The Cincinnati Reds’ offseason workload just got a lot more manageable with the decision by their top pitcher to return in 2025.

Swingman Nick Martinez, who produced a 2.42 ERA in 11 starts down the stretch after joining the rotation full-time, informed the team Monday he will forgo free agency and accept the team’s $21.05 million qualifying offer.

The deadline for players receiving QOs to accept or decline is Tuesday.

The Reds explored a two-year extension with Martinez before those talks fell short at the deadline for making the QO two weeks ago.

Sources say they don’t expect the sides to re-engage at this point in a process that potentially could lower the 2025 payroll hit in exchange for the extra years.

For now it makes Martinez the highest-paid Red on the 2025 payroll, one of six players under contracts for $57.3 million in combined salary. Team officials say they have a payroll budget similar to 2024, when they paid about $100 million in big-league salaries.

The Martinez decision means the Reds return intact their starting-pitching group that was the strength of their 2024 team – one of the better rotations in the league when healthy.

That group includes All-Star Hunter Greene (9-5, 2.75 ERA), left-handers Nick Lodolo (9-6, 4.76) and Andrew Abbott (10-10, 3.72), and top prospect Rhett Lowder, who went 2-2 with a 1.17 ERA in a six-start big-league debut in 2024.

Martinez, 34, also provides bona fide versatility to the staff and said late last season that he has gone from a mindset of wanting to show he belongs in a rotation to embracing his ability to pitch in multiple roles.

He had a 3.10 ERA overall in his lone season with the Reds, making 16 starts and 26 relief appearances (1.86 in relief), and was voted the team’s pitcher of the year by local baseball writers.

Martinez signed a two-year, $26 million deal a year ago that paid $14 million in 2024. He exercised an opt-out clause for the 2025 back end ($12 million).