Reds' 2027 reset must include a change beyond just Nick Krall

The Cincinnati Reds' failure in 2026 ultimately falls on Nick Krall's shoulders. He's been with the club since 2002 and has had the top job on the baseball operations side since September 2023. He knows how things work within the organization and what the unique strengths and weaknesses of Cincinnati's market are. His fingerprints are all over this current roster as the Reds' principal architect.

Outside of the trio of Elly De La Cruz, Sal Stewart, and Chase Burns, very little value has been produced by Cincinnati's roster. Those three promising youngsters account for less than two percent of the Reds' payroll, proving that it's not the budget but rather how Krall has squandered the resources available to him that has held the team back.

This year might prove to be Krall's final one in the Queen City, and if the franchise moves on, the decision won't be without merit. At the same time, Krall's responsible for collecting the players, but beyond that, his impact is limited. There's plenty of blame to go around.

With that in mind, it's worth taking a look at the Reds' dreadful offensive performance in recent years and considering if, beyond Krall, there are others to blame. The person firmly in the crosshairs here would be hitting coach Chris Valaika.

Nick Krall might be on the way out, but Reds hitting coach Chris Valaika should join him

Valaika was Terry Francona's first hire when he took over in October of 2024, and over the last two seasons, the Reds have been near or at the bottom in most offensive categories.

While the Reds were typically below average in 2025, they've regressed to the point where they rank near the very bottom in nearly every metric, with the exception of homers. Cincy excels at the long ball, which is partly due to the hitter-friendly confines of Great American Ball Park.

In a way, though, the high homer total is an indictment because it shows the club has very little plan at the plate besides grip-it-and-rip-it, and the result has been an entirely one-dimensional offense.

These poor performances definitely lay at Krall's feet, but without much roster turnover on the offensive side of the ball, the year-over-year decline puts Valaika in a bad light.

What makes this worse is that the development of De La Cruz, whose in the midst of the best overall offensive season of his career, and the injection of Stewart into the lineup full-time haven't raised the baseline performance. That means there has been significant regression on the other side of things.

That becomes obvious when looking at some key performances. Veteran outfielder TJ Friedl owns a career 99 wRC+ and posted a 109 mark last season. This year, he's put up a pitiful 36 wRC+. Noelvi Marte fell from a promising 101 wRC+ a year ago to a mark of 52 this season. Matt McLain was supposed to rebound now that he's another year removed from surgery, but if anything, he's been slightly worse with a 75 wRC+ versus a 77 mark last year.

To be fair, JJ Bleday has rebounded from a disappointing 2025 when he posted a 90 wRC+ to get back on track in 2026 with a 115 performance, but he had reached those heights before, so it's not like he unlocked a new level after becoming a Red.

Otherwise, Edwin Arroyo tore the cover off the ball in Louisville, but struggled mightily against big league pitching. It's hard to determine whether that's on Valaika or Arroyo, or whether it's simply explained by rookie jitters, but it is notable. How Hector Rodriguez performs since his call-up will be interesting to monitor to see if another good, but non-elite prospect struggles while following Valaika's guidance.

The Reds can no longer afford to live in the league's offensive cellar. So while it's clear that they need to do a better job bringing talent into the organization, they also need to do a better job at maximizing the abilities of the players that they do have. To that end, Valaika needs to go along with Krall.

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