Nick Krall's biggest offseason mistake is on full display during Reds spring training

You can’t really fault Cincinnati Reds President Nick Krall for the team’s ineptitude at third base last season. After all, everyone thought that the third baseman of the future had arrived. Then, Noelvi Marte tested positive for PEDs and was hit with an 80-game suspension.

The former top prospect has never been the same. So much for the future. However, it’s been more than a year since those events went down, and Krall has done little to address the hot corner.

Nominally, Gavin Lux, Jeimer Candelario, and Santiago Espinal are fighting for the starting job at third base. But do any of those names inspire confidence? Sure, Espinal has been hot this spring, but he, and Marte formed the worst third base contingent in baseball, recording -3.8 wins above average. Lux’s services are just as needed in the outfield as they are at third. Candelario will see time at DH and first. That’s way too many moving parts and too many players with a history of underperforming.

Reds' failure to address the hole at third base should fall at the feet of Nick Krall

Krall didn’t have an easy job this offseason. The market for third basemen was fairly thin, and after Alex Bregman, at whom the Reds had no shot, the value fell off substantially. Still, Gio Urshela and Yoán Moncada were out there and able to be signed for a relatively small fee.

While neither of those players are flashy, they both would provide consistency at the position, and if Moncada bounces back and stays healthy, both would be an upgrade over the existing options on the Reds. They both signed one-year deals, which would have helped bridge the gap to third base prospect Cam Collier's projected debut in 2026.

But, of course, the Reds didn’t travel this path. Maybe they were too focused on dealing for Luis Robert Jr. Instead, Krall and Co. decided to construct a roster with positional flexibility and platooning.

Reds manager Terry Francona could conceivably trot out a different lineup every night and mix and match to his heart’s content. There could be virtue in this jack of all trades approach. But too often, we forget that phrase ends with “master of none.”

More Cincinnati Reds News and Rumors