GOODYEAR, ARIZONA—One of Nick Krall’s first jobs in baseball was an internship with the Oakland Athletics during the “Moneyball” era. Cincinnati’s president of baseball operations has spent his entire career diving into advanced statistics. His Reds front office has a 10-person analytics staff with bright number-crunchers, and that team includes a Ph.D. with an expertise in neuroscience.
As prevalent as analytics are in the Reds’ organization and around all of baseball, there’s no metric that reveals the specific value a manager adds to a baseball team. Krall said that he can’t measure the impact of new Reds manager Terry Francona.
“It’s a lot of fun with this energy, and it just rubs off on you,” says Krall (pictured above with Francona and Reds CEO Bob Castellini). “You can talk about culture, and when you have a person who doesn’t want to go to their job and they hate their job, then they’re not going to do the best job they possibly can. These guys are coming in and want to be the best player they can possibly be. They’ll get there, and you’ll put a better product out on the field.”
Krall sits down for an exclusive Q&A about the direction of the Reds, Francona’s impact, and how his new roster additions will factor into the mix.
How would you describe the personality of this team and where the Reds are right now?
It’s a young group that’s still learning to figure out who they are. There are also some young veterans around them. There’s a high energy. They really want to win. They really want to take steps forward individually. It’s been a lot of fun to watch because they work their butts off.
What’s the biggest difference in this group heading into the 2025 season?
They’re a year older, and they’re all trying to figure out who they are so they can be more consistent. When you have 21- and 22-year-olds in the big leagues, those guys don’t lack tools, because they’re in the Majors at a young age. They’re trying to figure out consistency to make improvements.
There can be little improvements. How can I run the bases better? How can I play defense a little better? How do I take my drop step at third base or commit on a ball at short? Reads and routes in the outfield. Tyler Stephenson has gotten much, much better at calling games as the years have progressed.
It’s just a process with young players. It’s always going to be a process with young players no matter who you are.
Did you accomplish everything you wanted to with the moves you made during the offseason?
I’m excited about the guys we brought in. You’re always looking to get better. You’re always looking to see if there’s one more move you can make somehow. You’re always looking at how to do something else to make the club better. But I like the group of guys we have right now and where we are. We’ll see how it plays out.
When you look at when you’re going to make a big move in a trade or free agency, is that about the player or about the timing and dropping in the right piece at the right time?
It’s a little bit of everything. You look at the position they play, how they play it, whether it makes you better offensively but worse defensively. There are a lot of questions to be answered there. You have to figure out who those moves are and then what you have to give up on top to make it happen.
How much do managers impact wins and losses? Can you quantify that?
I don’t know. When you look at a guy like Terry Francona who comes in here upbeat with energy, he’s looking to get things done exactly the way he wants them done right. He’s holding people to a high standard. You have guys who came here in really good shape. You have guys who came here ready to go. And you’ve got the upbeat, fast practices. These guys are working their butts off to get where they need to get to.
Does that matter more than the chess moves in games or a manager’s role in the technical side of player development?
It’s going to be: Am I creating an environment where guys want to come in and work their butts off and get better? Am I creating a high-energy environment so we can keep getting better at this level? That’s all a part of development. That’s the basis for development.
You mentioned the efficient spring. What has stood out to you about the structure of the day that Francona has put in place? Every manager is different.
Yeah, everybody has a different way to do it. Subtle differences. Nothing Earth-shattering.
Looking more closely at the roster, how do you feel about your outfield?
Overall solid. We’ll wait to see when we get into games. TJ Friedl is in good shape. Austin Hays is coming in and working hard to get better. Jake Fraley looks great. Stu Fairchild looks great. We’ve got some guys who were up and down last year. Will Benson is getting after it. We’ll have to let it play itself out.
The Gavin Lux deal was interesting, dealing for one of the Dodgers’ good players. How did you learn he was available?
We keep a lot of tabs on teams throughout the year. (Assistant GM) Jeff Graupe specifically talks with agents in the offseason. He was keeping tabs on the Dodgers. He had a lot of conversations with them to know who’s available. When they made a move (signing free agent second baseman Hyeseong Kim), we knew that Lux was available. We did the trade in a few days.
When you made the move for Lux, was the main idea that he’d strengthen your lineup?
Yeah. What he did in the second half of last year offensively, how he changed some of his approach and how he went about things—FanGraphs had him as one of the best in baseball in the second half of the season. If he can come close to that, you’ve got a really good player no matter where you play him.
On the roster last year, there were several freak injuries that you couldn’t control.
I think we had five or six guys who hurt their shoulders by either diving or running into the wall from the end of spring training through the first month of the season.
From what you can control, what can you do to keep this team healthier than it’s been over the last few years?
When you look at the position players, almost all of it was impact injuries. Friedl was diving. Edwin Arroyo was diving. Matt McLain dove in practice. Blake Dunn ran into the wall. With our pitching staff, it’s trying to make sure we have enough depth to confront injuries. It’s going to happen. It’s sports. We want to make sure we keep as many guys healthy and also have depth to combat that throughout the season.
Charlie Goldsmith has covered the Reds and Bengals since 2020, and his newsletter on the teams can be found at charlieschalkboard.substack.com. He’s @CharlieG__ on X.
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