Brewers and Rays expose Reds’ tired small-market excuse with Nick Krall coming back

It's clear to most that the Cincinnati Reds need new leadership in the front office. Unfortunately, the club doesn't see it that way, and Nick Krall and the rest of his crew are expected back next season. But this group of decision-makers is out of excuses, especially after seeing the Milwaukee Brewers and Tampa Bay Rays clinch playoffs spots this past week.

The 2025 NL Wild Card Series between the Reds and the Los Angeles Dodgers felt like a David-and-Goliath type of matchup, but without the underdog success story. The deep-pocketed Dodgers had every advantage, it seemed, and their steamrolling of a Reds club that backed into the postseason felt like a logical conclusion.

Now, we're not going to lie and say that the Dodgers, New York Yankees, New York Mets, and other big-market behemoths don't have an advantage over Cincinnati. They most certainly do, at least when it comes to throwing cash around in free agency and absorbing big-money contracts via trade.

However, despite having less margin for error, the Reds' financial excuse has been exposed this season and has been proven not to hold water. That's because the Rays have clinched a playoff berth, and the Brewers have joined them as the first two teams to be guaranteed a spot in the October dance. Adding insult to injury, Milwaukee got there by embarrassing the Reds.

Per Spotrac, Cincinnati ranks 20th in payroll at $133 million. Tampa Bay comes in 23rd at just $107 million, and the Brewers come in one spot ahead of the Reds at $145.5 million.

The Reds should be embarrassed by the Rays and Brewers success

Let's be honest for a second. The Reds have the NL Rookie of the Year frontrunner in Sal Stewart, one of the game's best young starters in Chase Burns, and a true superstar in Elly De La Cruz. All three have yet to hit arbitration, or in the case of Burns, the terms of his extension.

The vast majority of Cincinnati's production has come from those three players, who are making a combined $2.3 million this season. The question then becomes: What has Cincinnati done with the rest of the $130 million they've spent this year? The answer: not that much.

The difference is that both the Rays and Brewers have a vision. They trade away assets right before they become pricey and use them to restock their pipelines. They maximize market inefficiencies to get players at a discount who have an outsized impact on win-loss record outcomes. And while it hasn't always worked out, both teams are willing to make bold moves, as evidenced by both pursuing Tarik Skubal at last year's trade deadline.

The Reds? Well, they do things like trade for Ke'Bryan Hayes and then use his salary as an excuse not to make needed upgrades.

Think about this: both the Reds and Brewers had young pitchers emerge as aces this year, with Burns and Jacob Misiorowski filling those roles, respectively. The difference is, Milwaukee traded away their former ace, Freddy Peralta, for a haul over the winter, whereas the Reds hung onto their presumptive ace, Hunter Greene, and for their troubles they got five mediocre starts in between elbow injuries and will be without the right-hander for the entirety of 2027.

The baseball operations departments in Milwaukee and Tampa Bay are willing to think outside the box, take risks, and go all-in on player development. Meanwhile, the Reds wring their hands over every penny spent, but then throw around money in a way that doesn't jive with the caution they purportedly must exercise.

In the end, that leads to an organization that wastes its limited resources, lags behind its peers, and lacks the necessary vision to succeed. The Reds' problem isn't the Yankees, the Dodgers, or the Mets. Instead, it's their only unwillingness to be intrepid and become cutting-edge thought leaders who prove that money only gets you so far, and that being bold within your means matters.

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