The Reds have gotten trade calls on utilityman Spencer Steer, reports Bob Nightengale of USA Today. Cincinnati has fallen nine games under .500 after a strong start and are eight games back in the Wild Card picture.
That doesn’t necessarily mean Steer will be on the move. He’s under arbitration control for two seasons beyond this one, so there’s less urgency for the Reds to flip him than there’d be on impending free agents like Brady Singer, Tyler Stephenson or Nathaniel Lowe. The front office should be open to conversations on Steer, though, as he’s more of a solid role player than the kind of core piece whom teams completely pull off the market.
Steer’s bat has picked up in the final few games leading into the All-Star Break. That followed an ugly June and has pulled his offense back up to league average overall. The Oregon product is hitting .247/.328/.421 with 14 home runs across 358 plate appearances. He’s on his way to a fourth straight 20-homer campaign with an average strikeout and walk profile. His park-adjusted numbers are right at league average for a third straight season.
A right-handed batter, Steer has been far more productive against lefty pitching this season. He has tattooed southpaws at a .333/.436/.603 clip with more walks than strikeouts in 95 plate appearances. He’s batting .218/.289/.361 in 263 trips to the dish against righties. Steer doesn’t have quite such an extreme divide over his career, though he unsurprisingly has been better (.835 OPS compared to .721) when holding the platoon advantage.
Steer has some positional versatility, though it’s mostly at the corners. He was a Gold Glove finalist at first base last season and has graded well there in just over 250 innings this year. The defensive metrics are cooler on his work in the corner outfield. Steer has some experience at second and third base but has never really been an everyday player at either position.
The Reds are paying Steer a $4MM salary, around $1.16MM of which will be owed after the August 3 deadline. He’s likely to earn a boost into the $6-7MM range for next season and could approach an eight figure salary for what would be his final arbitration year. The escalating salaries would make him a potential non-tender candidate — if not as soon as next winter, likely during the 2027-28 offseason.
Nightengale doesn’t specifically link any teams to Steer. The Phillies, Mariners, Guardians, Braves and Padres are among the speculative possibilities to add a righty-hitting outfielder. The Diamondbacks could use Steer in the outfield or plug him into an everyday first base role.
