For a good chunk of last fall and part of this winter, I was fixated on the Cincinnati Reds’ off-season going into the 2025 campaign. I’ve written about this in more detail before, but I spent way too much time thinking of possible trades and free agent signings, mapping it all out (including the payroll implications) in a spreadsheet and playing out my scenarios in the game MLB: The Show.

Fast-forward to last week, and I posted on Bluesky some thoughts about how the 2026 position player group might look. Mind you, the 2025 season wasn’t – and still isn’t – over yet. But the Reds were in the midst of a terrible stretch and were about to be swept by the Dodgers. When I posted, they hadn’t yet dropped two straight games against the dreaded Cardinals, which made the team’s hopes of surpassing the Mets for the third Wild Card spot very slim all of a sudden. 

I was disappointed. I was frustrated. I was ready to use my imaginary fan powers to fire president of baseball operations Nick Krall and move Elly De La Cruz to center field. 

So I decided to cling to the one thing sports fans always have access to: hope. “There’s always next year!” When I stop and think about how reactionary this is, two points come to mind:

• As silly as it can seem, being reactionary is every fan’s right. We are allowed to give up – and be drawn back in – at any point. That’s why we’re watching the games and not in the front office or on the diamond. Anyone can be a fair weather fan if they desire, even though that term is derogatory. The players do not have that right. They can never give up, or at least they shouldn’t. (More on this later.)
  
  
• With all this in mind, this season still has been very disappointing for many Reds fans. After finishing 2024 eight games below .500 and missing the playoffs, the front office focused on our poor record in one-run games and the fact that many of our young players either did not improve or, in some cases, took a step back. So they hired managerial legend Terry Francona to help a young roster get better at the little things and learn how to win. Well, with less than a month’s worth of games left in 2025, the Reds are just barely above .500 (an improvement, to be fair) and are unlikely to make the postseason. The team defense is still sloppy. The offense is still below average despite playing 81 games in Great American “Small” Park. Some young players have again taken a step back. It appears that Tito’s “pixie dust” can only go so far. (I have some criticisms of his in-game managing too, but I’ll save them for another post.)

TL;DR: Fans are allowed to be reactionary, and Reds fans in particular have every right to be, with the franchise’s recent history in mind.

Does ruminating about this make me feel any better? Maybe, maybe not. But it’s a good reminder for when I find myself being judgemental toward fans that are over-dramatic about their team on social media. (I tend to save those takes for my brain and the occasional blog post.)

Back to the players: The Reds certainly have not given up. They turned the page on that previously noted rough stretch by beating the Cardinals on Sunday and pulling off an exciting walk-off win against the Blue Jays on Labor Day. 

I watched the latter game yesterday – mainly tuning in to witness top prospect Sal Stewart’s MLB debut. I nearly turned it off after closer Emilio Pagán blew the lead in the 9th by giving up two homers. That would’ve been understandably reactionary. But after the Reds roared back and won the game in the bottom half of the inning, I was glad I – and more importantly, the players – hung in there.

I’m sure there will be more moments like this over the next few weeks. I might find myself day dreaming of the off-season rumor mill after a frustrating loss, or I might start believing that the Reds can pull off a miracle and overtake the Mets for a playoff spot. 

This all can be exhausting. But one thing is certain: While I might lose hope at times, I’ll never stop being a fan.