Reds Announce Nick Krall As Head Of Baseball Ops Department
The Cincinnati Reds officially announced Nick Krall as the head of their baseball operations department. Krall is the current VP and General Manager, but he now steps up to assume the duties as the Reds’ top baseball decision-maker.
Per the team release, the Reds wrote: “We are excited for Nick to assume the lead over our baseball operations. His hands-on approach as General Manager gives us the opportunity to reinstate that role as the top position in our baseball department and keep the years of hard work that happened under his purview producing stronger, more competitive teams.”
Previous Team President Dick Williams stepped down earlier this month to take on greater responsibility in his family business. Installing Krall in the top spot on the org chart maintains a strong sense of continuity, despite Williams’ departure. Krall and Williams worked together for 15 years in the Reds’ front office. Krall has been the GM for the past 3 seasons, helping to lead the charge in building a roster that returned the Reds to the postseason this year.
The Reds have a fair amount of money committed to their 2021 roster with Joey Votto, Mike Moustakas, Nicholas Castellanos, and Eugenio Suarez accounting for almost $64MM in 2021 payroll. The impending free agency of Trevor Bauer will be the first significant decision for the Reds under Krall’s leadership. Bauer went 5-4 with a 1.73 ERA/2.88 FIP to take home the NL ERA crown in 2020.
Reds President Of Baseball Operations Dick Williams Resigns
The Reds announced this morning that president of baseball operations Dick Williams has resigned from his post in order to “pursue personal interests outside baseball.” He’ll take on a role in his family’s company, North American Properties, per the team’s press release. Bobby Nightengale of the Cincinnati Enquirer reports that Williams met with owner Bob Castellini in August and informed him that he planned to step away after the 2020 season. General manager Nick Krall will continue to serve in his current role.
The Williams family has been ingrained with the Reds franchise for decades. Williams’ father and uncle are currently minority shareholders with the club, and his grandfather was at one point a partial owner of the franchise as well. Williams joined the team as director of baseball operations back in 2006, when Castellini purchased a majority stake in the team, and he’s steadily climbed the ranks to his current post. Krall, previously an assistant GM, was elevated to GM status in May 2018. He’ll presumably now shift to head up the entire baseball operations department.
“Dick has been an integral part of the Reds’ success from our first days of ownership in 2006 through our Postseason appearance in 2020,” Castellini said in today’s release. “He took the lead on modernizing every aspect of our baseball operations. Dick was the mastermind behind our incredible facility in Goodyear, drove advances in our scouting and player development systems, expanded capacity for analytics and established our sports science departments, just to name a few. … Dick has an incredible baseball IQ, and his gift for innovation came at the right time in history. We are enormously proud of the contributions he has made to this franchise.”
Much of Williams’ tenure as team president was spent in a rebuilding process that was embarked upon as former GM Walt Jocketty transitioned to an advisory role with the team. The Reds’ path to this year’s postseason berth wasn’t exactly straightforward, and it’s fair to point out that some of the biggest trades made during the Williams-led rebuild didn’t bear much in the way of fruit. The Reds were left with little to nothing to show for their trades of Aroldis Chapman, Todd Frazier and Johnny Cueto, for instance, as none of the younger talent acquired in those swaps contributed to this year’s winning club.
At the same time, Williams struck gold in the trade that sent right-hander Dan Straily to Miami and netted the Reds Luis Castillo. Both his decision to buy low on Sonny Gray and the corresponding contract extension look nothing less than brilliant at this point. Despite likely being out of contention in July 2019, the Reds under Williams took a big swing with an eye on 2020 and acquired NL Cy Young candidate Trevor Bauer in a three-team trade with the Reds and Padres. He was also in charge of baseball operations over the winter when the Reds hired president of Driveline Baseball Kyle Boddy to further a strong push into data-driven innovations in the organization’s pitching program.
Recent success notwithstanding, Williams spoke in today’s press release about a desire to spend more time with a young family that he does not see nearly as often as he would like.
“In order todo this job right, you are at a ballpark, either in the major or minor leagues, every single day, night and weekend from mid-February until deep into the fall,” Williams said. “That was a lot to ask of my young family, and they supported m every step of the way. It is time to pour some of that energy back into them.”
