At the end of every season, Cincinnati Reds president of baseball operations Nick Krall and general manager Brad Meador meet with the media to reflect on the previous season and look ahead to the following year. On Thursday, for the first time, Reds CEO Phil Castellini participated in that Q&A with this front office.
“My coming here today is 100% about showing that we are 100% behind these guys on taking this team to the next level and solving the challenges that we have to do that and sticking with our strategy,” Castellini said.
Phil Castellini, the son of owner Bob Castellini, has taken over as the Reds’ representative at league meetings.
Phil Castellini said that ownership’s “job is to allocate the resources,” and he emphasized the importance of “(letting)the baseball guys make the baseball decisions.”
“It’s incumbent on me to create as many resources as possible for these guys to deploy against the strategy to improve this team,” Castellini said. “The baseball things need to happen with the baseball guys. That’s the key focus.”
Castellini reiterated the Reds’ stated “plan” from the last several seasons: building the core of the team through scouting, drafting and player development.
The Reds have diverted from that plan in free agency in recent years when they splurged on power bats like Jeimer Candelario and Eugenio Suárez. Trading a prospect and a draft pick (now two standout prospects with the Dodgers) for Gavin Lux was another example of getting away from that strategy.
“It’s (about) continuing to stay disciplined to that (player development) strategy,” Castellini said. “I think we have the right strategy. Staying to the disciplines and executing on that strategy is (key).”
What is the Reds’ process for setting a payroll for a specific season?
“We always try to deploy every resource that we have into baseball operations,” Castellini said. “That’s a broad construct. Everything in baseball operations is from player development, scouting, facilities, technology, the team that we built to build the team at the Major League level. There’s a constant view of where and how to allocate those total dollars. Through that process, after the total allocation of those dollars, you wind up solving for a payroll number. It’s very fluid season to season, and it will continue to be.”
Last winter, Krall and Terry Francona praised and thanked the Castellini family for agreeing to go over what had been the team’s set, planned budget for 2026 so that the Reds could sign Suárez.
Would Castellini consider going over budget for a free agent addition again in 2027?
“You have to continue to evaluate those investments that you make and did they bear the fruit you expected them to or didn’t they,” Castellini said. “That’s a continued evaluation year-to-year that we have to focus on. This is where Nick and Brad, these are the guys who need to continue to evaluate those decisions.”
The Reds aren’t going to start spending like the biggest market teams, but the Rays, Brewers and Guardians have shown that you can win at the payroll level that the Reds have been operating at.
“This franchise has the ability to compete in the way we’ve seen other teams compete with less resources,” Castellini said. “That’s what’s most important. That’s not going to change. There are other teams that have had success without using the type of capital that the other teams have used to get there. That’s what we have to stay focused on.”
The Reds just wrapped up a 2026 season that had big expectations and completely fell flat. Instead of building on last year’s playoff berth, the Reds went 75-87. The Reds haven’t advanced in the playoffs since 1995.
“Championship baseball is the goal of every team in the entire industry,” Castellini said. “That’s why everyone is here. Every player, coach, every person who has worked in baseball. That’s the goal. It shouldn’t be any different in this market.”
Castellini said that he hears the fans “loud and clear” about the results not being good enough.
“We respect and understand the importance of this franchise to this city,” Castellini said. “We respect our fans. They’re incredibly high baseball IQ fans. They deserve better. This group of people has the capability to deliver what they deserve. We want to continue until they do.”
Because of his “commitment to the city,” his “passion about the community” and understanding of the value of pro sports in Cincinnati, Castellini said that his family plans to continue owning the team.
“The failure to deliver is not lost on us,” Castellini said. “We’re going to continue to work hard until we do. We’re here. We’re going to be here. This isn’t about investing in something to do a flip. This is about getting it right.”
Sigh... where to begin?
1. The greasy doofus nepotism hire speaks. Promises same course, different results. Color me skeptical.
2. The Brewers do it largely with clever, well-timed, and often quite risky TRADES. It involves trading very good players at their peaks sometimes. Are they ready to embrace more risk?
3. The Padres invested more - FAR more - in the team than would have logically been dictated by some sort of cold MBA analysis of "what we can afford." Look at the crowds they have now. In other words, paying MORE for a team can be not just a cost, it can be an INVESTMENT in something better. Will Reds ownership ever embrace that?
If they think Reds fans are smart (and I agree with that), they need to give us more than a 1-year investment in a 35-year-old mostly-DH slugger. (I love Geno, don't get me wrong. But that isn't team building.)
Banish the simplistic "Fans like home runs" thinking. Give us a fun, young, athletic team that plays a fun brand of baseball (like the Brewers have). Good OBP, sneaky pop, smart play, good defense everywhere.
Learn how to develop young players. We should not see guys hit .280 in their rookie years and then .190 three years later.
Cincinnati WILL embrace a winner. Give us something to get excited about! People will come, Ray. Oh yes, people will most definitely come.
Comforting to learn that the plan is "building the core of the team through scouting, drafting and player development." I assume that that plan is going super well, right? Since there would have to be consequences for, say, a complete and total abject failure in those areas, right?
I mean, if the plan was developed and put into place over years by the same guys and resulted in pure bupkes, and then the same people and the same plan were just kept in place for another year, that would be rank incompetence! That would be the kind of management you'd expect from an ignorant failson who can't even give a speech to a friendly audience at a fan event without treading on his genitals! And man would it be a pity if my favorite team were run by incompetents supervised by a moron.
Kindly continue to keep us apprised of the ongoing successes of the plan, Charlie.