Nick

Krall

The Reds opened 2025 with about a $112 million payroll, which is obviously in the bottom half of the league and actually a little less than they spent way back in 2014, which was the last time their payroll was in the top half of baseball. The good news is that the Reds have no badly spent money aside from the $16 million still owed to Jeimer Candelario and their rotation is well set up for next season (Hunter Greene, Nick Lodolo, Andrew Abbott, Brady Singer and Chase Burns will make about $26 million in total). That should, in theory, give them the flexibility to add the middle-of-the-order hitter they obviously need.

It’s one of several front office moves for the Reds, who have also promoted Rob Coughlin to the role of senior director for professional scouting, Trey Hendricks to senior director of international scouting, and Joe Katuska to director of amateur scouting.

He’ll take over the duties of Dick Williams, who resigned earlier this month for personal reasons. Krall has been in the Reds organization for 19 seasons, including the past three as general manager under Williams. He will keep the GM title with this new role, reporting directly to owner Bob Castellini. The Reds went 31-29 during the regular season before being eliminated by the Braves during the expanded MLB playoffs. They still have a very good team in place, though Trevor Bauer is the top free agent starting pitcher on the market.