Nick Krall’s latest public defense of Chris Valaika has only sharpened the spotlight on the Cincinnati Reds’ bigger problem: the organization’s process has been broken for years, and the blame doesn’t sit on one person’s shoulders.
Krall has taken plenty of heat for the Reds’ failures, not just in 2026, but over the last several seasons. After sneaking into the playoffs in 2025, Cincinnati’s collapse in 2026 hit hard, especially because the club still had a talented young core. The issue, as the criticism has gone, was Krall’s inability to build a real supporting cast around it.
That’s why his recent comments landed the way they did. The Reds’ president of baseball operations defended Chris Valaika, the club’s heavily criticized director of hitting and major league hitting coach, while also acknowledging the roster didn’t line up with the hitting approach.
"We brought in players that didn’t necessarily fit that [contact hitting] philosophy," Krall said. "We need to make sure we give those guys better players for them to develop.”
Krall has a point. Cincinnati added players like Eugenio Suárez and JJ Bleday, both power bats with plenty of swing-and-miss in their games. Those aren’t the types who are going to post high batting averages every year, and that raises the obvious question: if Valaika’s preference was contact, why were those the kinds of hitters Krall brought in?
The answer seems to be that the Reds were operating with a shoestring budget and couldn’t afford to be too selective. Bleday was coming off a down year, while Suárez was coming off a poor second half with the Seattle Mariners. Both were buy-low options with upside, which is why they came at relatively cheap rates.
Still, that doesn’t erase the other side of the equation. Good coaches adjust to the talent they have instead of trying to force the roster into a rigid system. In this case, Valaika didn’t make that work.
If contact was supposed to be the identity, the results were brutal. The Reds finished last in the majors in batting average at .229 and strikeout rate at 25.5%.
Situational hitting was another supposed priority, and that also fell apart, with everyone not named Sal Stewart failing to deliver. Missing on the secondary goals is one thing. Failing at the core ideas behind the approach is something else entirely.
The Reds are keeping Valaika, just as they’re keeping Krall in place, even with fans unhappy about it. But Krall’s own comments have pushed the issue back onto his desk. He pointed out the flaw himself, and now both he and Valaika are under the same pressure: produce, or the questions only get louder.
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Reds May Need A Surprising Sal Stewart Shift To Fix The Lineup
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One path gaining traction would send Sal Stewart back to third, a position he has played before, and let the Reds address first base elsewhere. That approach fits the reality of a market that does not offer many obvious impact options, especially if Cincinnati wants to avoid overpaying in free agency or surrendering too much in a trade. With the farm system not stacked enough to solve everything on its own, the Reds could end up finding that the cleanest answer is the one that looks a little unexpected. [Read more 🡒]