It’s been a busy two weeks for outfielder TJ Friedl. The Cincinnati Reds optioned him to Triple-A on September 19th. With the Louisville Bats season ending the next day he didn’t technically have to make the trip to join them as players have up to three days to report after being optioned. It wouldn’t have mattered because the next day with the Reds needing a 40-man roster spot they designated him for assignment. He cleared waivers two days later and accepted his outright. But with his amount of service time in the big leagues he was also able to choose free agency and that’s what he has done.
It’s been a tough 2026 for Friedl. The outfielder first joined the Cincinnati Reds at the MLB level back in 2021. From that point through 2025 he hit .257/.344/.414 for the Reds with a 106 OPS+ (OPS, adjusted for park factors and above 100 represents an OPS that’s above the league average).
Things were about as opposite as possible in 2026 from the rest of his career. Friedl played in 91 games with the Reds and even spent some time in the minor leagues with Louisville because things had been going so poorly at the big league level for him. With Cincinnati during the season he had 272 plate appearances and had just 41 hits. He had a career worst .172 batting average, a career worst .255 on-base percentage, and a career worst .255 slugging percentage.
His walk rate was a little lower than his career rate, but not too far off. His strikeout rate was by far the highest of his career, though. After never having struck out more than 16.8% of the time in any season in the big leagues before 2026, he struck out 23.2% of the time he came to the plate this season with the Reds. All of that struggle led to an OPS+ in 2026 of 43.
Given the season he just had, Friedl was going to have to earn his spot on the team for 2027 if he had struck around. But now the odds are more likely that he’ll be needing to do that with another organization next year.
I’ve enjoyed watching TJ play. One of the Reds who could actually lay down a bunt combined with his speed. I wish him well.
I have always liked TJ, brought up through our system. Great bunter, scrappy and gave back to the community. I am not sure what happened this year but he was not very good. Does he need glasses? Hope he lands on his feet somewhere.
Don’t remember a player falling off the cliff performance-wise w/o an injury (or being caught on steroids) as much as TJ from 2025-6. He’s been good off the field too for the Reds so I hope he catches on somewhere else.
Bobby Tolan 1972 (very good) vis-a-vis 1973 (not very good). Maybe lingering injury but more likely he was not in agreement with Reds no facial hair policy.
110 OPS+ in 1972 but 57 OPS+ in 1973.
1973-74-75-76-77-79 all were negative WAR seasons for Tolan. Only 1974 was above 100 OPS+ (101).
“lose” seems like a strong word.
He had a OPS+ below 90 over the past 3 seasons, and a negative dWAR for his career.
He had a pair of good seasons, 2023 + 2025, but just couldn’t seem to replicate that for most of his career.
Appreciate what TJ did in past years for the Reds but he had an absolute ton of chances with the Reds this past year despite playing exceptionally poorly. I mean -1.0 bWAR is pretty hard to achieve in a year for a baseball player let alone in 91 games for a reason…most players don’t get a chance to play enough to achieve such a low number.
Friedl OPS+ for his career.
102, 104, 117, 88, 107 and 43.
This year is an outlier.
Kinda makes you wonder if there may be some behind the scenes something personal going on….things like that can really mess up a person’s focus. I hope that isn’t the case, and it was just an outlier.
Even worse than his batting, his defense and throwing also completely fell off a cliff.
Friedl never had an exceptionally strong arm, but he made some throws this year that were frankly shocking in how weak they were.
If I didn’t know any better, taking all this evidence together, I’d think Friedl was suffering from mononucleosis or some other disease that saps your energy.
Or it could just be that Friedl is 31 and his body just doesn’t have the longevity like some others do. Wouldn’t be the first pro athlete to be done in his early 30’s, nor will he be the last.
Either way, for a short time, he was a pretty decent player for our Reds. I appreciate what he has given us, and I wish him the best in wherever life takes him next.
In something called Rtot, Friedl had 10, Hayes had 11. Those were highest (presumably best). Next were McLain 3 and Stewart 2.
Reds were -0.3 Rtot as team.
Friedl made 1 E all season for .995 fielding %. Stewart had 4 E and .996 fielding % for highest on Reds (who played all year).
Reds were .984 as a team.
Here’s hoping he does well on his journey. Great pickup in the 4th round. ~6 WAR in value with most of that coming in 2 very solid years.
Now let’s hope Carlos Jorge steps up and becomes the next jack of all trades like TJ.
Friedl was not drafted in any round. He was signed as undrafted FA.
MLB teams nor Friedl himself realized he was actually draft-eligible during the 2016 MLB Draft.
Some teams knew he was draft eligible. It was a weird situation overall, but there were some teams out there that did know he was eligible.
He got 4th round money. Thanks for the correction, what would ever do without you commenting 40 times out of 150 posts like the other day.
If you get it right, I don’t comment.
TJ Friedl will always hold a special place in my heart. He was my daughter’s favorite player. She wore his jersey to a game hoping to meet him. She brought his rookie card with her hoping he would sign it for her. When we got there, he was standing there next to the first base dugout talking with his family. There were some unruly kids nearby constantly trying to interrupt him as he talked to what I believe was his grandmother. They were screaming and shouting and asking for autographs. My daughter and her cousin walked over nearby and stood patiently a few rows back, card and sharpie in hand, and didn’t say a word while TJ spoke to his grandmother. When he was finished, the annoying kids kept hounding him. He motioned for my daughter to come over, spoke very kindly to her, told her he appreciated her good behavior, and signed her card. He then walked away leaving the rowdy kids behind. The look on their faces was priceless. But even more priceless was the joy that moment brought to my daughter. That was 4 years ago, and she still talks about it and proudly wears her Friedl jersey to every game we go to.
