Suárez and Friedl Clear Waivers, Yet the Reds' Rebuild Clock Keeps Ticking

The Cincinnati Reds spent the past week trying to move on from two of their most recognizable veterans — and then spent the same week reminding everyone why the future might be worth the wait. It was the most Cincinnati 2026 storyline imaginable: a front office signaling a pivot toward austerity and a young core delivering the kind of moments that make you want to hold on.

The waiver saga dominated headlines. The Reds placed slugger Eugenio Suárez and outfielder TJ Friedl on outright waivers, a move widely reported as a payroll-shedding exercise. Nobody claimed them. Both had cleared and remained on the roster, expected in the clubhouse for Friday's game at Wrigley Field. Suárez is hitting .207 with 20 home runs and 59 RBI in 105 games; Friedl has struggled to a .167 average in 78 games. That they stayed says less about their performance and more about the market's view of their contracts — and it underscores how committed Cincinnati is to resetting its financial picture.

The Reds' position is grim: 64-72, last in the NL Central, with a -110 run differential and the sport's worst offense for much of the season. Futures boards list their championship odds at 100,000 in most books — a technical way of saying the playoffs are not in the equation.

But the on-field product told a different story.

On Saturday night in Arizona, JJ Bleday hit for the cycle in an 11-5 rout of the Diamondbacks — the eighth cycle in Reds history and the first since Elly De La Cruz accomplished the feat in 2023. Bleday, cut by the Athletics eight months ago, needed just four at-bats to complete the feat. A few days earlier, the Reds pulled off their largest ninth-inning comeback in 68 years, erasing a 9-3 deficit with a seven-run rally against the Giants — Suárez, of all people, providing the grand slam in a 10-9 win.

Those flashpoints bookended a week that also saw the Reds lose 17-5 to the Cubs on Saturday and drop four of their last six games. The pitching staff's recent form has been rough — a 9.02 ERA over the last five games — and the offense remains inconsistent. But the glimpses of what's next are unmistakable.

Chase Burns, baseball's breakout rookie, sits at 14-3 with a 2.77 ERA and 164 strikeouts in 139.2 innings. He's scheduled to take the mound Sunday night. Sal Stewart, the rookie first baseman/third baseman, has 30 home runs and 104 RBI with an .821 OPS, putting him in franchise-record territory. Bleday, at 28, has 21 homers and an .758 OPS.

The tension is clear. The organization is retooling — the waiver moves, the absence of significant deadline additions, the 100,000-to-1 futures — yet the players on the field are producing historic moments. Suárez and Friedl are still here, at least through season's end, but the message from the front office has been sent.

So what does this week mean for the rest of the season? The Reds enter the final stretch playing for 2027 and beyond. Burns' innings are being monitored, veterans are playing out the string, and the young core is getting its first taste of late-summer spotlight against contenders. The 17-5 shellacking in Chicago shows how far this roster still has to go; the cycle and the comeback show how far it's already come.

Cincinnati is a team in between — not good enough to matter this October, too talented to ignore. That may not be what fans want to hear in late August, but the week's events made one thing clear: the rebuild is underway, and the first few chapters have been worth reading.