TJ

Friedl

It’s been a rough season for Friedl, who is hitting .179/.259/.256 with two home runs and five steals in 178 plate appearances. He’s still playing solid center field, but the Reds want to see if Noelvi Marte can replicate some of that defense with far more offensive upside.

That’s three of Cincinnati’s last five games that Friedl has sat in as the Reds are riding hot hand JJ Bleday, including two games against right-handed starters. If you were holding on to hope in medium-sized leagues that he could turn around a .184/.268/.270 start in his first 39 games, the Reds aren’t going to make it easy for you to hold him.

There wasn’t much doubt that Friedl would be back in center tonight, but the Reds could have maybe dropped him in the lineup with him hitting just .185/.267/.274. Still, as poor as that is, it’s not like the team has much in the way of alternatives, aside from maybe just going with Elly De La Cruz and Sal Stewart first and second, rather than third and fourth. But that’s not Terry Francona’s style. The Reds have been giving Noelvi Marte more time in center in Triple-A of late, so Friedl might need to get things going soon.

Friedl scored the Reds’ lone run in a game where they were stymied by Mitch Keller and were otherwise blown out by the Pirates. We’re at least starting to see the inklings of Friedl getting going after a horrific start of the season. Over his last six games, he has two home runs and three doubles. Baby steps here.

It was his lone hit of the contest, but it gave Cincinnati a 3-2 lead in the fifth that put them ahead for good. Friedl has sat against the past five lefties the Reds have faced, but he’s hit leadoff in every game against a right-hander this season.

He also stole a base. The go-ahead double with the Twins down 3-1 against Andrew Morris was Friedl’s first extra-base hit in 92 plate appearances this season and quadrupled his RBI total from one to four. He hadn’t had a three-RBI game since Sept. 2024.

At least the bunt helped lead to the go-ahead run in the ninth. Noelvi Marte has to be extra bitter about how the Reds handled him given the state of the rest of the team’s outfield. Freidl is batting .137 with zero extra-base hits in 87 plate appearances. He was a productive hitter in 2023 and ’25, but his exit velocity numbers have always been pretty hideous and now he’s striking out more than ever. Most veteran hitters off to slow starts at this point of the season are very good bets to bounce back. Friedl, though, has always walked a thin line, and his return to being adequate isn’t assured.

Friedl took Colorado reliever Jimmy Herget deep with two outs in the fourth inning for his first big fly of the spring. The 30-year-old centerfielder remains Cincinnati’s primary leadoff option ahead of middle-of-the-order forces Elly De La Cruz and Eugenio Suárez heading into the regular season, which makes him a decent OF5 option in shallow mixed leagues.

Friedl and Spencer Steer are both eligible for arbitration for the first time, but Friedl is settling $200,000 less than Steer, even though he’s coming of the better season and is at 8.1 career fWAR, versus 4.5 for Steer. Freidl hit .261/.364/.378 in 685 plate appearances as the Reds’ starting center fielder and leadoff man last season. It looks like he’ll carry both roles into 2026; there was some talk of bringing in a center fielder and moving him to left, but it seems the team considers him the better center field option than newcomer JJ Bleday.

There was no avenue for Myers to play regularly next season in Miami with Kyle Stowers and Jakob Marsee emerging as core building blocks and Griffin Conine coming back from shoulder surgery. The 29-year-old, who posted a pedestrian .617 OPS with six homers and 19 steals over 333 plate appearances across 106 games for the Marlins last season, provides the Reds with a decent insurance policy behind center fielder TJ Friedl. He’ll enter spring training in competition with Will Benson and JJ Bleday for a corner-outfield role, with a bench assignment the most probable outcome.