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Dateline: Goodyear, Arizona
Major League baseball careers are finite.
The chances of a player sticking to a big league roster starts to diminish after age 26 or so. Careers start to fade in their mid thirties.
There are always exceptions but for a majority of baseball player's window of opportunity is within this 10-years.
Blake Dunn, 27, and Rece Hinds, 25, are there now. Both have had a taste of the "Show" but have been limited by the roster numbers game and their performance.
"On a little bit different levels, like Blake made the club and kinda like, ran into some troubles. He goes to Triple A. He got beat up for awhile. Then really turned it on. He ended up having a damn good year. It was in that second half but it was good," Terry Francona said. "The same thing with Rece. Rece said, 'I got called up. I played every day in Triple A. I come up to a better league and I'm playing sometimes. I was trying to go, like 3-for-1,' I'm paraphrasing. 'but if i pinch hit, I want to hit a home run.' I told him you've got to play the game. I know it is easier said than done. But you can't play like that. It's not productive. Hopefully experience helps with that."
Dunn was around the .200 mark in mid season but ended up with a .291 average and seven home runs, scoring 59 runs, driving in 40 and stealing 24 bases off a .397 on-base-percentage.
Hinds, who broke in hot with the Reds in 2024, hitting five home runs in his first six games and then nothing in his final 18 contests. Last season, Hinds hit .116 with two home runs in 15 games during three separate calls to the big league roster. In Louisville, Hinds was one of Triple A's best hitter. He hit .302 with 26 doubles, two triples, 24 home runs and 83 RBI. Hinds stole 21 bases, all in 107 games.
The pair are in the same situation that Will Benson was in over the last two years.
Benson, who was a number one pick of the Cleveland Indians in 2016, is now 27. Benson spent the entire 2024 season on the Major League roster. He played 128 games, hitting .187 with 14 home runs but he struck out a whopping 154 times in 388 plate appearances. That is a 39.7 strikeout percentage. Benson reduced that percentage to 26.5 in 2025. He started the season in Louisville where he played in 41 games, recording a .275 average with seven home runs. He played in 90 games for the Reds, hitting .226 with eight doubles, two triples and 12 home runs. Over the total of 131 games on both levels combined, Benson struck out 116 times in 431 plate appearances with his strikeout rates slightly lower at the big league level.
"Benson, I told him the other day this will be a way more in our meeting, this will be a way more fun meeting than it was last year," Francona said.
Benson is important to this lineup which will be heavy with right-handed hitters. His left-handed bat will be counted on for balance. Dunn and Hinds are right handed. Their path to the big leagues will be more difficult.
Hinds is more of a corner outfielder but Benson and Dunn are center field candidates although they play mostly in right field. The Reds added Dane Myers, 29, with more experience than Hinds and Dunn. Myers played 68 games in center field last season and bats right handed. The Reds acquired JJ Bleday with four years of big league experience. He is 28 and bats left handed and played 55 games in center field for the A's last year.
Dunn, who Francona believes will be an every day player, and Hinds have less than a year of experience. They have options remaining.
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