The Redlegs finished the 2024 campaign with a 77-85 record, their eighth losing season in the last 11 seasons and 18th of the last 23. Simply brutal. Ace starter Hunter Greene summed it up thusly: “The team, we came up short on a lot of fronts. There’s a lot that we have to work on in the offseason. A lot of soul-searching. A lot of adjustments we have to make. What’s really important is looking at yourself in the mirror and being able to see what you really have to work on. That’s important to be able to take it to the next level.”
Soul-searching and adjustments aside, it’s pretty clear to everyone on the planet what the Reds need to do to improve on this season’s disappointments. First, they need to hire a manager to replace David Bell, preferably one who will focus on fine-tuning Cincinnati’s horrific defense and baserunning. After hiring a new field general, they may want to, I dunno, add some good players? Seems radical, I know.
The offense is in need of a clear upgrade. Yes, they’ll have Matt McLain and Christian Encarnacion-Strand back, and there’s good reason to believe that Noelvi Marte will be improved as well. Hoping for those guys to be above-average contributors, however, is not the way actual professional sports organizations, teams that want to win games, treat their rosters. Hope is not a strategy, except in Cincinnati.
Reds’ first basemen hit .224/.269/.371 with 18 total homers this year. Not good enough. Cincinnati outfielders: .221/.302/.380. That ain’t gonna cut it. The team’s third sackers? A collective .231/.277/.370 with 17 home runs. Embarrassing levels of production from positions that are usually the cornerstones of a club’s lineup.
The pitching looks to be in better shape, especially since Rhett Lowder’s promising debut. But once again a lack of depth ended up being a problem down the stretch. If Reds management wants to put an actual contender on the field next year, they’ll need to acquire at least a couple of good arms. Rinse and repeat. None of this is any different from what we’ve been saying for years.
And there’s the rub. Though it’s clear to everyone what this team needs to do over the winter to improve, no one in their right mind actually believes ownership and the front office will make that effort. Welcome to the sad state of affairs in Cincinnati at the moment. On the other hand, the end of this season feels like a bit of a turning point.
I’ve been writing in these pages about the failures of the Castellini regime for many years, but I’ve often felt like a lone voice in the wilderness. No one else with an audience in the Cincinnati media-sphere has been willing to tell it like it is. Could that possibly be changing?
Over at The Enquirer, sports columnist Jason Williams acquired a reputation among fans—fairly or unfairly—for unconditionally defending Reds ownership and management. Remember when he told me (though he didn’t use my name) to “get off Bob Castellini’s back” about selling the team? Well, Williams has seemingly had enough:
When are the Castellinis going to realize they’re the common denominator through all these managerial changes? And if they can somehow hold themselves accountable, maybe they should then take a hard look at who’s in charge of putting the players on the field and who’s responsible for developing those players throughout the system.
Because the Reds don’t have enough good players to win consistently. It’s that simple, and it’s been that way, well, since even before Castellini bought the club.
I’m not advocating for Castellini to sell the team. But you know, maybe see if others in the ownership group have an idea for how to drastically change the direction of the franchise. And maybe don’t promote your son, whom the fans despise, to CEO, as the Reds did with Phil Castellini last month.
Because whatever is going on in the C-suite of this once proud franchise ain’t working.
WLW’s Lance McAlister hasn’t carried water for the Reds organization like some others in the local media, but this year’s failures seem to have pushed over the edge too. Here’s what he had to say:
Ownership deserves this. Cincinnati Reds fans don’t.
At some point, the embarrassment and sense of failure of community obligation takes over the desire to simply make money, count money, give away bobbleheads, and say you have kept the team in Cincinnati.
It’s really a damn shame what ownership has managed to do to a once proud franchise.
This ownership does not have the right to honor, celebrate and make money off the 50th anniversary of the Big Red Machine next year. If I were a member of that 1975 Reds team, I know what I’d tell ’em to do. Go pound salt.
Even Reds second baseman Jonathan India is speaking truth to power these days. “It’s the same thing every year here. We just float around .500 and try to make the push but we just don’t have enough. We need to make a move. I know what it is, but I just want to say it to the media.”
Say it, Jonny boy, as loudly and as often as you can. Maybe the rest of the local media is finally willing to listen. I’m tired of being a lone wolf. (#SellTheTeamBob)
Cincinnati has the building blocks of a really good team, but it will require management to finish the job, something they’ve been steadfastly unwilling to do over the last three decades. I can’t, in good conscience, recommend that you get your hopes up. Then again, hope is really all we have as Reds fans.
Chad Dotson helms Reds coverage at Cincinnati Magazine and hosts a long-running Reds podcast, The Riverfront. His newsletter about Cincinnati sports can be found at chaddotson.com. He’s @dotsonc on Twitter.
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