Reds Rank Last in MLB in a Category That Helps Explain Another Frustrating Season

The 2026 Reds are making a habit of leading the league in the wrong categories. When Terry Francona was hired as the Cincinnati Reds' manager in October 2024, the ball club's calling card was going to be good, fundamental defense. Now, in 2026, it is quite the opposite.

Before Francona

The era before the hiring of Francona was marked by undisciplined and chaotic baseball. Under David Bell, the Cincinnati Reds were sometimes an exciting brand, but it was not winning baseball. One metric, Defensive Runs Saved (DRS), tells a story of the era of baseball before Francona and where they are at right now.

Defensive runs saved is an advanced stat that measures how many runs a player or team saved or cost their club on defense compared to an average player. A score of zero would be a completely average player/ team score. But for the Reds in 2023 and 2024 under David Bell, they were way below average.

In 2023 and 2024, the Cincinnati Reds had Defensive Runs Saved scores of -31 and -30. Very bad. Bell had a reputation for being a player's coach and not coming down hard on the guys or holding them accountable as much as another manager would. Thus, Castellini and company made a change to get in a guy who would hold them accountable.

The Francona Era

Sep 15, 2026; Cincinnati, Ohio, USA; Cincinnati Reds manager Terry Francona (77) stands in the dugout during the game between the Los Angeles Dodgers and the Cincinnati Reds in the seventh inning at Great American Ball Park. Mandatory Credit: Aaron Doster-Imagn Images | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

The coaching philosophy of Terry Francona has been 'run prevention.' He would rather play good, clean defense than try to out-slug a team every night. The Cincinnati Reds front office seemed to agree with that philosophy by trading for Gold Glove third baseman Ke'Bryan Hayes at the 2025 trade deadline.

In 2025, the philosophy of run prevention was working. The Cincinnati Reds were +2 in Defensive Runs Saved, which put them in the middle of the pack in MLB, but it was one of the best defensive seasons in a while. It has not been that way in 2026.

The Backsliding Reds

As every Reds fan can imagine, this team has not been good in many categories. Unfortunately, the Reds are bad again at Defensive Runs Saved. This season, they are the worst in MLB with -48 DRS. Brutal. By contrast, the Cubs and Brewers are some of the best defensive teams this year, with +110 and +50, respectively.

It would appear that Francona's run prevention philosophy is not getting through to the players, or big changes need to be made to make the Reds just a competent ball club. Either way, being the worst at this defensive metric explains why the Reds are so bad

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