22. Mario Soto

Mario Soto’s professional baseball journey in Cincinnati began in the late 1970s, but it was the dawn of the 1980s when he matured instantly into a cornerstone of the franchise. He arrived with a "power-finesse" duality, relying on a heavy fastball and a devastating circle changeup that fell off the table just as hitters committed to their swing. He quickly evolved into a statistical titan, proving that his raw stuff was matched only by a fiery, high-stakes competitiveness. Between 1980 and 1985, he served as the tactical heartbeat of a staff that desperately needed his ability to miss bats and navigate deep into ballgames.

The absolute pinnacle of his career came in 1983, a season in which he was the undisputed ace of the staff and the runner-up for the National League Cy Young Award. Soto was an efficiency machine that summer, leading the league in WHIP (1.058) and proving to be a master of run suppression. He wasn't just a volume producer; he was a high-leverage nightmare for opposing hitters, twice leading the National League in strikeouts per nine innings and once in strikeout-to-walk ratio. Despite playing for a club that often struggled to provide him with adequate run support, he rattled off three consecutive All-Star selections and finished in the top ten of the Cy Young voting four times.

His identity was synonymous with a relentless, "never-back-down" mentality that occasionally boiled over into a fiery temper, a trait that kept him in the headlines as much as his sinking changeup. Soto spent his entire twelve-year career in a Cincinnati uniform, remaining a fixture in the Queen City through its various iterations. He concluded his run with exactly 100 wins and 1,449 strikeouts, a total that likely would have been much higher had his arm not shouldered such a massive workload during his peak years. Whether he was freezing a hitter with a backdoor heater or inducing a helpless swing on a changeup, he played with a visible passion that made him a local immortal.

Soto’s career wound down in 1988 after injuries finally sapped the "disappearing" life from his pitches. In recognition of his decade of dominance, the organization inducted Soto into the Cincinnati Reds Hall of Fame in 2001.