Great story, very classy on the part of Friedl.
What a great experience for your daughter, and what a nice thing it was for TJ to do that. Always seemed like a really good guy to me. And yes, he is probably not going to come back from this, unless, there was actually something physically wrong with him this season.
Don Gullet started 1972 pitching really terribly. They found out he had subsiding hepatitis, which sapped his strength, and caused him to have a big fall off in velocity.
While he was rehabbing, he learned to throw a knuckle curve for an offspeed pitch, which he sort of needed. He did pitch later in the year, and pitched in the World Series against the Oakland A’s.
So maybe TJ was sick with something this year, and didn’t know it.
How important the game of baseball can be, especially when it involves a classy guy like TJ Friedl.
I actually sat with his mother and grandmother at a Dragons game. Learned about his draft snafu and actually had a better financial offer from Marlins but the had Stanto, Yelich and Ozuna at the time so he thought he had a quicker path with Reds. He thought he would live with his cousin UD Coach Archie Miller but he went to IU the week before. His other cousins were BB Coaches Sean Miller and John Calapari. I think giving 100%, 100% of the time, which broke him down.
I’m pretty sure that TJ will catch on with some team and probably have a decent year. The signing team may give him the benefit of the doubt given the coaching team’s lack of positive results in so many players!
I hope he catches on and catches some lightning to rebound. I’m thinking (as I have) he may end up in Japan or Korea though. Probably fits his style better at this stage of his career. Wish him all the best.
PJ Higgins has also become a FA:
09/29/26 C P.J. Higgins elected free agency.
The Reds 40 man roster is currently at 39 with Julian Aguiar being claimed by the Cubs the other day.
Barring other moves it will be at 38 after the World Series ends when Singer, Burke, Stephenson, Suarez, and Johnson all likely become FA and Greene, Dunn, Steer, and Toglia are brought back from the 60 Day IL.
Burke and Stephenson will get nice raises in 2027.
They have some flexibility with the 40-man. Toglia, Solesky (who I’d forgotten about), Ivan Johnson, Ke’Bryan and even Bleday could all be let go or non-tendered, if they need a space for a free agent (like Stephenson).
I don’t see them signing any pitchers (including re-upping with Burke), until they have found a permanent replacement for Derek Johnson. I think a pitcher would want to know who his pitching coach will be before signing. (Hitters don’t care so much about the hitting coach.)
I would guess that they already have closed in on the major candidates for a new pitching coach/coordinator, which should be Job One for the front office in the off-season.
I wish him the best but obviously at this point no great loss.
Although, he didn’t play a bunch down the stretch, he played better IMO. From August 21, he posted a line of .318/.400/.455/.855. Yes, it was only 25 PA, but he passed the eye test to me. Best of luck in the future, T.J.
Good luck, TJ! I always liked him. I hope he can find his way onto another MLB roster.
Good luck to TJ. I expect a long lockout beginning December 1.
After the last Reds game, the TV camera caught Stephenson and Stewart lingering in the dugout like they were hating that the end of the season had come. It looked like they were discussing QB1’s likelihood of coming back and reading SteveO’s lips at the end he said, “we’ll see”. I suppose we shall and it should be a no brainer to bring him back during the 5-day window after the WS ends!
Arguably, which is a theme here, the biggest drop off from a position player for the Reds this year. TJ did a solid job as lead off man in 2025, but fell off the cliff this year. This has to be a priority for 2027. Maybe Jorge is the guy ( he certainly looks the part defensively in center) but can he consistently get on base? Would solve a major problem.
Really gonna miss TJ. Loved his hustle and grit over the years. Good luck to him.
TJ Friedl is 31 and a league average player coming off a terrible year. I wish him well but there’s no reason for the Reds to lament his departure.
TJ reminded me a bit of Ryan Freel for their style of play and hustle. Similar stats.
Liked them both
Hope he finds a good fit next year
RIP Ryan Freel. Died WAY too young.
Friedl had some good seasons, and was a pretty big key to their team last year. Yeah you wonder what caused such a huge drop off for him? Almost wonder if he had some other physical things going on as well, or personal things, who knows. Every player hits the end physically, but his drop off was huge.
Then again, so was Cal Raleigh, and Hayes and others had historically bad averages for getting hundreds of at bats.
I’m curious to see if he can turn his career back around and make a club out of spring training, or at least be in Triple A for a club.
I think that Friedl did a good job of getting all he could out of his talents, but that the aging curve caught up with him pretty quickly. He’s definitely lost a step on the bases and in the field, his bat was anemic, and he never did throw well.
He’s made about $7.5 million in baseball, and he may just want to give it up. Or he may want to become a coach either in pro or amateur ball, or he may want to give it one more go. Good luck to him, no matter what path he takes.
Several Reds players had bad years in 2026. Hayes is one, Friedl is another. McLain and Marte are two more. Greene was bad before he was injured. Santillan was also bad before he was injured. Singer was awful
Did we just lose Aguiar to to the Astros as well?
Thanks for your time in Cincy TJ and best wishes!
I know this is off topic but just Read that Redsfest has been cancelled for the 3rd time in 4 years.
Guess they don’t want to hear all the negativity or have low turnout.
It’s got nothing to do with the ownership not wanting to hear the negativity.
There is almost no chance that there will be a CBA in place when Redsfest would happen, which means no players are showing up. That means no fans are going to show up. 20,000 people aren’t showing up to see Chris Sabo and Jeff Brantley. Vendors aren’t going to pay thousands and thousands of dollars to set up at the event when people won’t be there. With the cost to secure the event space and the time spent planning the event, with no players available to show up, it would cost them far more money than it would raise.
I wish him well. I can’t imagine any team would pick him up