The Best Players in Cincinnati Reds History, Position by Position

By 4Baseball Staff · November 5, 2026 · 12 min read

An all-time Cincinnati Reds lineup, rotation and bullpen built from club career leaders, MVP winners and Hall of Famers, with the criteria spelled out and the close calls argued.

Cincinnati's professional tradition reaches back to the 1869 Red Stockings, and its current franchise has played since 1882. It also has an unusual problem when it comes to picking an all-time team: the best club in its history, the Big Red Machine of the 1970s, was so deep that choosing among its hitters means leaving out players who would start for most franchises. Pete Rose, the all-time hits leader, is not the obvious left fielder. Tony Perez, who drove in 1,192 runs for the club, is not the obvious first baseman. Fitting a franchise that has played since 1882 into nine lineup spots, five rotation spots and a bullpen means leaving good players out on purpose.

This article builds that team and shows the reasoning. The picks come from what the historical record can actually measure: career totals with the Reds only, awards, All-Star and Hall of Fame status, and the number of seasons a player spent in Cincinnati. It cannot measure wins above replacement, defensive value or park effects, so some of the arguments below are judgment calls, and I say where.

The rules for choosing

Five criteria decide ties, in this order. First, production while wearing a Reds uniform, not career totals; a Hall of Famer who spent four seasons in Cincinnati is judged on those four seasons. Second, longevity with the club, because an all-time team should reward people who carried the franchise for a decade or more. Third, peak recognition: Most Valuable Player awards, Cy Young Awards, Rookie of the Year honors. Fourth, championship context: the Reds have won five World Series, in 1919, 1940, 1975, 1976 and 1990. Fifth, position fit, because a lineup of nine left fielders does not field a game.

Two cautions apply to every pick. The historical record has no wins-above-replacement figure, so a shortstop's glove and a catcher's game-calling count only through awards and reputation. And eras are not directly comparable: Bid McPhee played second base from 1882 to 1899 without a glove of the modern kind, while Joe Morgan played in an era of artificial turf and expansion. When two candidates are close, I lean toward the player whose peak is better documented in the data on hand.

The table below is the finished lineup. Each choice is explained in the sections that follow.

Catcher: Johnny Bench is the easy call

Few positions at any franchise are settled this firmly. Johnny Bench is the Reds' career leader in home runs with 389 and in runs batted in with 1,376, and no other Reds hitter is close in RBI: Tony Perez is second at 1,192. Bench won the Rookie of the Year award in 1968 and the Most Valuable Player award in 1970 and 1972, and he spent his entire career, 17 seasons from 1967 to 1983, in Cincinnati. He is in the Hall of Fame.

The case against anyone else is that Bench was a catcher with the power numbers of a corner outfielder. A catcher who hits 389 home runs for one club while handling a pitching staff for 17 seasons is rare, and the Reds' World Series wins of 1975 and 1976 came with him behind the plate. Ernie Lombardi, the runner-up, deserves a proper mention: he hit .311 with the club (the fourth-best career average among Reds with at least 3,000 at-bats), won the Most Valuable Player award in 1938 and spent 10 seasons in Cincinnati before going into the Hall of Fame. Lombardi is the best hitter at the position before the war. Bench is the best catcher the franchise has ever had.

First base: Votto, with Perez and Kluszewski close

First base is crowded. Joey Votto played 17 seasons for the Reds, 2007 through 2023, and finished with 356 home runs, 2,135 hits, 1,144 RBI and 1,365 walks. That walk total is the club record, ahead of Pete Rose (1,210) and Bid McPhee (982). The Most Valuable Player award he won in 2010 is one of 12 won by Reds players, and it came in a season when Cincinnati won a division title.

Tony Perez is the man who gets crowded out. His 1,192 RBI trail only Bench in club history, he hit 287 home runs, and he was a Hall of Famer over 16 seasons in a Reds uniform. But Perez's value was as much about being the run-producer in the middle of the Big Red Machine as about posting a single standout season, and the DH slot lets him in without a fight. Ted Kluszewski, who hit 251 home runs for the club between 1947 and 1957 in the days before expansion and parks designed for power, completes the trio. Votto gets the glove for the better on-base record and a longer peak of walks, hits and doubles.

One honest caveat: Votto had not been elected to the Hall of Fame as of the 2025 season, so his case rests on the totals above and the 2010 award, not on a plaque.

Second base: Joe Morgan, with Bid McPhee waiting

Joe Morgan played only eight seasons for the Reds, 1972 through 1979, and still has an easy claim. He won back-to-back Most Valuable Player awards in 1975 and 1976, the two years Cincinnati won the World Series, and he stole 406 bases for the club, second in its history to Bid McPhee's 568. His 881 walks rank sixth among Reds career leaders. He is in the Hall of Fame.

