After recording a career-high 32 saves in 2025, right-hander Emilio Pagán has expressed interest in rejoining the Reds. “I’d love to be back and run it back with them and take another run at it,” Pagán told Gordon Wittenmyer of the Cincinnati Enquirer. The pending free agent has spent the past two seasons in Cincinnati’s bullpen.
Pagán stepped in as manager Terry Francona’s preferred 9th inning option after Alexis Díaz went down with a hamstring injury in the spring. He entered the year with 33 career saves across eight MLB seasons. Pagán nearly doubled that mark as the Reds’ stopper, going 32-for-38 in save opportunities. He notched a 2.88 ERA across a career-high 70 appearances. Pagán was tied with Aroldis Chapman and Jhoan Duran for fifth in the league in saves.
A solid campaign with Minnesota in 2023 earned Pagán a two-year, $16M deal with Cincinnati ahead of the 2024 season. Injuries limited him to 38 innings in his first year with the team. He spent time on the IL with triceps tightness and a lat strain. The latter issue cost him more than two months. Pagán struggled when healthy, pitching to a 4.50 ERA with a bloated 1.34 WHIP. He was set to open the 2025 season on the periphery of Cincinnati’s late-inning mix, but Díaz’s injury opened the door for another reliever to step forward. Despite having former closers Taylor Rogers and Scott Barlow on the roster, it was Pagán and Tony Santillan who emerged as the top candidates for the role. Both pitchers earned a save within the team’s first 10 games, but Santillan wouldn’t get his second save until early June. By then, Pagán had run away with the job.
The closer role wasn’t completely foreign to Pagán, but it had been a while since he had spent the majority of a season in the position. He served as Tampa Bay’s primary closer in 2019 after Diego Castillo and Jose Alvarado faltered. Pagán earned 20 saves that year. He was dealt to San Diego in the offseason, and then to Minnesota a couple of years later. Pagán opened the 2022 season as the Twins’ closer, but lost the job to Duran after an extended stretch of poor performance.
Pagán will be one of many intriguing names on the closer market this offseason. Devin Williams, Ryan Helsley, and Raisel Iglesias are free agents. Edwin Díaz and Robert Suarez could opt out of their current deals and hit the open market. Kenley Jansen, Luke Weaver, Kirby Yates, Ryan Pressly, and Kyle Finnegan have extensive late-inning experience. Pagán’s best choice might be to stick with the club where he just posted a career season. It sounds like the interest is mutual, too. Team president Nick Krall told Wittenmyer that Pagán would be “tremendous to have back.” Krall added that the veteran “fits in the culture of our bullpen.”
The Reds should certainly have the financial flexibility to add in free agency. FanGraphs’ RosterResource tool has them below $100MM for next year’s payroll, though the team does have an ample group of arbitration-eligible players. The club had a payroll of around $120MM this past season. Cincinnati is stuck paying $13MM to Jeimer Candelario next year, but he’s currently the only player on the books for more than seven figures in 2026, assuming they decline the mutual $12MM mutual option on Austin Hays. If the Reds don’t make any additions to the bullpen, they’re likely looking at patching together the closer gig with Santillan, Barlow, and converted starter Graham Ashcraft.
