Well, that didn’t last long, did it?

In the end, my return to Reds blogging consisted of a handful of posts amid a rumors-obsessed offseason. My commitment didn’t stick around long enough for me to write about the trade for Gavin Lux in January or the signing of Scott Barlow in February. 

Better late than never, however: With the trade deadline approaching (and too many X and Bluesky post notifications turned on), I’m back, and I’m writing about Nick Krall again. No, I’m not going to attempt to decode Krall-speak as I did in December. (Boy was I wrong about my Nick Lodolo for Luis Robert Jr. trade prediction, huh?) But I am going to make a declaration about Cincinnati’s POBO.

Krall is on the hot seat. Or at least he should be. 

Despite dropping two straight games against the Los Angeles Dodgers and now sitting three games back of the final Wild Card spot, all signs and credible reporting suggest the Reds are buyers going into Thursday’s 6 p.m. ET deadline. In fact, as I’m writing this, I just got a notification from the New York Post’s Jon Heyman saying the Reds are considering Arizona Diamondbacks third baseman (and beloved former Red) Eugenio Suarez and Baltimore Orioles outfielder Ramon Laureano. There’s enough smoke around the Reds’ interest in Suarez that it must be legit, but it’s hard to imagine them outbidding other contenders like the Philadelphia Phillies and Seattle Mariners for Geno’s rental services. There are other possibilities, though: MLB.com’s Mark Sheldon mentioned a couple of sought-after Colorado Rockies relievers in addition to Pittsburgh Pirates third baseman Ke’Bryan Hayes and St. Louis Cardinals starter Sonny Gray (another former Red). 

This is what happens around every trade deadline or offseason. Teams’ interest in a certain player gets leaked. Some of it is real. Some of it is more about a team trying to drive up the market for the player they’re trying to trade, or the front office of another team trying to show the fans that they’re trying. And even with my previous examples of Krall’s foreshadowing, the truth is that most Reds moves in recent memory don’t follow specific rumors. The offseason trades of Lux and catcher Jose Trevino came out of nowhere. So did the sole 2023 deadline deal of prospect Joe Boyle for reliever Sam Moll.

All that is to say I would not be at all surprised if the Reds did make a couple of moves in the next 24 hours, but not for anyone already rumored. Maybe it’s a trade for a random starting pitcher to allow the Reds to move Nick Martinez and/or Chase Burns to the bullpen in an effort to provide that group a boost, which The Athletic’s C. Trent Rosecrans wrote about recently. Maybe it’s a move for a right-handed hitting platoon bat no one has predicted.

Regardless of this, the Reds front office – with Krall as the poster boy – need to do something. They ended up being active last offseason in spite of limited spending power (eye-roll), but none of the moves were that aggressive or risky. None of them have really moved the needle much now that we’re well over halfway through the 2025 season. The most aggressive move actually happened at the tail-end of 2024, when the Reds lured Tito Francona out of retirement. 

In retrospect, it’s obvious that the front office – knowing that they weren’t likely to trade multiple top prospects for an impact hitter or spend a ton of money on a free agent – was hoping that Francona would be able to sprinkle his “pixie dust” (as written by ESPN’s Jeff Passan) on a young roster. Some players, namely All-Stars Elly De La Cruz and Andrew Abbott, have developed. But all together, Tito hasn’t really worked that much magic amid a solid but inconsistent season for the team. (Not that ANY manager really has that power … even a surefire Hall of Famer like him.)

News flash: This team needs more talent. It needs better options against left-handed pitchers so that Santiago Espinal isn’t the best pinch-hitting option off the bench. (More than that, it needs a power hitter behind De La Cruz.) It needs reinforcements for a taxed bullpen. (More than that, it needs at least one more reliable option for a high-leverage role behind Tony Santillan and Emilio Pagan.) 

These types of moves, especially the ones in parentheses, require guts. They require a willingness to take on some salary for the rest of the season. They require a willingness to trade some prospects the team invested in.

Now, I’m not asking Krall & Co. to go all AJ Preller and trade a bunch of top-10 prospects for a rental. That’s not always the best strategy for a team thinking both short- and long-term. But they should be aggressive and pay the price to get an impact player or two who can actually both make a difference in the Wild Card hunt and help the team in 2026 (and hopefully beyond). A playoff appearance, even a blowout in the Wild Card round, would do wonders for this still-developing team. Focusing on drafting and developing is a sound plan for a team in a smaller market, but you have to supplement the roster with good players – not just on the margins.

Which brings me back to Krall. Both he and general manager Brad Meador have said that the Reds are not going to deviate from their strategy, which is fine. But they need to understand that they can afford to deal some good prospects for MLB talent. The front office has drafted really well over the past decade or so. They should trust that they can backfill the pipeline.

Now, is Krall actually on the hot seat? I don’t know. Last season, former manager David Bell was the scapegoat. Despite some of his in-game managing flaws, there’s no way a legend like Francona or any of the coaching staff are going to be the next scapegoats if the Reds miss the playoffs. It should be Krall this time. 

But if the team makes only small moves – or none at all – over the next 24 hours, it’ll mean that the POBO isn’t worried about his job security going into 2026. And that would be as big a sign as any that winning isn’t ownership’s top priority in Cincinnati.