Reds may keep Nick Krall but a coaching shakeup looms for 2027

The Cincinnati Reds upset the vast majority of the fan base when it came out that the club would keep president of baseball operations Nick Krall in the fold. As upsetting as the news may be, it makes sense given the conditions we're about to see in the offseason.

It's also expected that Terry Francona will come back in 2027. The manager has a better case to return than Krall does, but at a certain point, this is a team that blew a 20-11 start and someone needs to be held accountable for that.

To be clear, we're not following in Ken Rosenthal's footsteps and trying to claim that Krall isn't the biggest issue with the team. He absolutely is, but he's not alone when it comes to blame.

And the two biggest culprits, aside from Krall, might now be the most vulnerable. We're looking at director of hitting and major league hitting coach Chris Valaika and pitching coach Derek Johnson.

The Reds need to overhaul their coaching staff, with Chris Valaika and Derek Johnson getting the boot

We've spent a lot of time talking about Valaika's short comings. Cincinnati has cracked an even 200 homers, good for third in the league. That's a big improvement over what was last year's biggest ill, a 21st-ranked home run total of 167.

Getting more game-changing swings should have led to a better offense, but instead, the Reds have fallen from a middle-of-the-pack run scoring team with a 14th-ranked 716 last year, to a 25th-ranked 625 so far in 2026.

The gap has been in the situational hitting department, where Cincinnati has been especially putrid. Valaika laid out situational hitting as a priority when he came on board prior to last season, so to see the team fail so miserably at one of his key focuses is an indictment on his leadership.

As for Johnson — who's been on a leave of absence since May — it's clear a new voice is needed. While he's been at the helm of the pitchers since the start of the 2019 season, there has been some good and some bad. However, the most damning piece of evidence against him has been Nick Lodolo, the blisters, and the breaking ball grip.

Lodolo has missed significant time with multiple blister issues throughout the years due to his breaking ball grip, but it wasn't until his second IL stint due to blisters in 2026 for him to tweak his grip. Pitchers can be creatures of habit, but for Johnson to spend all this time unable to devise a plan to convince Lodolo to give something else a try is a major miss.

On top of that, the Reds' staff has really struggled this year, and, aside from Chase Burns, the development of the young arms has been a slog. Cincinnati starters have a 4.93 ERA that ranks 27th, and we once thought they might compete for the title of best rotation in the game. The bullpen has been a disaster, too, coming in at a 4.82 ERA that ranks 25th.

The obvious answer is that the Reds are going to have to overhaul the roster and bring in a good number of new players. While it's fair to question whether Krall should undertake that endeavor, another way to try to improve is to change the coaching that the existing core, along with the fresh faces, will receive.

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