Reds ownership should take their own advice, settle down, and cheer for the players

Cincinnati Reds president and chief operating officer Phil Castellini ruffled the feathers of the fanbase with his comments before the team's home opener on Tuesday afternoon. Why can't the ownership take some of their own advice, settle down, and be quiet?

Now, for those claiming that Castellini was threatening to move to the team, that's not what he said. While Castellini may have insinuated that the best way for the team to become more profitable would be to move it, he was more or less expressing his frustration at the lack of faith the fanbase has in the executives, front office, and ownership.

The Reds have not done a lot, especially recently, to instill much faith in the fanbase. After all, the team traded fan favorites Eugenio Suárez, Jesse Winker, and Sonny Gray this past offseason, and Wade Miley was allowed to go to a division rival for nothing.

While the return from those deals may eventually provide two quality starters in the next couple of years, you're not going to convince anyone in Reds Country that subtracting Gray, Geno and Winker from this year's team is going to improve the product on the field.

The Reds ownership would do well to just be quiet.

The one thing from Phil Castellini's conversation with Brandon Saho of WLW that rang true with me was when he asked, "Are you going to abandon being a Reds fan? Are you going to abandon following this team?" That's a rhetorical question, as Reds fans are nothing if not loyal to their team.

Not a single Reds fan is going to abandon their fandom. To use Castellini's words, "Where are they gonna go?" Reds Country isn't going to all of the sudden root for the St. Louis Cardinals or the Chicago Cubs. No one is going to all of the sudden become a fan of the Cleveland Guardians.

Castellini, who was obviously perturbed that fans would be so brazen as to question the ownership's commitment to winning, later advocated for everyone to settle down and cheer for the team. That's a great idea, and maybe Castellini needs to take some of his own advice.

So whatever the message was heard, what I mean is, stay loyal to your team and the players that give you 110% effort

Instead of going to war against the fanbase, perhaps the Cincinnati Reds ownership should have confidence in the plan that they've set forth and allow the players on the field to perform rather than hijacking the moment from them.

Whoever is in charge of public relations for the Reds needs to be fired. From Nick Krall's infamous, "aligning our payroll to our resources," to Phil Castellini's, "where are they gonna go," the fanbase has now taken its love of Reds baseball and turned into into vitriol toward the Reds ownership and front office executives.

We're five games into the 2022 baseball season, and topic of conversation should be centered around the major league debuts of Hunter Greene and Nick Lodolo. The fanbase should be talking about Jonathan India's pursuit of his first trip to the All-Star Game. We should be focused on Tony Santillan becoming a dynamitte weapon out of the bullpen.

Instead, the Reds ownership has openly questioned the fans commitment to the team and the fanbase has openly questioned ownership's commitment to winning. Maybe both sides need to set aside their frustrations and focus their attention toward the players on the field.