Cincinnati Reds Making Any Changes After Nick Krall & Brad Meador Address Media? Reds Rumors & News

Cincinnati Reds Making Any Changes After Nick Krall & Brad Meador Address Media? Reds Rumors & News

Let’s transition to a little Cincinnati Reds talk here on the show. So Nick Crawl, Brad Meadow, president of baseball operations, Crawl and Meet the GM, uh met with the media, kind of had their, you know, press conference of kind of putting a wrap, putting a bow on the 2025 season and turning the page to 2026. And you know, I sat up here and I celebrated the fact that the Cincinnati Reds were able to make the postseason. Obviously, they got spanked by the Dodgers, but look, the Phillies are getting spanked by the Dodgers right now, too. The Dodgers are just really, really good. In case, um, you guys did not know that, but um, you know, a lot of other people, you know, that do this maybe were saying, you can’t just be saying it’s a success that the Reds made the playoffs. I pushed back on that. I was like, look, look where this team has been over the course of the past few years. First year with Frank Cona, young core, they made the postseason against all odds. They deserve a lot of credit for that and they deserve to celebrate that. And that’s certainly what they did um on the evening of game 162 in Milwaukee. But you can’t just bank on this team rolling it back with the same guys and they’re all going to take a step in the right direction and that’s going to allow us to be competitive in the postseason and perhaps pick up a victory in the first series in which you play. You can’t do that. And I said that and based on some of the comments from Brad Meadow and some of the comments from Nick Crawl, it leaves you scratching your head and it leaves you a little bit concerned to be completely honest with you. Also, all the coaches are invited back. Everybody on Frank Kona’s staff who obviously lots of elements of that staff is really just David Bell’s staff. Um, you know, I I think some changes need to be made, right? Chris Fleica, he’s going to stick around as the hitting coach. Is it fair to always just sit there and say, “Well, the Ben the Reds couldn’t hit the baseball well. Fire the hitting coach.” Maybe not, but I would have liked to see a change there, right? You’re just going to run it back with Valleica after how bad and putrid you were offensively. I don’t think that’s necessarily the right call, but you know, I mean, Calgill, you want to keep him at first base, Jar House at third. I, you know, I’m not going to be up in arms about that and throw some big fit about it. Um, Freddy Benvdes as the bench coach. I think that, that’s awesome. You need him to stick around. I think the world of Freddy Benvdes and then, uh, obviously Brad Mills, uh, Terry’s buddy, will be back there as well. So, um, I would have liked to see a change, you know, there. It’s like, you know, just rolling it back with Valake. I don’t love it, but you know, whatever at this point, right? Whatever. We’ll see. But um there was some um you know, other comments that were a little bit more um of an issue for me. And it seemed like um you know, they were just kind of banking on all those guys taking the next step and that was kind of going to be their plan. He said um you know, Brad Meer said, “Intally some guys need to step up. We need guys to have good off season, show back up, ready to go, um ready to take that next step.” We all know we need to take that next step. Part of that part of that is leadership. Some of the young guys aren’t young anymore. That’s fair. Need some additions. Can’t just roll it back with these same guys. I think most of the pieces are in place for what this team is going to look like. And there’s going to be a few pieces um that certainly um are up for grabs here at this point. You know, Spencer Steer is going to be back. Mlan, Ellie, Key Brian, Noelvie, TJ Fredel, um Lux and Stevenson. I think those guys are going to be back. Obviously, South Stewart, we’ll see what he’s able to do with a full season, assuming he’s probably gonna make the roster, right? Um he’s probably gonna break camp with the team, I would assume. We’ll see what he’s able to do as he got some valuable, very valuable experience. Last year, um you got a rotation that’s in place. Green, Lollo, Abbott, um Singer, Burns, and then Rhett Lauder who’s in the Arizona Fall League, the only guy for the Reds that is. There’s some arbitration stuff with those guys, but I I don’t anticipate um there being any issues um there with that. I I think the guys that I just mentioned probably will be back with this team, but there are some free agents and there are some needs for this Reds team. Ailio Pagan, free agent. Nick Martinez, free agent. Latell Andum are the biggest ones that stand out. Austin Hayes as a mutual option. Um, which typically doesn’t get picked up by both sides. So, we’ll see. I mean, Terry loved him. Tito loved him. Austin Hayes, I’m not quite sure he’s going to be back. Maybe he wants to come back. I don’t know. Um, and then the Reds do have options on Scott Barlo and Sudtor there as well. Um, they talked about Fredo a little bit. Uh, did he regress a little bit in the field? Maybe. Um, his sprint speed went down a little bit, so his range wasn’t as good as it was in previous years in center field. He’s still a solid player and they echoed that those sentiments in the the press conference. Look, you know, understanding it’s a small market and understanding the budget that the Reds are going to have to work with, which isn’t that much. Obviously, I think Fredo, you can roll him back in center field. He can be your lead off bat. You can win with him. Can you win a world championship with him? I I don’t know. But can you compete in the postseason with TJ Fredel? I think so. Right. And it wasn’t like a glaring like, oh, he got really slow out in the outfield. I don’t think that was necessarily the case um with TJ Fredle. So, I I expect him to figure out, you know, what exactly his salary is going to be going forward and then he’ll be back with the Cincinnati Reds here at this point. But, um, you know, from a rotation standpoint, you feel good about the names I mentioned, but there’s kind of a sneaky, you know, like are you going to have all those guys healthy? Obviously not, right? Especially, you know, with Alo who can’t stay healthy and Hunter Green can’t stay healthy either. Then you have the questions with Abbott. Can he produce for you at the end of the year? I think as time goes on, it’ll continue to get better and better at that, but you probably need to consider bringing in another starting pitcher there as well. That’s something that you need to possibly address if you’re the Cincinnati Reds. Um, you know, bullpen, that’s going to that’s going to look different there as well. You know, the really only locks for the bullpen here at this point, I think, are Santion and Graham Ashcraft. Thought Tito Franka did a tremendous job with the