It’s instinctive at this point. I feel the buzz of the Apple Watch on my wrist. It’s a longer vibration, meaning it’s not a text. It could be a number of things – a Slack message from a coworker, a push notification with a coupon from a food delivery app, etc. But as I slightly turn my left wrist, I hope it’s an X notification from an MLB reporter saying the Reds have traded for or signed someone.

Alas, it’s not. It’s Uber Eats telling me I can get 15% off my next order. And so I sigh with disappointment.

I’m not proud of what I’ve become as a sports fan, so needy of the dopamine hit caused by knowing instantly when a baseball transaction has occurred. Perhaps I have some soul searching to do. But I’ll get to that later.

Since the MLB Winter Meetings concluded a couple of weeks ago, my Reds have been pretty quiet. They did finally get a backup catcher on Friday night by sending bullpen mainstay Fernando Cruz to the Yankees for Jose Trevino. But as free agents fly off the board and other teams make trades, Cincinnati has not yet addressed what is arguably the team’s biggest need: offense. They also now need even more bullpen help than they already did after moving Cruz. There haven’t even been that many rumors. Frankly, it has bummed me out. 

That’s why recent comments by President of Baseball Operations Nick Krall on the Reds Hot Stove League radio show frustrated me so much. The most newsworthy thing he said was that the Reds have not made much progress in their next move. Just what fans want to hear. (To be fair, this was just days before the Trevino trade. That goes to show you that progress can come about quickly when wheeling and dealing.)

My first instinct after hearing about those comments was to be pissed. Just get something done, Nick. What’s taking so long? Are you seriously still afraid to trade some prospects to help the big league roster?

After some thought, I realized how silly I was being. Of course Krall, General Manager Brad Meador and their staff are doing all they can to improve the team. I’m sure they’re trying to be creative. It’s still December – there’s a lot of offseason left.

Also, listening to Krall’s entire radio appearance with all the context brought some clarity. Krall did not say the team doesn’t want to trade prospects. In fact, reporting indicates the Reds were one of the finalists (whatever that really means) in the Garrett Crochet trade talks. The White Sox only wanted prospects in return for their ace, so if the Reds were serious in those negotiations, they had to have offered a strong prospect package. 

What Krall said was that a lot of other trade discussions have revolved around major league players on both sides, not prospects. I take that as meaning the Reds have targeted players on other teams that they’d like to trade for, and those teams are asking for big league talent in return. Krall said if you trade major leaguers in order to fill a need, you open up a hole elsewhere. It’s a good point and one of the many things that must make running a baseball team so difficult.

I would imagine other teams are asking for some of the Reds’ controllable young pitchers, and I don’t blame Krall for not wanting to part with that depth after all the pitching injuries he has witnessed in recent years. You could trade a young pitcher like Nick Lodolo for an outfielder (like Luis Robert Jr., as I blogged about recently!), but then you’d have to account for the lessened rotation depth, likely through free agency. (This is probably why the team was rumored to be interested in Nick Pivetta.) But Pivetta is going to get a multiyear deal worth at least $15 million in average annual value. Nick Lodolo is projected to make just over $2 million in arbitration. 

Details aside, ownership is where I should focus my ire. I get that the Reds are in a smaller market. I get that attendance was down in 2024 after an increase in 2023. I get that departing the broadcast partnership with Diamond Sports Group will likely cause revenue losses.

But when I see chatter online that paying the market rate for a mid-tier free agent bat is too pricey for the Reds – who currently project to have a payroll in the bottom third of MLB – I can’t help but roll my eyes. As @Soly_Reds, one of the better Reds-related follows on X, pointed out recently, before COVID hit, Cincinnati was prepared to go into the 2020 season with a payroll around $150 million. That was just five years ago. When you have so much young, cheap talent making up the core of this team, is spending enough to move the Reds up just a few spots from No. 22 in the projected team payroll rankings (per Cot’s Baseball Contracts) too much to ask?

Who knows, maybe the next notification of a Reds transaction will act as a “no” answer to that question. Maybe the Reds will surprise me and sign a free agent to a sizable contract or trade for a pricey player. I’m not that optimistic, but I’ll try to hold onto some hope. 

I guess the relative lack of Reds movement – and, consequently, buzzes on my wrist – is just putting me in a pessimistic mood. It doesn’t help that I’m a bit spoiled by the NBA, where player movement in the offseason generally happens in a flurry over the span of just a few days. 

By the way, when did the notifications about the Trevino acquisition happen? Late at night while I was sleeping, of course. Go figure.