The 2025 MLB playoffs are here — and for some teams, October is going to last a lot longer than it is for some others.
We start with the wild-card round, where the Cincinnati Reds became the first team eliminated from postseason contention — on the very first day of October, no less — with a two-game series loss to the Los Angeles Dodgers.
What’s next for Cincinnati and for the rest of the cities that won’t be celebrating a World Series parade this fall? As each team is eliminated, ESPN MLB experts Bradford Doolittle, Alden Gonzalez and David Schoenfield will list that club’s key free agents, biggest offseason questions and make their predictions for the long, cold winter ahead.
Teams eliminated in wild-card series
Eliminated by: Dodgers
Key free agents: RHP Nick Martinez, RHP Emilio Pagan
Biggest offseason priority: Flipping their home run differential. The Reds badly need middle-of-the-order power, the kind that will better align their lineup with the long-ball-friendly vagaries of Great American Ballpark. The Reds gave up 25 more homers than they hit in 2025, postseason included, the fifth-worst differential in the majors. That differential was minus-18 at home. The Reds have the pitching they need to win the NL Central, but they need a major uptick in firepower to support the arms. With Martinez’s salary coming off the books, Cincinnati has a wide-open payroll, which — one would think — means lots of flexibility, whether it’s a free agency splurge or a high-impact trade.
Is it time to really unleash this rotation? The Reds have collected quite a collection of high-upside young pitchers. Some of them have established themselves in the majors — Hunter Greene, Nick Lodolo, Andrew Abbott. Abbott had a career season in 2025, but Greene still hasn’t paired his dominance with season-long durability. Lodolo produced 28 mostly excellent starts but has plenty of room to grow in his innings count. Then you have Chase Petty, Chase Burns and Rhett Lowder, along with the veteran stability of Brady Singer. The ideal for 2026 would be for manager Terry Francona to push this group of seven for a full season and perhaps lighten up a bit on the innings management side of the equation. This has the potential to be among MLB’s best rotations.
Offseason prediction: The Reds will get aggressive. No, they won’t go wild, of course, but besides having a contention-worthy rotation and a star in Elly De La Cruz who is edging toward his prime, they have a 66-year-old future Hall of Fame manager in Francona who isn’t going to be around forever. — Bradford Doolittle
