CINCINNATI — The Reds just finished 75-87 and dead last in the National League Central.
So naturally, they are mostly running it back.
Nick Krall is returning as president of baseball operations. Brad Meador is returning as general manager. Terry Francona is returning as manager. Phil Castellini has publicly backed the people currently running the baseball side of the organization and said the club intends to stay the course.
There will be some changes. Pitching coach Derek Johnson will not return after taking a personal leave of absence in June, and Cincinnati has already begun searching for his replacement. Assistant hitting coach Will Remillard is also gone, while hitting coach Chris Valaika is expected back — which might be even more amazing than Krall and Co. returning.
The Reds entered 2026 with legitimate expectations after winning 83 games and reaching the postseason in 2025. Instead of building on that progress, Cincinnati took a significant step backward, finishing 12 games under .500 and at the bottom of the division.
Krall acknowledged that responsibility belongs with him, saying after the season that he oversees baseball operations and that the disappointing results are ultimately on him. He also admitted the club never found consistency and fell short of what it expected to accomplish.
That accountability is appropriate. Now comes the harder part.
Why should anyone expect 2027 to be different?
The Reds still have talent. Elly De La Cruz remains the centerpiece and is coming off another major season. Chase Burns emerged as an ace, finishing 15-3 with a 2.86 ERA, earning an All-Star selection, and signing a seven-year extension during the season. Sal Stewart also became an All-Star, giving Cincinnati another young piece to build around.
There is enough talent here to make the argument that this team should be better than 75-87, which is exactly why the frustration is justified.
The Reds are not beginning a rebuild. They are not waiting on an entire farm system to arrive. They are not coming off a season where nobody expected them to compete.
They were supposed to take another step. Instead, they went backward.
There were injuries, particularly to the pitching staff, and those absolutely played a role. But injuries happen to every team, and at some point they stop being a complete explanation for why a roster failed to perform anywhere near expectations.
Krall said as much himself when he acknowledged that excuses do not change the result.
The next question is whether ownership and the front office are willing to do more than simply acknowledge what went wrong. Hell, anyone watching the team knows what went wrong. We don't need Krall, or anyone else, telling us.
Cincinnati is also entering a more expensive phase with this roster. A large group of players is headed toward arbitration, including De La Cruz, Spencer Steer, and Nick Lodolo, and projected arbitration costs are expected to rise significantly. That means the cheap, controllable core that helped shape this roster is becoming less cheap.
That should make this offseason more urgent, not less.
The window around De La Cruz is not infinite. Francona is entering the final guaranteed year of his contract, and Krall himself has acknowledged that the club cannot waste the years it has with its current core.
If the Reds believe the same leadership group can fix this, then ownership has to give them the resources to prove it.
That means more than filling a few holes around the edges. It means being aggressive enough to address the roster’s obvious weaknesses and giving Francona a team capable of competing from Opening Day instead of hoping everything breaks perfectly.
Otherwise, 2027 risks becoming another season of explanations.
The Reds have chosen continuity.
Now they have to justify it, when this group has never justified anything. Ever.
