Reds' bullpen nightmare is turning up the heat on Nick Krall

On the surface, the Cincinnati Reds are doing quite well despite sitting in last place in the NL Central. They’re in the thick of the Wild Card race and JJ Bleday was named NL Player of the Month. He's the first Reds player to receive that honor since 2021 (Joey Votto).

Dig a bit deeper, though, and Cincinnati’s good fortune becomes apparent. Without reinforcements brought in by the front office, that luck could quickly run out, and Reds president Nick Krall could find his seat becoming very hot.

Much of Krall’s energy (and the club’s money) this offseason went toward shoring up the bullpen. This included re-signing Emilio Pagán on a two-year, $20 million contract and bringing in free agents Pierce Johnson and Caleb Ferguson.

On paper, the relief corps was heading in the right direction. If just a couple of the Reds’ prospects, such as Zach Maxwell and Luis Mey, proved themselves big-league ready, a group that has been middle-of-the-road in 2025, could become a strength in 2026. Unfortunately, the games aren’t played on paper.

The Reds’ bullpen problems are putting increased pressure on Nick Krall.

Pagán was putting up the worst numbers of his career before hitting the IL at the beginning of May with a Grade 2 hamstring strain. Ferguson spent the first two months of the season on the IL, and just as he came back, Johnson went down with an elbow injury. Out of fairness to Krall, these injuries are beyond his control, but the shambles that is the remaining bullpen has been built under his watchful eye.

The Reds’ bullpen has the highest ERA in the NL at 4.91. Even worse, their expected ERA is the highest in all of baseball at an atrocious 5.24. In a launching pad like Great American Ball Park, the relief corps has failed to keep the ball on the ground, posting the lowest ground-ball rate in the NL; this has contributed to the highest HR/9 rate in the NL, 1.39.

While the host of injuries cannot be attributed to Krall, building a bullpen around pitchers that lean toward fly balls should earn Krall some criticism. For all his success, Pagán hasn’t put up a ground-ball rate higher than 33% in his three seasons in Cincinnati. Similarly, Johnson’s career ground-ball rate is 38%. Contrastingly, the relievers who have found the most success this season, namely Sam Moll and Graham Ashcraft, have rates north of 54%.

It’s easy to point to injuries as the primary cause of the Reds’ bullpen woes. That is certainly part of the story, as is the near-constant optioning and re-calling of players necessitated by those injuries, but Krall has to also ask himself whether, in his rush to address a weakness, he made things even worse.

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