Reds owner leaves Nick Krall nowhere to hide after latest comments

Cincinnati Reds owner Phil Castellini, team president Nick Krall, and general manager Brad Meador met with the media on Thursday. According to Cincinnati reporter Charlie Goldsmith, Castellini said he wanted to show he was 100% behind the front office.

“We need baseball guys to make baseball decisions," Castellini said.

Those comments seem to suggest that the Castellini's and the Reds front office had a heart-to-heart conversation following last week's staggering report from The Athletic. C. Trent Rosecrans and Ken Rosenthal pulled back the veil on the Reds' inner-workings, and what was exposed showed how dysfunctional the organization truly is.

One of the biggest things to emerge following last week's reporting was how meddlesome Bob Castellini had been over the years. According to the reports, Krall had a laundry list of trades the elder Castellini vetoed over the years, leading many to speculate how much autonomy the Reds' president of baseball operations actually had.

If Phil Castellini's latest comments are to be believed, however, Krall will soon have nowhere to hide. His statement to the media on Thursday suggests that Krall and Meador will now be given the reins to run the baseball operations side as they see fit. Whether or not that's a good decision (or the right one) remains to be seen.

It's time for Nick Krall to prove to Reds ownership that he's the right man for the job

How many would-be trades did Bob Castellini void over the years? We don't know. Which fan-favorites were on Krall's so-called laundry list or trade candidates? We don't know. Were there any All-Stars, Cy Young award-winners, or MVPs who'd be wearing a Reds uniform right now if Krall had his way? We don't know.

All of those are tremendous questions, and ones that are on the minds of fans throughout Reds Country. But only Krall and a select few close to him know the answers. Frankly, it doesn't matter. What does matter is what happens next. How does Krall dig the Reds organization (and himself) out of this hole?

According to Krall, it will start with an overhaul of the team's pitching department structure. It was announced on Thursday that Cincinnati parted ways with long-time pitching coach Derek Johnson. He also announced that assistant hitting coach Will Remillard will not be back in 2027, and emphasized a need to be better signing mid-tier free agents.

All of those sound like reasonable places to begin, but it's going to take a lot more than that to turn a 75-win team into a playoff contender — especially with the impending lockout. Is Krall the right man for the job? We're about to find out.

Add us as a preferred source on Google

Follow