Cincinnati Reds trade Jonathan India to Kansas City Royals for pitcher Brady Singer

The Reds move their former Rookie of the Year to address their rotation.

The 2017 University of Florida baseball program brought home the first College World Series title in school history, and did so on the backs of future Cincinnati Reds Jonathan India and Mark Koloszvary.

While the position player group on that roster was stellar, they also featured a trio of arms who would eventually find their way to big league rosters in Jackson Kowar, Alex Faedo, and Brady Singer. Singer would join India, in particular, as 1st round picks in the 2018 MLB Draft, with India going 3rd overall to the Reds and Singer off to the Kansas City Royals with pick #18.

So, there’s some interesting history between these two, who were swapped for one another by the clubs that drafted them on Friday evening, with former Milwaukee Brewer Joey Wiemer heading to Kansas City as part of the deal, too. Anne Rogers of MLB.com helped relay the news on Bluesky.

As the Reds moved younger and younger around their deep, talented infield, it always seemed like India - who’ll earn $5 million in his penultimate year of team control - would be a player on the block despite his solid on-base ability atop their lineup. His defense was iffy, at best, and he’d missed a lot of time with leg injuries, and that paired with younger (read: cheaper) infield competition meant the rebuilding Reds probably would’ve shopped him earlier had the rest of their corps not fallen to injury and suspension.

With Matt McLain seemingly back and healthy nad Elly De La Cruz entrenched at shortstop, that left India on the trade block for a final time for the Reds, who were clearly seeking rotation help after injuries plagued their starters at the end of last season. Brandon Williamson and Julian Aguiar have already undergone Tommy John surgery and are out of the mix for 2025, while each of Hunter Greene, Nick Lodolo, Graham Ashcraft, and Andrew Abbott hit the shelf for extended periods with injuries of their own.

Enter Brady Singer, who’ll head to the Reds to help them round out their rotation. He logged career highs in both IP (179.2) and K (170) during a 2024 season in which he posted a 3.71 ERA, and he’s known as a mostly groundball-inducer who likely benefitted from the big confines he played in at Kauffman Stadium. How he’ll adjust to GABP remains to be seen, but with 150+ IP logged in three of the last four years, he’ll provide much needed inning-eating capability to a Reds rotation mix that lacks that - even Nick Martinez, who accepted the Qualifying Offer from Cincinnati, has never fired more than the 142.1 IP he logged last year in any big league season.

Singer will earn an estimated $8 million this year, which is also his penultimate year of team control.

It’s a deal that’s become more and more rare around the game of late, as it features no established big leaguer being dumped for either prospects or salary relief purposes. Rather, the Royals needed some on-base ability ahead of the thumpers in the middle of their should-be contending lineup and had arms to spare while the Reds had middle-infield depth with a great need for an arm. While we can debate the merits of whether India is ‘better’ than Singer, or not, the fact is both teams probably think the function of their overall active rosters is likely more improved now than it was when they woke up in the morning.