The Cincinnati Reds got a late Christmas present on Saturday morning as they signed outfielder JJ Bleday. The move was first reported by Robert Murray of Fansided who has the deal as $1,400,000 for one year. Update: Cincinnati has designated reliever Keegan Thompson for assignment in order to make room on the 40-man roster for Bleday.
The 4th overall pick back in 2019, JJ Bleday has spent parts of the last four seasons in the big leagues. He was available because the Athletics designated him for assignment in November and then non-tendered. In three of his four years in the big leagues he had a negative WAR. During the 2024 season – the only one in which he played in more than 100 games, he had his best season. That year he posted a 2.1 WAR in 159 games while hitting .243/.324/.437 with 43 doubles, four triples, and 20 home runs. That was good for a 120 OPS+ (meaning his OPS was 20% better than the league average once park factors were accounted for).
In 2025, though, things went south. Bleday hit .212/.294/.404 with 17 doubles and 14 home runs in 98 games played. The left-handed hitter was optioned to Triple-A multiple times during the season and he did hit well in Las Vegas over his 28 games – posting a .353/.409/.571 line with 13 extra-base hits.
During his career he’s made contact at about a league average rate, but that rate spiked in 2025 as he struck out 26.5% of the time he stepped to the plate. He’s always had a quality walk rate and he’s shown a good amount of power when he’s played, but he’s never come to hitting for a solid average and is a career .215 hitter in Major League Baseball.
For his career he’s hit right-handed pitchers better than left-handed pitchers, but that’s not saying a ton. His OPS against righties is just .713, while it’s .660 against lefties. In 2025 he actually hit lefties a lot better than righties, though the sample size against left-handed pitchers was just 68 at-bats (where he hit .324/.370/.500). You can see his career stats here.
Defensively he’s spent most of his career in center, but he’s gotten some experience in both corners as well. The defensive metrics don’t look kindly on his abilities in center where he’s rated out as a well below-average fielder.
It’s tough to see where exactly Bleday fits in as he’s essentially the same kind of guy as a lot of other outfielders on the roster. He’s limited in that he’s a platoon type of hitter, he’s not exactly a good defender, he has hit well in Triple-A, but he hasn’t been able to hit well in the big leagues. While it’s not the exact profile of Will Benson, Rece Hinds, Blake Dunn, and Tyler Callihan, it’s a lot like the profile of all five of them. Bleday, who has an option remaining, probably has an inside track on one of the backup outfield spots heading into the spring but the team doesn’t have to lock it in for him if someone else just looks better.
As for Keegan Thompson, this is where his contract structure could work in favor of the Reds. He signed a 1-year deal with Cincinnati in November but if he’s not in the big leagues then his minor league salary is pro-rated for $350,000. If he is in the big leagues then he gets the pro-rated salary of $1,300,000. Thompson spent all of 2025 in Triple-A with the Chicago Cubs organization where he had a 4.50 ERA in 64.0 innings and racked up 83 strikeouts.
While being designated for assignment leaves open the chance that another team will claim him, if he did clear waivers he could also choose free agency. Given the amount of money owed to him, though, it seems unlikely that he would choose that route and would instead accept his outright to the minor leagues and bank on at least $350,000 for 2026.