CINCINNATI – In a trade that partly addressed their need to add offense, the Reds acquired second baseman/outfielder Gavin Lux from the Dodgers on Monday.

Cincinnati is sending Los Angeles its Competitive Balance Round A pick (No. 37 overall) and outfield prospect Mike Sirota (No. 14 on Reds' Top 30).

TRADE DETAILS
Reds get: 2B/OF Gavin Lux
Dodgers get: Competitive Balance Round A pick and outfield prospect Mike Sirota

The 27-year-old Lux, who is under club control for two more seasons, batted .251/.320/.383 with 2.1 WAR, 10 home runs and 50 RBIs over 139 games for Los Angeles last season. A left-handed hitter who throws right-handed, he primarily played second base in 2024 but has also logged time at shortstop, left field and center field since debuting in 2019.

“He’s a guy with really good upside," Reds president of baseball operations Nick Krall said. "Even with where he is now, he still has some room to run to get better.”

An ACL tear in his right knee cost Lux the entire 2023 season and could have contributed to his slow start in '24. His second-half performance was much improved as he batted .304 with an .899 OPS and seven homers over his final 61 games.

Lux brings postseason experience with 71 playoff at-bats in his time with Los Angeles. During the Dodgers' run to a 2024 World Series championship he batted .177 (6-for-34) with one homer, but his eighth-inning sacrifice fly in Game 5 of the World Series tied the game before Mookie Betts drove in the winning run.

With Betts expected to move back to the infield next season, Tommy Edman signing an extension and the addition of Hyeseong Kim last week, the Dodgers had an excess of infielders.

“We talked about it a couple of weeks ago. We knew he was available," Krall said. "We knew they were trying to get somebody else. We talked about it internally. We kept tabs with them. It came about [in] the last probably handful of days, mostly since they signed [Kim].”

What remains to be seen is which position Lux might play for the Reds. Cincinnati already dealt second baseman Jonathan India to the Royals for starting pitcher Brady Singer in November to make way for Matt McLain to return after he missed all of 2024 with a shoulder injury.

“If you looked at our team last year, people argued that we had too many infielders to begin the year," Krall said. "Obviously, that didn’t play itself out. We were last in WAR at third base, first base and DH. We look at [Lux] as a guy that’s going to play second base, play some outfield and DH some in Spring Training. We’ll also give him a look at third and short and see where it is, see where he is defensively with all those positions. We think that he’s a quality left-handed hitter that just lengthens our lineup out.”

McLain did get some playing time in center field during a stint in the Arizona Fall League after the season. The Reds have corner infielders in Jeimer Candelario, Noelvi Marte and Christian Encarnacion-Strand – with all of them enduring poor performances during 2024 – and utility infielder Santiago Espinal. Of course, they also have All-Star shortstop Elly De La Cruz.

Krall did not rule out more moves to improve the Reds' lineup.

“If we can add somebody to better our club, we’re going to look at it," he said.

Finances will certainly play a role in what Cincinnati can do transaction-wise in the next month before Spring Training opens. There is still some limited flexibility with the payroll.

“We’ve got a little bit, not a ton," Krall said. "We’re just kind of working through that now. Trading the Draft pick saved us some money there as well, instead of trading the prospect and picking the player, which we could help put into the Major League payroll as well.”

The Lux acquisition was the second trade of the day for the Reds, who also got right-handed pitcher Owen White from the Rangers for cash considerations. To make room on the 40-man roster, right-handed reliever Roansy Contreras was designated for assignment.