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Last place. Last.
The Cincinnati Reds, despite roaring through the April with the narrowest of margins and jumping to 9 games over the .500 mark at one point, occupy last place in the National League Central division (and have for evrey single day since May 30th). They even own baseball’s
worst record since the start of the month of May, and things don’t seem to be trending at all in the right direction for a turnaround.
What do last place teams do during trade season? Well, if they’re at all informed, they deal away short-term parts that won’t be around the next time the team has a chance to win more games than they lose in hopes they can bring in pieces to help them down the road. That’s the definition of ‘rebuilding’ in the game of baseball, and ‘rebuilding’ is once again where the Cincinnati Reds find themselves this July.
The question is, do you trust this current front office to be at the helm, once again, for a rebuild? After all, Nick Krall was the guy in charge the last time this club went a-rebuilding back in 2022, and his hands are all over the roster they have right now that is, quite simply, nowhere near good enough to compete.
Krall, who has been in the Reds front office in some form or fashion since being hired by the club in 2003, currently sits as the president of baseball operations. He’s held that title since the end of the 2023 season after a successful (for this franchise, at least) 82 win season, yet he was ‘head’ of baseball operations starting after the 2020 season when Dick Williams stepped down.
Krall spearheaded the deal that sent Luis Castillo to Seattle for Noelvi Marte and Edwin Arroyo. His hands were all over the deal that send Sonny Gray away for Chase Petty, as well as shipping out Tyler Mahle for Spencer Steer and the since-DFA’d Christian Encarnacion-Strand. He dealt away Eugenio Suarez and Jesse Winker for Jake Fraley, Brandon Williamson, and Connor Phillips, and he’s the guy who was in charge when they tactically chose to acquire Ke’Bryan Hayes and the $36 million still owed to him from Pittsburgh just last year.
He’s been the guy in charge for six seasons and an overall record of 416-449. His clubs have never finished higher than 3rd in the NL Central in that time, have won zero actual playoff games (let alone an actual series), and he even gets to claim just one of the two 100 loss seasons in the franchise’s illustrious history.
You tell us – do you think the front office heads in charge right now should be the ones in charge again for this summer’s rebuild…or not?
