Emilio Pagan enjoyed a superb campaign in 2025. Finishing the regular season with a 2.88 ERA, along with career-highs of 70 games and 32 saves, the closer played a key role in helping the Reds qualify for the postseason for the first time since 2020.The veteran's impressive performances were rewarded on Dec. 3, as he signed a two-year, $20 million deal to continue his stint in Cincinnati.Speaking to MLB Network Radio on Friday, Pagan commended the quality of his teammates, claiming the Reds' pitching staff has what it takes to be the best in baseball, despite being quite young."I think we're looking forward to going out and trying to be the best pitching staff in baseball," Pagan said. "I think stuff wise, we can compete with anybody across the game. Obviously on the experience side, we're not going to be able to compete with that, because of how much of our staff is young guys, you referenced Chase Burns. We got Rhett Lowder coming back, who was huge for us in '24, down the stretch."The rest of our staff, even though they're more veteran than those guys, they're all still pretty young, with HG (Hunter Greene) and (Andrew) Abbott and Dolo (Nick Lodolo). You know, Brady Singer, being the veteran was huge for us last year in our rotation. But as far as the pitching staff as a whole goes, I think we know how talented we are, and I think there's a lot of guys that are starting to come into their own, myself included. We're just excited to see what we can do for this franchise, and hopefully do something special."Reds POBO reacts to Emilio Pagan's new dealA day after Emilio Pagan signed his new deal, Cincinnati Reds president of baseball operations Nick Krall spoke to the press."It was our No. 1 choice to bring him back," Krall said. "We had to figure out what our payroll and budget was. We started working on it from there.""Coming back and having a closer...this guy is going to be our closer...come into the year and then be able to fill out the rest of the bullpen, that's huge. It's great to have this done."Emilio Pagan - Source: GettyEmilio Pagan's contract also allows him to opt-out after 2026.