The competitor, Bid McPhee, spent 18 seasons with the club from 1882 to 1899, collected 2,258 hits (fourth in club history), 1,684 runs and 568 stolen bases, and is in the Hall of Fame as well. Judged on longevity alone, McPhee wins. Judged on peak and on being the central player in the best team the franchise ever fielded, Morgan wins. McPhee played in the 1880s and 1890s, when the rules, the equipment and the length of the schedule were all different, so his totals are hard to set beside the other eight names. McPhee is the answer to who the franchise's first great star was. Morgan is the answer to which second baseman you want in a seventh game.

Shortstop: Barry Larkin over Dave Concepcion

This is the closest decision on the field. Barry Larkin played 19 seasons for the Reds, from 1986 to 2004, and is second in club history in hits (2,340) and third in runs (1,329). He stole 379 bases, third in the franchise record book, walked 939 times and drove in 960 runs. He won the Most Valuable Player award in 1995, a season in which Cincinnati won the division, and is in the Hall of Fame.

Dave Concepcion played 19 seasons as well, 1970 through 1988, and is third on the hits list with 2,326, only 14 behind Larkin. He had 993 runs and 321 stolen bases and played on all four of the pennant winners the Reds had with Sparky Anderson. The tiebreaker is a matter of how you value time. Concepcion's offense sat beside seven or eight other stars, and while he is a Reds legend, he never won an MVP award or reached the Hall of Fame. Larkin was the player the lineup was built around and the one with the plaque, and his 2,340 hits and 379 steals together are a rare package at a premium defensive position. Choosing Larkin means admitting that choosing against Concepcion is a defensible disagreement, not a clean verdict.

Third base: the weakest spot in the lineup

If any slot exposes the limits of an exercise like this, it is third base. The Big Red Machine moved Pete Rose and Tony Perez around the diamond, and no everyday third baseman from that era dominates the club record book. The best defensible name from the franchise's own history is Heinie Groh, who played for the Reds from 1913 into 1921. In the eight seasons from 1914 through 1921 he collected 1,211 hits and batted .320 in 1918, .310 in 1919 and .331 in 1921. He was on the 1919 team that won the World Series.

A fair reader can quarrel with this choice, and should. Groh was a good hitter by the standards of the dead-ball era, with almost no home-run power (26 in his whole career), and his totals do not stack up with those of the players at other positions. Scott Rolen spent four seasons with the club and is a Hall of Famer, and Chris Sabo won the 1988 Rookie of the Year award. Neither played long enough in Cincinnati to beat Groh on the longevity criterion, and both are candidates for the bench. If your idea of an all-time team is mainly about star power, put Rolen at third and know that the Reds only had him for four seasons.

The outfield: Rose, Roush and Robinson

Pete Rose is the franchise's hits leader with 3,358, and the career runs leader with 1,741. He is also second in walks (1,210) with the club and fifth in RBI (1,036). He won the Rookie of the Year award in 1963 and the Most Valuable Player award in 1973, hit .307 with the club (at least 3,000 at-bats, fifth best in team history) and played in the outfield, at second base, at third and at first during his years in Cincinnati. Putting him in left field on this team is a convenience: he has to be somewhere, and he is the reason the offense got on base ahead of Morgan and Bench. His 1989 agreement to a permanent ban from baseball is documented history; as of the 2025 season he is not in the Hall of Fame, and readers who want the current status should check the Hall's own site at https://www.baseballhall.org/.

In center field, Edd Roush posted a .331 average over 12 seasons with the club, the best career average among Reds with at least 3,000 at-bats and a Hall of Fame career. He belongs to the 1919 champions and to a generation when singles were the currency of the game. Vada Pinson (1,881 hits, 978 runs, 1958 through 1968) and George Foster (244 home runs, MVP in 1977) are the runners-up in the outfield, and Foster's bat is the best argument against Rose in left.

Right field is Frank Robinson's. He hit 324 home runs and scored 1,043 runs in only 10 seasons for the Reds, from 1956 to 1965, won the Rookie of the Year award in 1956 and the Most Valuable Player award in 1961, and is a Hall of Famer. His 324 homers rank third on the club list behind Bench and Votto, accumulated in a decade, a rate of production that is hard to match in any decade. Dave Parker, a Hall of Famer, spent four seasons with the club.

Designated hitter and bench

Tony Perez is the DH on this team, with a first-base glove available when Votto needs a day. His 287 home runs, 1,934 hits and 1,192 RBI over 16 seasons make him the most productive Red who does not have a regular position of his own. The bench is a roster of the next best: Lombardi at catcher, Concepcion at shortstop, Kluszewski at first, Foster and Pinson in the outfield, McPhee at second base, and Rolen at third.

It is worth noticing what the bench says about the Reds' history. Six of the 12 Most Valuable Player awards won in Reds uniforms went to players on the 1970s teams: Bench (1970, 1972), Rose (1973), Morgan (1975, 1976) and Foster (1977). That decade of dominance is the reason the first-team lineup has four men from it (Bench, Morgan, Rose and Perez) and the bench has two more (Concepcion and Foster), and the reason a fair argument could be made for flipping the whole selection to favor the Machine's regulars.