bullpen. And I thought Brad Meter and Nick Crawl did a phenomenal job with the bullpen this past year, but they’re going to have to tweak that and do some more work and understand, you know, who are some of the guys that are going to be back there in that bullpen and who they’re going to add in that bullpen. Because with the Reds, and you could say this about all professional baseball teams, I totally understand that. But for the Reds in particular, when you know they’re not going to be able to get ton of crazy bats that can deliver a ton of power firepower, the bullpen needs to be solid. It was solid this past year. They can’t afford to take a step backwards as it relates to the bullpen. We’ll see what their plan is. um in place for that. Um they they asked about Ellie and if he could move to the outfield and Nick Crawl basically put the kibos on that saying at this point um you know they’re rolling back with him at shortstop and um you know we we’ll have this argument I’m sure throughout the entirety of the offseason. Chatbox Reds will certainly continue to discuss it. Um you know everybody oh should play the outfield and I get it right. He’s got a howitzer for an arm. He’s got incredible range. You’d think on paper that it would make sense for him to try to go out there. They still have belief in him at shortstop and crawl and midter were very, you know, transparent saying he’s got to make the routine plays a little bit more often than he did. He certainly struggled defensively and they pointed to the fact um that he was a little fatigued is what um Nick Crawl said and they’re going to have to manage Ellie a little bit different going forward. I mean basically, you know, you had kind of a revolving door of guys that were checking in at different positions, bouncing around, platooning guys, what have you. Ellie de la Cruz was out there every day, right? Basically, he was out there pretty much every day for the Cincinnati Reds. Um, as a young player, I that I don’t think there’s an issue with that, but um, according to FA, uh, Meteran Crawl, um, he was a little bit too fatigued and maybe that impacted his performance at the end of the year. I don’t know. We’ll see. Um, I want my best players out there all the time. It’s baseball. He’s a young guy. This isn’t an old guy. He’s a kid and he’s got great energy and great um, you know, great gas tank, right? And he’s in great shape. So, I would like to see him more times than not, but uh it looks like the plan for him is to stay um at shortstop, which I’m sure people will have their different opinions on that. Um and then the DH position is very interesting. Ever since the DH became a thing where the pitcher stopped hitting, uh the Reds have always kind of rotated guys in and out of that spot. And there’s some teams across the league that do that and have success and there’s some teams that roll out the same guy as the DH every single day. Um might be who are the Reds to do that? I I maybe I would like to see a bit of a philosophy switch at that DH spot. Go out there and get a bat that can perhaps um you know make some noise for you, hit the ball over the fence and have him be your DH, right? And not just kind of switch out that spot. Gavin Lux is not a DH, right? Oh, here comes DH. Gavin Lux. I don’t think anybody’s shaking at their boots when it comes to that. Gavin Lux was solid for you this year. I’m not banging on Gavin Lux, okay? But I I think maybe need to rethink that position a little bit and try to find a guy that can go out there and put the ball over the fence. And then we’ll talk names obviously um names that could perhaps be available. Um you know Anthony Santon Dair was a guy that a lot of people wanted coming into this year. He ends up going to Toronto. Could you perhaps land him a Tyler O’Neal type of player certainly possesses um lots of power. The name Jesse Winker has been floated around. I I got no interest in that. um you know that ship has sailed um as far as I’m concerned. Appreciate Winker for all he did for the Reds, but I’m ready to move on there at that point. But um there are some holes basically that need to be filled on this team. There’s obviously a power bat that needs to be attained and I think there’s some tweaks that you need to make to your pitching as well and some more depth um at that spot. But you know, having Chase Burns, having Rhett Lauder, that certainly is very very uh promising, but you’re going to lose some guys in the pen there as well. Zack Latell um you know, he he was a great pickup for you at the deadline. Did you want him out there in a do or die game against the Dodgers? Could have looked brilliant, right? He had an opportunity to look really brilliant there for a little bit and then Tito obviously left him in the game a little bit too long there. Um, but I would be surprised if he’s back. Same with Martinez. Surprised if you know he’s back with the team. So, you’ve got some new pieces to fill and I think you need to do that again. Based on some of their opening comments, it was like ah, you guys just kind of want to run this thing back because that’s not going to be good enough. Maybe you’ll be able to sneak into the playoffs again, but they’re not gonna be a threat to win. You need more offense and you need more bats. And I’m not the biggest analytic guy, but you need to sit there and look at the numbers and go, “Okay, this guy can hit the ball over the fence. Let’s try to get him in a Cincinnati Reds uniform. We’ll see um if this front office is capable of doing that.” Again, they kind of got their, you know, one one hand tied behind their back, so to speak, a little bit um with the budget, which they’re operating with. Um Meet and Crawl said they’re kind of laying that out here at this point. And um you know, we’ll see exactly how much they can spend here this off seasonason, but need to make um a couple of moves and need to get a bat if somebody I mean, you’re playing a hitter friendly ballpark. You got nobody that can hit the ball out of the stadium or out of the you know, put it in the seats. Nobody can do that. And um you know, unfortunately, I think you thought CES could be that guy for you and then he couldn’t even stay on the big league roster because he just wasn’t producing at a high enough level. Um I still think the Reds as an organization have some belief in him. I mean, the power’s there, right? Look, if CES could, you know, not strike out as much and, you know, be a little bit better on defense, you know, he could be a guy that, you know, comes in there and hits, you know, 30 plus bombs for you and that could certainly help. But, um, he he hasn’t been consistent enough and obviously that’s why, um, he wasn’t with the big league team and obviously wasn’t healthy enough either through stretches there as well. But um heads scratching comments some certainly and you know we’ll see ultimately the direction that the Reds go here this off seasonason because obviously need to make some moves.