NL Central Notes: Krall, Vazquez, Anderson/Peralta, Hicks, Darvish
On his latest podcast, MLB.com’s Mark Feinsand chats with just-minted Reds GM Nick Krall, who took a grinder’s approach to getting into the game. The back story is an interesting listen and also provides some insight into Krall’s background with the Moneyball-era A’s. Of what he learned from Billy Beane, Krall says he was impressed by Beane’s scope of knowledge of players from outside the Oakland organization along with his certitude as to “what he wanted on his team.” From former Reds GM Walt Jocketty, Krall says he learned to exercise greater patience. (Krall describes himself as “a very impatient person” by nature.) It’s a worthwhile listen for fans who want to learn more about the most recent person to be named a major-league general manager.
Here’s more from the NL Central:
- Elizabeth Bloom of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette looks at a few interesting subjects involving the Pirates. In particular, she dives into the question of fastball velocity in regard to closer Felipe Vazquez, whose slight loss of speed does not seem to represent much cause for concern — particularly since he has actually increased the spin rate on the offering. Though Vazquez only carries a 3.86 ERA on the year, it’s worth noting too that he has been hurt by a 58.3% strand rate. That said, while Vazquez is still getting loads of swinging strikes, his walk rate has gone backwards and he isn’t getting as many grounders as he has in years past. At this point, he hasn’t shown quite the level of dominance he did in 2017, but there’s not yet any reason to believe he won’t be a quality late-inning arm for the foreseeable future.
- The Brewers activated righty Chase Anderson from the DL to take the ball yesterday, optioning Freddy Peralta to open a roster spot. It’s certainly good news for Milwaukee that Anderson was able to bounce back quickly from illness; now, the 30-year-old will look go get back on track after a messy start to the year. He has managed a 3.86 ERA in 51 1/3 frames, but has showing worrying trends in his peripherals that have fielding-independent pitching metrics raising red flags (6.02 FIP; 5.36 xFIP; 5.16 SIERA). The brief respite for Anderson may not have been the worst thing for all involved. In addition to giving him a chance to get sorted, the team surely now feels like it has a better sense of Peralta’s potential to help at the MLB level in the near term. His second outing wasn’t quite as stirring as his first, to be sure, but Peralta impressed overall by allowing just four earned runs on four hits while recording 18 strikeouts against eight walks in 9 2/3 innings.
- Over at Fangraphs, there are a couple pieces well worth a read for fans of the division. Jeff Sullivan examines the curious case of Cardinals reliever Jordan Hicks, the flamethrowing reliever who has thus far registered very few strikeouts. It’s a well-balanced take on the youngster, who certainly has exhibited a fascinating skill but still will need to make improvements to become a dominant MLB reliever. Speaking of fastballs, Jay Jaffe looks at the arsenal of Cubs starter Yu Darvish and his reasonably promising return from the DL. It’s a complicated picture, but well worth a look for anyone looking to gauge where things are headed for the high-priced hurler.
Reds Promote Nick Krall To General Manager
The Reds announced this afternoon that assistant general manager Nick Krall has been named the club’s new general manager. President of baseball operations Dick Williams will continue to oversee the club’s entire baseball operations department, per the announcement. The Reds, then, will be employing the president/general manager tandem that has become increasingly popular throughout the game, with organizations such as the Cubs, Dodgers, Athletics and numerous others have adopted in recent seasons.
It’s been a steady climb through the Reds’ ranks for Krall, who broke in with the organization in 2003 when he was hired to run the club’s advance scouting department. Since that time, Krall has been the team’s assistant director of baseball operations, the senior director of baseball operations and, most recently, a vice president and assistant GM. The LSU grad has been working in professional baseball since getting a foot in the door with the A’s back in 2001-02.
“Moving forward, Nick will be more heavily involved in the decisions we need to make to improve our product on the field both at the Major League and minor league levels,” Williams said in a statement announcing the promotion.
In addition to his advance scouting work earlier in his career, Krall’s previous duties as a VP and AGM saw him involved in a wide range of baseball ops responsibilities, including arbitration, contract negotiations, player acquisition and rules/waiver compliance. He’ll bring a wide range of experience to his newfound title, though it appears that final say on baseball operations decisions will still lie with Williams.