The Cincinnati Reds head into the final week of their disastrous 2026 regular season at 72-84 overall. Technically, this club could still find a way to make it to 90 losses overall for the season, so at least there is that for them to play.
On the schedule, there’s precious little there to chew on, either. The Reds will open a series in Atlanta against the Braves on Tuesday evening, though Atlanta – at 92-64 so far – has already clinched yet another NL East title. Given that they sit 6 games back
of the Milwaukee Brewers (and 4 games back of the Los Angeles Dodgers) in the win column, the odds of them earning a 1st round bye in the playoffs are near nil, meaning Atlanta and Cincinnati will face off this week a trio of times with none of the games realistically meaning anything in the grand scheme.
After their tour of Atlanta the Reds will head north to Toronto to face the Blue Jays, who currently sit at 77-80 overall. Somehow that does not yet have them mathematically eliminated from the final AL Wild Card spot just yet, but barring a cavalcade of miracles they’ll likely be eliminated from contention as early as today (Tuesday). Unless they turn in a win streak that stretches into their series against the Reds (and get some help from a least two other sources), the 3.5 game gap between them and the Chicago White Sox – owners of the final Wild Card spot as of this morning – will boot Toronto from any chance at the postseason before Cincinnati even gets to town. So, odds are the Reds won’t have anything tangible for which to play in that series, either.
With a whopper of a -163 run differential, the Reds could still theoretically catch the Colorado Rockies (-177) for the worst run differential in the National League by season’s end. That would be another wonderful feather in the cap of Nick Krall’s tenure. Since the team currently sits tied with Colorado and the Los Angeles Angels with a league-worst 91 wRC+ as a team, they can also still manage to clinch the title of the worst offense in the sport for another season to give Krall more feathers than he knows what to do with. The team’s collective 4.70 xFIP ranks only ahead of Colorado’s 4.74 mark for the season, so Cincinnati could also theoretically catch the Rockies for the title of pitching staff that probably should be considered the worst in the game, so there’s that.
If you are still choosing to tune into what this club is doing in the season’s final week, you’re effectively tuning in to watch the same two players who’ve been just about the only reason to watch all season long. Elly De La Cruz is a pair of steals and a pair of homers away from posting a 30/30 season, while Sal Stewart sits a lone RBI behind Alec Burleson for the MLB lead there in his chase for both a) a season OPS that begins with .8 and b) the NL Rookie of the Year Award.
No playoff push, no role as spoiler – this is all we get to watch with this club as they wrap up a forgettable 2026 campaign.
