The Cincinnati Reds do not often earn themselves a reputation as big spenders. Their biggest free agent handed out in the last offseason was a $5 million deal given to David Hernandez, and the biggest one issued the year before was $3 million given to Drew Storen. They’ve spent a lot on the draft in recent years, but that has more to do with the fact that they’ve lost a mountain of games tall enough to land them the most-hyped teenage prospect since Bryce Harper than anything else.
In the international signing period of 2016-17, though, the Reds were big spenders.