After last week’s reporting exposed how much interference has swirled around the Reds’ baseball operation, Phil Castellini stepped in on Thursday and tried to draw a cleaner line between ownership and the people actually making roster calls.
Cincinnati’s owner said he wanted to make clear he was fully backing the front office, and he put the point plainly: “We need baseball guys to make baseball decisions," Castellini said.
That matters because the latest round of reporting from The Athletic, by C. Trent Rosecrans and Ken Rosenthal, painted a messy picture inside the organization.
One of the biggest revelations was the extent of Bob Castellini’s influence over the years, including multiple trade ideas that were reportedly vetoed. That raised the obvious question hanging over Reds Country: how much control has Nick Krall really had?
Thursday’s comments suggest that the answer, at least going forward, is more control than he may have had before. If Castellini is serious about stepping back, then Krall and general manager Brad Meador are the ones who will be judged on the baseball side from here on out.
And that puts Krall on the spot.
Fans are left wondering how many trades were shot down, which players were actually on those lists, and whether any bigger names might have been in play if the front office had been allowed to operate without that kind of pushback. Those questions may never get answered publicly. What does matter now is what Krall does with the authority in front of him.
He’s already pointed to a few places to start. Cincinnati announced on Thursday that it parted ways with longtime pitching coach Derek Johnson, and Krall also said assistant hitting coach Will Remillard will not be back in 2027. He also stressed the need for the Reds to do a better job of signing mid-tier free agents.
Those are logical first steps, but they only scratch the surface. Turning a 75-win team into a playoff contender is a much bigger job, especially with an impending lockout looming.
For now, the message from ownership is clear. The baseball decisions are supposed to belong to the baseball people. The next move is on Krall.
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Reds Have A Bigger Lineup Problem Than Fans Realized
The Reds offensive issues in 2026 were deeper than a simple slump, and the numbers made that clear. Cincinnati finished 27th in runs scored even with a relatively high home run total, a sign the lineup could still leave the yard but often failed to string together the kind of production that actually turns power into innings and wins.
KeBryan Hayes became one of the clearest examples of how uneven the roster looked, turning in historically poor offensive numbers by modern standards. More broadly, the problem was one of construction as much as execution, with a collection of one-dimensional players who underwhelmed in different ways at the plate, in the field and on the bases, leaving the Reds with a lineup that never quite fit together. [Read more 🡒]
Reds Linked To A Cheap Upside Bet Worth Watching
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For a team like the Reds, that kind of background can be enough to merit a closer look. A minor-league deal with a spring training invite would fit the usual low-risk, high-reward lane for a player trying to reboot his value, and Cincinnati has every reason to keep tabs on that sort of opportunity as it looks for depth without blocking its better long-term bets. [Read more 🡒]
Reds Fans Should Be Worried Which Coaching Problem Still Remains
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But the more unsettled issue may be on the other side of the ball, where the offense has struggled under Director of Hitting Chris Valaika. No official decision has been made on his future, and that lingering uncertainty matters because the Reds biggest concern has not been pitching depth so much as whether the lineup can hold up its end. With one coaching question already answered, the offense now looks like the one still hanging over the club. [Read more 🡒]