The Cincinnati Reds have made a decisive move to retain manager Terry Francona and his entire coaching staff for the 2026 season, signaling confidence in the group that led them to an 83-79 record and a Wild Card berth in 2025. Francona, hired in October 2024 after David Bell’s exit, brought a blend of seasoned allies and Reds holdovers, fostering a culture of grit and growth that revitalized a young roster. The decision to keep the staff intact reflects a belief that continuity will propel the Reds deeper into the postseason after a swift Wild Card loss to the Dodgers.

Francona’s staff, a mix of experience and familiarity, includes bench coaches Brad Mills and Freddie Benavides, both trusted confidants from his Cleveland days. Mills, a former Astros manager, brings strategic depth, while Benavides sharpens infield defense. Pitching coach Derek Johnson, who has molded Hunter Greene and Nick Lodolo into rotation anchors, remains a cornerstone. Hitting coach Chris Valaika, a Reds alum, has elevated stars like Elly De La Cruz, whose 25 homers and 67 steals defined 2025. First base coach Collin Cowgill, third base coach J.R. House, and bullpen coach Matt Tracy complete the lineup, their player-first approach resonating with a clubhouse hungry for success.

This retention bucks the MLB trend of post-playoff shakeups, prioritizing stability over flash. Francona’s leadership—marked by direct player engagement and a no-nonsense style—has rebuilt trust in Cincinnati, where fans crave sustained relevance. With a payroll expected to hover around $115 million, the Reds aim to bolster their outfield and bullpen, leaning on this staff to integrate new talent. Francona’s 2,000th career win in 2025 was a milestone, but his focus is forward: a deeper October run. In 2026, this cohesive unit isn’t just back—it’s poised to transform Great American Ball Park into a postseason fortress.

#Reds #CincinnatiReds #TheStoneShieldsShow