The Cincinnati Reds will likely be sellers at the trade deadline. MLB.com’s Mark Feinsand reports that while the Reds are listening on their rental players, the club is likely to hold onto right-hander Brady Singer.
Singer, 29, has been a reliable mid-rotation arm for both the Royals and Reds. From 2022 to 2025, the right-hander has a 4.12 ERA and 3.95 FIP over 662.1 innings.
However, he’s fallen short of that standard in 2026. He carries a 4.35 ERA and a 5.17 FIP on the season. His home run rate per nine innings has spiked from 1.1 to 1.8. That home run rate decline likely makes him an unattractive trade target.
Reds Unlikely to Trade Brady Singer
While the Reds might be better suited to move on from Brady Singer, simply to get value before he walks, there is a cost associated with that move. They would have to find someone to fill in for the final 10 starts and get a prospect return strong enough to ignore the qualifying offer.
The qualifying offer is the average of the top 125 salaries in MLB. Last offseason, it was at $22.05 million.
The next question for the Reds is if they’re willing to extend one to Singer. Entering the season, that might have been an easy “yes” decision had the right-hander pitched well and the club fared better. But with his 2026 decline, it becomes a tougher decision.
Considering it’s unlikely that Singer will fetch a $50 million deal on the open market, the Reds are unlikely to gain a first-rounder. If they do extend the qualifying offer, they have to prepare for the possibility the right-hander accepts it.
But in the immediate future, the Reds will likely deploy a rotation of Hunter Greene, Chase Burns, Andrew Abbott, Rhett Lowder, and Brady Singer for the rest of the season.
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