Yesterday marked the deadline for teams and arbitration-eligible players to come to an agreement on contract numbers for the 2026 season lest they simply be forced to publicly file and wait for compromise. The Cincinnati Reds landed on a $5.525 million deal with Gavin Lux for the season – his final arb-eligible year before reaching free agency at season’s end.
Perhaps it was that dwindling team control. Perhaps it was the $5.525 million he’ll now earn despite posting a -0.2 bWAR season in 2025 in 503
PA and still not really having a position to play. Either way, he earned the most support among you, the voters, in this week’s MLB Reacts survey that asked which among Lux, Brady Singer, Spencer Steer, or TJ Friedl was most likely to be traded away before Opening Day.
Steer and Friedl received minimum support in this, likely due to a) them actually being pretty productive, b) each having multiple years of team control remaining, and c) earning lower salaries (directly because they’ve not accrued more service time). In Singer, you’ve got the pitching version of Lux in that he’s in his final year before free agency and will be the team’s highest earner at over $12 million, but for him, he’s actually coming off a really good debut year with the Reds.
Lux is an odd bird roster-wise. He’s pretty much a DH at this point despite being just 27 (and a former shortstop), as his defense in LF (and even on the infield) was suspect at best last year. He’s a DH, though, that doesn’t slug, with just 5 dingers last year and a .374 slugging percentage in 2025. His .105 ISO was the 10th lowest among the 146 MLB players who logged at least 500 PA, and that all came with an unsustainably high .351 BABIP, to boot.
He’s a platoon-bat only. He hit .282/.361/.400 in 440 PA against RHP last year (with a .361 BABIP) while only managing one (1) extra-base hit in 63 PA against southpaws. So, you don’t want him on the field against pitchers who use one arm, and you don’t want him playing defense pretty much ever.
That’s got a role on many rosters, especially those representative of teams that actually pony up cash all over the place. But on a Reds roster that’s still lacking a big thumper (and is once again balling on a light budget), he seems a luxury good holding a roster spot that would be better used on either a) a positionless big thumper or b) a guy who can actually play good defense all over, especially on the infield.
You wouldn’t get a ton for him at this point, but you’d probably at least be able to move that money off the books. That’s as valuable as anything right now for Cincinnati, who is scraping and clawing to afford reclamation projects for key roles with guys like JJ Bleday with that money tied up.
Still, it seems unlikely to happen. The Reds know they’re searching for a needle in a haystack in terms of a lineup-altering bat that won’t break the bank or the farm, and they’ve probably resigned themselves to not finding it at this juncture. So, they’ve got their fallback plan in Lux, an imperfect fit who’s a bit overpaid but a guy who hopefully won’t be as valueless in 2026 if they can just keep him out of LF. It’s a decision that puts the onus on the rest of the roster to outperform, as their DH on most days won’t be the best bat in the order the way it has been traditionally (and is for most of their competition).
Such is life with the Reds. They aren’t going to be bad because they’ve got Gavin Lux on their team (or in their lineup), but you can only populate your finite roster with so many of those guys before you look up and wonder why you didn’t simply pool that money together to pay a really good player instead.
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