Reds Can't Let History Repeat Itself After 2025 Playoff Run

The Reds have the young talent, but can the organization take the next step?

Cincinnati Reds first baseman Sal Stewart (43) celebrates a two-RBI single in the first inning of the MLB National League Wild Card Game 2 between the Los Angeles Dodgers and the Cincinnati Reds at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles on Wednesday, Oct. 1, 2025. The Reds were eliminated from the postseason with an 8-4 loss to the reining World Series Champions La Dodgers. | Sam Greene/The Enquirer / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

CINCINNATI -- Making the postseason is a noteworthy accomplishment. Even with the National League being as down as it was this season, the Reds still earned their way into the postseason. It's their first postseason appearance since 2020 and first in a full season since 2013.

Considering the Reds' 2022 and 2024 seasons, making the postseason this year with a first-year manager and overcoming the adversity of crushing losses that seemed like the end of the season was a notable achievement.

But is the Reds' postseason appearance the start of something or just a blip? Truthfully, I don't know. It shouldn't feel that way, but it does.

Let's call it for what it is: the Reds won just 83 games in 2025. That's the same number of wins as they had in 2021 and only one more than they had in 2023. That 2023 season felt like the start of something, but it took the Reds two years to make it back to the Playoffs.

Against the Dodgers last week, for as hard as the Reds played, they looked overmatched. They were eliminated in two games.

It was like that in 2020. We hoped it was the start of something, but it wasn't. The road back to the postseason was long, painful, and headache-inducing.

This team has a solid core. Elly De La Cruz, TJ Friedl, Spencer Steer, Hunter Greene, Andrew Abbott, and Noelvi Marte. That's a core this organization can build around.

But is this organization going to do what they need to do to go from promising to serious contender? That's the question that will shape expectations going into 2026.

The development of the Reds young core is the key to future success. Can they take steps forward?

There is a lot of promise within the Reds organization. In addition to the leaders of the young core, they have Chase Burns and Sal Stewart.

For all of the problems fans have with this organization, it can't be denied that this club has talent. This club is capable of winning 90 games in 2026. I believe that. I think many Reds fans believe that.

I hope that those two games we got to watch the Reds in the Postseason aren't a blip in this iteration of the franchise. This franchise has too proud a history not to be a perennial in the postseason. The fans deserve it.

We can only hope this is just the start of something for this era of the Reds.

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