The offseason is officially rolling, with multiple trades and signings hitting the market. The Cincinnati Reds have added to their bullpen, but their lineup remains essentially unchanged.
However, oftentimes, the solution to a problem can be found in-house, and with Cincinnati’s below-average offense looking for a boost in 2026, outfielder Will Benson can be the prime candidate to fix this problem.
Keys to Cincinnati Reds Outfielders’ Breakout Season
Benson’s Up and Down Career
At 27 years old, Will Benson’s career is still mainly unwritten, but so far, it has been a bumpy ride. The former Cleveland Guardians top prospect received a cup of coffee with them in 28 games before being shipped down south to Cincinnati. In those 28 games, Benson struggled massively, slashing just .182/..250/.200 for a .450 OPS and 33 OPS+. He struck out in 31.1% of his plate appearances and was vastly overmatched in his at-bats.
After donning a new uniform in 2023, Benson’s number soared. In 108 games for the Reds in 2023, Benson slashed .275/.365/.498 for an .863 OPS and 128 OPS+. It was a remarkable rookie season with plenty of highlight moments. Perhaps the most encouraging aspect of the year, however, was his strikeout rate, but not in the way that was expected. Benson still posted K% above 31% at 31.3%. This was slightly higher than his 2022 mark with Cleveland, yet Benson still managed the season he did despite going down on strikes so often.
It was obviously frustrating at the time, but also encouraging as he proved that he can be productive despite the strikeouts. The thought was that if he can be a mid- to high-800s OPS guy despite the strikeouts, his ceiling in the future will be extremely high, as strikeouts usually go down with experience.
Unfortunately, Benson fell victim to the sophomore slump in 2024, posting a -1.4 bWAR season despite a .650 OPS and an OPS+ of 76. On the surface level, 2025 was more of the same, although slightly improved, as Benson had a .708 OPS and 88 OPS+, but the underlying numbers show a whole different story.
Benson’s 2025 Metrics
In 2025, Benson played 90 games, accumulating just 253 plate appearances. It was an odd year for him as manager Terry Francona seemed to be particularly hard on his mistakes, punishing him by allotting playing time to other, less productive players. His .226/.273/.435 slash line was about the middle ground between his stellar rookie campaign and his down year in 2024.
Despite this, Benson recorded a career high 53.8% Hard-Hit%, which was over 11% higher than his 42.2% in 2023. His 92.4 Average Exit Velocity was 2.2 MPH higher than in 2023. He also hit line drives at around the same rate he did in 2023, with a 26.6 LD% in 2025 compared to 27.0% in 2023.
A big part of Benson’s struggles in 2024 was rolling the ball over for easy and unproductive outs. In 2025, he fixed that by pulling the ball just 32.5% of the time rather than 41.7% in 2024, and almost identical to his 31.9% in 2023.
Essentially, every important batted ball metric shows that Benson hit the ball just as well, and in certain areas, even better than in his impressive rookie season. It was just an unfortunate situation where he hit some bad luck and received spotty playing time.
He was even able to cut down on strikeouts, an aspect of his game that fans were most concerned about. His 39.7 K% in 2024 was unsustainable if he ever wanted to find routine playing time, and he answered all the questions by lowering it to 26.5% in 2025.
Benson’s 2026 Breakout Potential
It was a bit of an ugly season on the surface for Benson, but he is the Reds’ most significant and most obvious breakout candidate as long as the decision makers of the team recognize what they have in him. Had Benson logged 150 games with about 500 to 600 plate appearances, his final numbers would have rounded out to match his batted ball quality. In a 90-game and sub-300 plate appearances sample size, however, the stats often don’t match the metrics, which was precisely the case for Will Benson’s 2025 season.
2026 will be a big year for the Reds, and Will Benson should be a significant part of their quest to return to the postseason.
Main Photo Credits: Frank Bowen IV/The Enquirer / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images