The Cincinnati Reds snapped a five-game skid Sunday afternoon in Milwaukee, edging the Brewers 4-3. Then came the bigger revelation: after the game, Gordon Wittenmyer of the Cincinnati Enquirer reported that Nick Krall said he expects himself, the front office staff under him, and the manager to all return for the 2027 season.
Krall didn’t try to push the blame anywhere else. He said the failures of the 2027 season are “on him,” pointing out that he’s the president of baseball operations and oversees everything.
That backdrop makes the whole conversation around 2027 a messy one. Cincinnati does have a small group of difference-making players who are 25 and under, but once you get past that core, there isn’t much on the roster that screams long-term help.
Tyler Stephenson is headed for free agency. The rotation behind Chase Burns has been a disaster this season.
The bullpen has produced a few bright spots, but it has also been packed with arms that haven’t gotten the job done, and relievers can be volatile from year to year anyway. The Reds are also one of the worst-hitting teams in the league.
In the minors, there’s some talent worth mentioning, but not much that feels like a clear answer for 2027.
There may be money to work with this offseason. Cincinnati has expiring deals on several players, money coming off the books for Jeimer Candelario, and the club is not expected to pick up the option on Eugenio Suarez.
But even that comes with a catch. The Reds usually wait and wait before dipping into free agency, often trying to scoop up leftovers later in the offseason.
This year could be even tougher if the expected lockout happens, the one Rob Manfred referred to a year ago when he said the owners would use an offseason lockout as leverage. If that drags on, teams and players won’t be able to talk until a new collective bargaining agreement is in place.
And if that turns into a real standoff, the whole market could get chaotic once spring training starts. Players could be showing up without knowing the rules or what the new CBA means for team finances, and that kind of free-for-all would be a brutal setup for a club that likely needs a major roster overhaul.
Krall has been the top baseball decision-maker in Cincinnati since taking over from Dick Williams after the 2020 season. In that stretch, the Reds are 457-502.
They finished above .500 in 2021 at 83-79, in 2023 at 82-80, and in 2025 at 83-79. They also lost 100 games in 2022, only the second time that’s happened in franchise history.
Right now, the Reds sit at 70-79 with 13 games left.
Since the start of 2021, nine teams have posted worse records than Cincinnati. Matt Wilkes, who used to write for Redleg Nation, noted that eight of those nine clubs fired their top baseball executive and replaced him. The Pirates are the only exception.
With the season going nowhere, a lockout looming, and Krall’s comments now public, the season-ticket sales staff at Great American Ball Park probably has its hands full. Trying to sell fans on paying now for 2027 Cincinnati Reds baseball is a tough ask.
In Other News...
Reds Rotation Has A Problem That Goes Beyond Injuries
The Reds have spent much of 2026 trying to patch together a starting rotation that has been hit hard by injuries to Hunter Greene and Nick Lodolo, but the trouble goes deeper than simply missing names on the injury report. Even with Chase Burns giving them a bright spot, the group as a whole has not resembled a rotation that can consistently carry a staff through games and keep Cincinnati in control deep into the night.
The numbers point to a more troubling issue: the Reds have been near the bottom of the league in two-strike strikeout rate, opponent OPS with two strikes and average exit velocity in those counts. In other words, even when pitchers get ahead, they are not finishing at-bats often enough, and hitters are still doing damage in spots where the advantage should belong to the pitcher. [Read more 🡒]
Reds Pitching Collapse Is Making Brewers Dominance Even Harder To Watch
The Reds keep finding new ways to make a bad stretch look worse, and the latest chapter came in Milwaukee. Cincinnati has been outscored 34-1 in recent games, capped by a 20-0 loss to the Brewers that went down as the worst shutout defeat in franchise history. Even with Matt McLain scratched and Ke'Bryan Hayes and Juan Brito making defensive adjustments, the Reds could not stop the bleeding, and the sight of the division leader pulling away has only made the slide sting more.
Saturday brought a different kind of frustration, with the offense showing some life in a 13-9 loss while Hunter Greene had a rough outing and Eugenio Suarez went deep. The problem for Cincinnati is that one spirited night at the plate does little to change the bigger picture as the club approaches elimination from playoff contention. Chase Burns is lined up for the next start, and the Reds are trying to stabilize things before the seasons final stretch gets away from them entirely. [Read more 🡒]
Reds Pitching Collapse Just Hit An Alarming New Low
A bad stretch can usually be explained away by one rough inning, one untimely error or one tired bullpen night. What the Reds are living through right now is something far more alarming. Their 13-9 loss to the Brewers on Wednesday extended a historic collapse on the mound, with Cincinnati getting rocked again after a pair of blowouts had already sent the staff into dangerous territory. Brady Singers outing only added to the damage, as he lasted four innings and gave up eight runs while the Brewers kept piling on.
The bigger issue is the scale of the damage, which now feels impossible to ignore in the context of a season that still has plenty of baseball left. Milwaukee put up a franchise-record 33 runs across two games against the Reds, a jarring number even by the standards of a bad week. Cincinnati has to find a way to stop the bleeding soon, because the rotation and bullpen are no longer just struggling - they are making the wrong kind of history. [Read more 🡒]