It’s Time for a Front Office Change in Cincinnati
How much time should someone in Nick Krall's position get to show they deserve to be kept around? That's the question the Reds need to answer.
“We’re trying to eliminate peaks and valleys,” were the words of Nick Krall, Cincinnati Reds president of baseball operations, when describing the Reds and their path forward back in 2022. A time in which the Reds were once again going through a rebuild, although the start and end date continues to become more blurry.
Krall and the Reds were in the middle of trading away productive players for younger prospects, as their success on the field was not aligning with their contract situation. In all honesty, it was the right move. The Reds needed to move off certain players and push forward with a different core, and I thought the need for that direction was clear.
However, tearing down is the easy part. Building back is the challenging part. The Reds moved the likes of Eugenio Suárez, Luis Castillo, Tyler Mahle, and others in order to stock their farm system and once again give fans the idea of the future being brighter than the present.
Yet, contracts failed, others were opted out of, and the Reds were left in the 75-to-83-win purgatory they exist in today. Good enough to keep you interested but not good enough to keep you invested.
The core the Krall has built is here. Not only are they here, they have proven to a comfortable extent what they will most likely be as players.
I won’t gaslight you into thinking the Reds have nothing. Elly De La Cruz, Chase Burns, Hunter Greene, and Sal Stewart are a fantastic starting point. But, building around that core is something the Reds need and what I do not have faith Krall can do.
Why It Is Time To Move On
When the Reds fired David Bell two seasons ago, the clock started ticking on Krall and the rest of his understudies. Right or wrong, like it or not, that’s how the sports world works. First is the “coach,” then it’s the front office. Blame can be placed on ownership, and they deserve it, but how often do we see owners blame themselves when they can fire the people making the moves?
The rosters Krall has constructed come with flaws. Missing on essentially every big contract from Mike Moustakas to Frankie Montas to Jeimer Candelario certainly did not help. Bringing back Eugenio Suárez is also looking like a flop.
The trades that were supposed to help propel the Reds netted Brandon Williamson, Chase Petty, Noelvi Marte, Spencer Steer, Christian-Encarnacion-Strand, Connor Phillips, and Edwin Arroyo – just to name a few of the prospects who were supposed to provide an impact.
Of those players listed, Encarnacion-Strand is no longer in the organization, four have a negative fWAR this season, and Steer leads the way with a 0.5 fWAR. While the book is not written on some of these players, especially Arroyo, I think it’s fair to say the expected impact will not be met.
Front office executives can have their titles changed, but ultimately their success will come down to the few big moves they make and if those moves pan out. The first wave of rebuild moves panning out the way they needed to is looking less and less likely.
Another defining moment of Krall’s tenure was acquiring third baseman Ke’Bryan Hayes at the 2025 trade deadline from an NL Central rival. A phenomenal glove who was one of the worst hitters two years straight coming to the Reds, along with his four more years and a fifth-year buyout on his contract. A move that was not huge money, but significant enough for a team like the Reds to be a legitimate risk.
Hayes was the worst hitter in Major League Baseball to start 2026, while also not grading out as the elite defender he was in years past, before hitting the IL without much of an update since.
How about Gavin Lux? The often-injured poor defender was coming off a 98 wRC+ season and was brought in for a comp pick and Mike Sirota. Lux finished with a 102 wRC+ and 1.4 fWAR in his lone season in Cincinnati, while Sirota is now a top-20 prospect in the game.
I could walk through each and every failed addition, but you know the story. Of course, there have been some positives. JJ Bleday had a fun month, Nathaniel Lowe has been solid, and Brady Singer had a good season. The issue with Krall’s “wins” is that they rarely keep the pace year over year or turn into long-term solutions.
Drafting and developing have also been an issue. The Reds have drafted near the top during his time, and they have hit on those picks, for the most part. Developing players outside of the top 10 picks has been more of a challenge. In order for a small market team to succeed, they need to excel at development, and the Reds do not meet that mark.
When Terry Francona was brought in, the idea was that the Reds would take a significant step. They were ready to compete. In year one, they won 83 games and snuck into the playoffs only to get swept. In year two, 2026, they are 41-48 and have the lowest fWAR of any team in the sport.
The roster construction has not been good enough. How long does someone in Krall’s position get to prove they should be kept around?
These jobs traditionally have a short shelf life without success, and Krall’s expiration date is coming up. There are pieces here to avoid another traditional rebuild, but the Reds need to put someone else in place before it is too late.
The Reds Have One More Chance
Like I said before, the Reds are not completely void of talent. In fact, they have two of the best young players in the sport in Elly De La Cruz and Chase Burns, with Sal Stewart not far behind.
The sad reality is the Reds are unlikely to have De La Cruz past his arbitration years, which kick in next season. That gives the team three years’ worth of Elly before he hits free agency or is traded beforehand.
Andrew Abbott has the same timeline. Nick Lodolo, Spencer Steer, JJ Bleday, Tony Santillan, Graham Ashcraft and others have two years or less. Regardless of what you think about these players, the Reds could be set for significant changes in the next three seasons. Do you trust the current front office to construct a winning team in that span?
Bringing in a new front office now would allow the Reds a couple of seasons before they have to make a franchise-altering move with Elly De La Cruz. Does it seem desperate? Yes, but that’s the situation the Reds have worked themselves into.
If 2026 is a wash, that gives you 2027, which could be an issue with the expiring CBA, and 2028 before talks surround trading Elly De La Cruz in his final year of team control.
If the Reds do not win a single playoff game during Elly’s time in Cincinnati, it is going to be hard to keep fans around. Joey Votto’s career did not coincide with much team success, and I imagine another star having none will take its toll on fans no matter how die-hard they are.
Simply keeping Krall and his team around and going through the motions of another copy-and-paste offseason where you give out a $16ish million AAV deal to someone who wouldn’t get it elsewhere, sign a few complimentary pieces, and make a couple of mid-level trades is not going to cut it.
Cincinnati has enough high-end players to demand more. They aren’t a team trying to find their first foundation piece to build around but instead a team trying to find the missing pieces to prove to those foundation pieces, and the fans, that there’s a higher goal than looking up at an 85-win mark and saying maybe next year.
Realistically, the Reds have three seasons after 2026 to win with this era of Reds baseball. The last thing you want is to be remembered as the team that didn’t do anything with Elly De La Cruz. Make the change, bring in a new front office, and give them a shot to salvage what is a rudderless organization at the moment.
Final Thoughts
A team looking to eliminate peaks and valleys has only eliminated peaks. Making the playoffs in 2025, as an 83-win team, can be something certain fans can use to combat the deserved negativity. If that is what you want to hold as your high mark, so be it.
I would like to believe a proud, historic organization would want more memorable moments in a 30-year span than a Jay Bruce home run 16 years ago to clinch a division or a Mets loss giving the Reds an opportunity to face the Dodgers.
Trust me, I don’t want to be negative. I want to be fair. To me, what’s fair is giving the players and fans a different option when the current one hasn’t worked for the past eight years.
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