The rotation

The Reds have not produced a Cy Young starter often, so the pitching staff is built on volume and consistency. The five starters here are Bucky Walters, Paul Derringer, Eppa Rixey, Jim Maloney and Jose Rijo.

Eppa Rixey is the club's career wins leader with 179, won between 1921 and 1933, and is a Hall of Fame left-hander. He won 25 games in 1922 and 21 in 1925, and he did it in a hitters' era.

Paul Derringer won 161 for Cincinnati between 1933 and 1942, including 25 against 7 in 1939, when the Reds won the pennant. Bucky Walters won 160 and holds the club record with 32 shutouts. His 1939 was one of the best seasons by any pitcher in the franchise record: 27-11, a 2.29 earned run average and 319.0 innings, enough to win the Most Valuable Player award and the pitching Triple Crown. He won 22 games in 1940 as well, the year the Reds won the World Series.

Jim Maloney pitched for the club from 1960 to 1970. He won 134, struck out 1,592 (the club record) and threw 30 shutouts. His 1963 season, 23-7 with 265 strikeouts in 250.3 innings, is the standout of his career.

Jose Rijo struck out 1,251 batters for the club, has the fifth-best club ERA among pitchers with at least 1,000 innings (2.83), and won the World Series Most Valuable Player award in 1990. His 1993 line (14-9, 2.48, 227 strikeouts in 257.3 innings) was his best year in volume.

Honorable mentions: Johnny Vander Meer (1,251 strikeouts, 29 shutouts, and consecutive no-hitters in June 1938), Mario Soto (1,449 strikeouts, 1977 through 1988), Gary Nolan, Tom Seaver (six seasons) and Dolf Luque, whose 154 wins from 1918 to 1929 sit fifth in team history. Trevor Bauer won the Cy Young Award in 2020, but the data above gives no basis for a longer Reds case.

The bullpen

Saves are an unreliable measure across eras, because the role itself changed. The club leader is Danny Graves, who saved 182 games from 1997 to 2005, ahead of Francisco Cordero (150), John Franco (148) and Aroldis Chapman (146). On pure volume, Graves is the closer.

The Reds' relief tradition is better remembered by a group than a man: the 1990 bullpen of Rob Dibble, Norm Charlton and Randy Myers, called the Nasty Boys, and the 1970s relievers such as Pedro Borbon, who appeared in 531 games for the club, the most in franchise history, and Clay Carroll, with 119 saves. A fair all-time bullpen would use Graves as the closer, Dibble (88 saves) and Chapman as the power arms, Borbon as the workhorse and Carroll as the bridge to the late innings.

The manager

Sparky Anderson managed the Reds from 1970 to 1978 and won 863 games against 586 losses, the club record for wins and a winning percentage near .596. He won four pennants, in 1970, 1972, 1975 and 1976, and the World Series in 1975 and 1976. Bill McKechnie (744-631, 1938 to 1946) won the pennants in 1939 and 1940 and the World Series in 1940, and is the strongest alternative. Dusty Baker's 498 wins from 2008 to 2013 and Fred Hutchinson's 1961 pennant also deserve a note. Anderson gets the job on the record, not on reputation alone.

Overlaps, gaps and what the data cannot say

Three limits deserve plain statement. First, overlaps: Rose, Perez, Morgan, Bench and Concepcion were teammates, and the team's real strength was how each fit around the others. An all-time lineup that lifts one out of the 1975 team removes the context in which his numbers were produced. Second, era bias: 19th-century stars like McPhee and Tony Mullane played under different rules, with pitchers throwing from different distances and fielders without modern gloves, so counting stats compare badly. Third, defense and park: the historical record gives no wins above replacement and no defensive metrics, so Larkin and Concepcion are separated by the thinnest of margins and the data here cannot settle it.

A fair summary is that the top end of the Reds' history is as strong as almost any franchise's, and the real debate is not at catcher or second base but at third base and in the outfield. A reader who disagrees can use the stat calculator and the career leaders to rebuild the team under different rules.

Common questions

Who is the greatest Red ever? On the numbers, Johnny Bench has the strongest combination of peak and totals, with two Most Valuable Player awards and franchise records for home runs and RBI. Pete Rose's 3,358 hits make him the alternative.

Why is Pete Rose a debate at all? His 1989 ban from baseball makes some fans leave him off lists, but the numbers put him on this one.

How many Reds are Hall of Famers? The fact sheet counts 18 Hall of Fame players with four or more seasons in Cincinnati, including Larkin, McPhee, Bench, Perez, Rixey, Roush, Robinson, Lombardi and Morgan, among others.

Has a Red ever won the Cy Young Award? Trevor Bauer won it in 2020, the only Reds pitcher in the historical award data to do so.

Where to go next

For the full story behind these players, read the history of the Cincinnati Reds and the club's best seasons and October runs. The ballpark they play in is covered in the Great American Ball Park guide, and the divisional rivals are in the histories of the Pittsburgh Pirates and the Chicago Cubs. Current standings and the next game are on the Reds team page.