SEATTLE — Whether the growing calls for his job are coming from a podcast, a cushy radio studio or a barstool, Nick Krall doesn’t give a damn.
Until they’re coming from somebody named Castellini, he’s got the same job to do tomorrow as he did yesterday, regardless of the successes and failures along the way, he said.
That’s the response you get if you ask the Cincinnati Reds’ team president how he views his job security at a crossroads moment for the competitive fortunes of the Terry Francona Era and this Elly De La Cruz core during a second lost season in three years.
“My job is to do what’s best for this organization, and if I start trying to worry about that, then we’re going to make bad moves,” Krall said. “My job is to worry about this organization and what we can do to continue to help this organization get better.”
After weeks of discussions with shoppers picking over the bones of a last-place roster, Reds officials plan to meet Monday — exactly one week before the Aug. 3 MLB trade deadline — to talk about possible trades in more detail.
“We’ve touched base with just about every team,” said Krall, who’s open to fielding offers on players beyond the seven pending free agents on the roster. “We’re just trying to figure out where everybody is and how that fits best for us.”
That doesn’t change, he said, no matter what the challenges of a specific season, or even his own job security, look like.
“At every turn, whatever decision we make, it’s to do what’s best for this organization,” he said, “for now and the long-term.”
As Krall spoke in Seattle’s visiting dugout a few hours before the Reds beat the Mariners 5-3 for the franchise’s first series win in Seattle, he couldn’t say how many players he might trade before the deadline and didn’t rule out considering offers on club-controlled players such as Spencer Steer and even Hunter Greene — however unlikely a strong enough offer might be for either.
But Krall made one thing clear when it comes to his competitive intentions: His front office plans to try to give Francona a better team to manage in a bid for October next year.
That suggests targeting players either with big-league experience or prospects close enough to the majors to think they might be able to contribute next season.
“You’ve got to make the best deal you can,” he said. “With that said, your goal is to come back next year and be in a good spot to make a playoff run.
“I like the young core we have,” added Krall, who just got rising ace Chase Burns locked up to a seven-year, $105 million deal. “I’m still excited about the young players we have on the big-league roster.”
As if on cue, rookie All-Star Sal Stewart made Krall’s point with a two-out, three-run homer in the seventh to give the Reds the lead in Wednesday’s series clincher in Seattle — three batters after rookie infielder Edwin Arroyo started the rally with a one-out walk.
Those kinds of feel-good glimpses don’t change the reality of all that went wrong this season for a Reds team that ramped up in the offseason after a playoff appearance in Francona’s first season.
“A lot of things have happened, and we haven’t played well,” Krall said. “And that’s definitely on me. I need to figure out how to continue to make better moves as we go to this trade deadline and beyond.”
That’s why respected and popular slugger Eugenio Suárez will likely get traded at the deadline for the second straight year despite his assertion in recent days that he doesn’t want to get traded.
“It’s tough to trade guys like that,” Krall said. “But at the same time we have to do what’s best for the organization. That’s the most important thing.”
That’s why when teams started asking about Steer, Krall said he’d listen. Same with Greene and a few others.
“Spencer’s been a really good player for us. He’s a great clubhouse guy, a good teammate, and it’d be hard to move him,” Krall said, underscoring the high value Steer provides for the Reds in particular (and with two years club control left).
“We’ve had teams reach out on a lot of our players on the roster. We just have to figure out what are the moves that we can make that’s best for this organization,” he said, adding of Greene: “We’ve got to look at everybody that’s on the roster, and if there’s something that does make sense for the organization, we have to have a conversation about it, and we might go down that road. If it’s not going to make sense for the organization at this point, then we (won’t).”
As for some of the pending free agents that Reds have firmly on the trade block, here’s the daily trade-chip report for the series finale in Seattle:
This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Krall dismisses job security issue, won’t rule out Greene, Steer talks
Reporting by Gordon Wittenmyer, Cincinnati Enquirer / Cincinnati Enquirer
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By Gordon Wittenmyer, Cincinnati Enquirer | USA TODAY Network
