GM Nick Krall Discusses Reds’ Roster

The Reds’ .383 profitable proportion in 2022 ranks because the sixth-worst mark within the franchise’s 122-year historical past. Over the previous 24 months, they’ve traded away former mainstays Luis Castillo, Tyler Mahle, Sonny Gray, Jesse Winker, Eugenio Suarez, Raisel Iglesias, Tucker Barnhart and Amir Garrett. As soon as names like Donovan Solano, Mike Minor and Hunter Strickland formally change into free brokers after the postseason, the Reds will likely be left with one of many league’s youngest rosters. When addressing the workforce’s ugly season yesterday, normal supervisor Nick Krall urged that the roster will stay one of many youngest within the league subsequent yr (link via Bobby Nightengale of the Cincinnati Enquirer).

“We’re going to return into (2023) in an identical place that we’re proper now,” mentioned Krall. Whereas the GM urged the workforce will “attempt to make enhancements,” his subsequent feedback about how everybody might want to earn a spot on subsequent yr’s roster in Spring Coaching don’t precisely portend an energetic winter on the participant acquisition entrance.

“I don’t know if we’ve got a ‘that is going to completely be this particular person’s place on Opening Day,” Krall acknowledged. These feedback are notably eye-opening given the presence of stalwart first baseman Joey Votto nonetheless being on the roster, although the 39-year-old will likely be coming into the ultimate season of his 10-year contract in 2023. Mike Moustakas, the one different assured contract on the books, can also be coming into the ultimate season of his four-year deal however has performed himself out of an on a regular basis function over the previous two seasons, hitting .212/.289/.356 in 491 plate appearances. There’s additionally 2021 NL Rookie of the Yr Jonathan India to contemplate; he’s not signed to a long-term contract and is seeking a rebound on the plate after taking a step again in ’22, however one would nonetheless assume he’s in line for normal taking part in time.

Setting apart any implications for gamers at the moment on the roster, Krall’s feedback appear to additional recommend what was already largely assumed — that the Reds aren’t more likely to fill any of their quite a few holes with a free agent of observe or swing any type of commerce for established Main League expertise. That truth is additional bolstered by Nightengale reporting inside the piece that the payroll, which has decreased in every of the previous two seasons, is more likely to be pared even additional again in 2023.

The Reds spent $106MM on the roster in 2022, however with a number of in-season trades and now Minor, Solano and Strickland coming off the books, that determine will likely be straightforward to scale back. Votto and Moustakas, owed a mixed $43MM, are the one assured contracts remaining for the Reds subsequent yr. They’ll have a slate of gamers eligible for arbitration, however none who will be anticipated to command salaries of actual observe. Buck Farmer, Luis Cessa, Kyle Farmer, Lucas Sims, Jeff Hoffman, Nick Senzel, Tejay Antone, Justin Dunn, Aramis Garcia, Derek Law and Aristides Aquino will all be eligible for arbitration this winter, however a number of of these names are non-tender candidates — and those who’ll clearly be tendered (e.g. Antone) received’t have notably excessive salaries.

Simply how low the payroll will likely be stripped down stays unclear. The very presence of Votto and Moustakas implies that even when the roster had been rounded out solely with pre-arbitration gamers — which clearly received’t occur — the Reds would spend no less than $60MM. They’ll very doubtless run out a heftier price range than that, however Krall’s end-of-season feedback and the latest trajectory of the Cincinnati payroll don’t give followers a lot hope that reinforcements are on the way in which.

It’s been a brutal a number of years for Reds followers, who had been subjected to 6 straight dropping seasons from 2014-19. The trades made alongside the way in which, supposed to rebuild the farm system, typically didn’t bear as a lot fruit as hoped, however the Reds nonetheless cultivated a robust rotation, spent on key free brokers like Nick Castellanos, and made the playoffs within the shortened 2020 season. That appeared to have set the stage for a return to prominence within the NL Central, however Reds possession has as an alternative been among the many most aggressive teams in baseball at shedding payroll within the wake of the shortened 2020 season and the absence of gate income.

The most recent rebuild appears to be like to be off to a greater begin — the return from the Castillo commerce, particularly, is considered to be a robust one — but it surely’ll doubtless be a pair extra years earlier than the Reds’ system yields a viable Main League core. By that time, they’ll be approaching a decade of dropping baseball, with the one respite being the two-month dash within the midst of the pandemic — when followers weren’t even in a position to benefit from the success in particular person.