Are the 2026 Cincinnati Reds being overlooked?

SCOTTSDALE, ARIZONA - MARCH 06: Manager Terry Francona #77 of the Cincinnati Reds looks on before a spring training game against the San Francisco Giants at Scottsdale Stadium on March 06, 2026 in Scottsdale, Arizona. (Photo by Chris Coduto/Getty Images) | Getty Images Up the river and around the bend, past Huntington and Parkersburg, Wheeling and Steubenville, the Pittsburgh Pirates finally have a little rumble in their bellies. Cincinnati’s NL Central rivals have Paul Skenes, ace extraordinaire, the reigning Cy Young Award winner in the National League.

They have Konnor Griffin on the cusp of his debut, the consensus top overall prospect in the sport these days. They actually spent money on Ryan O’Hearn. They boast a starting rotation with both depth and youth, with Bubba Chandler firmly in the mix for Rookie of the Year honors if things go as planned.

Pittsburgh even turned the page on the Andrew McCutchen Era, letting their franchise icon walk in free agency down to Texas as they looked to move into a new, more forward-looking window in their team’s storied history. It’s enough to make you, me, and the baseball world think things might actually be on the up and up for them for the first time in a decade and a half. Those are a series of storylines that make the Pirates something of the trendy dark horse pick in the Central this year, storylines that have many listing them ahead of the Cincinnati Reds in their projections for the division on the cusp of Opening Day.

What Pittsburgh also gets to boast – which is undeniable – is that they’re rolling into Opening Day with a lot better health than the Reds, as Cincinnati’s ace sits on the sideline for the first three months of the year while recovering from yet another elbow surgery. Pittsburgh right now seems to be very much in a similar place to where Cincinnati was just one year ago, a year that saw the Reds finally shake the cobwebs and sneak into the postseason via a Wild Card spot (albeit far behind the Milwaukee Brewers and Chicago Cubs within the Central). Clearly, or at least on paper, the Pirates not only have a better club this season than they did a year ago, but they also enter the season with tangible expectations for the first time in a generation, something that fuels their own bellies on a daily basis more than it did one year ago.