the bags loaded, and even appeared to miss a hit and run sign before a runner was canned on the bases.
Despite all the money owed to Hayes, despite the Reds having gone very much on a limb to acquire him despite question marks all up and down the evaluation, despite even the elite defense he provides at the hot corner, the decision to keep rolling Hayes out there at 3B more often than not has long since come to a head. Getting Geno back, good vibes and all, and parking him at his customary 3B position almost every single day seems almost too obvious a solution at this juncture, and it’s one the Reds are going to have staring them in the face in short order.
They’ll either be stubborn and muck it up, or they’ll be forced to make a pretty damn difficult, yet paramount decision.
