What will the next four years of Reds baseball look like?

This offseason, the message from the Reds’ front office and coaching staff has focused on him improving the quality of his at-bats, showing more baseball IQ as a base runner, playing more sound defense and showing more overall consistency.

If the already immensely talented De La Cruz does all of that, then his next contract will rival the deal that Juan Soto is about to sign with the Mets.

The talk of the winter meetings was Soto’s $765 million deal with the Mets. De La Cruz, who is under contract through the 2029 season, is one of the only players in baseball with the potential to land a deal like that one day.

How much is the idea of his free agency way down the road something that’s on Nick Krall’s mind?

“I’m excited that he’s on our team this year,” Krall said. “We’ll go from there.”

Krall said that long-term planning for the distant future isn’t cut and dry. For example, he said that the Reds have no idea who they’ll pick with their first-round pick in the 2025 MLB Draft next July. It could be anything from a close to big league ready pitcher (like Rhett Lowder) to a high school catcher (like Tyler Stephenson) who will need several years to develop.

“It’s hard because you don’t know,” Krall said. “You might not have a guy in your organization from the draft this year (2025) that will impact your club three years from now.”

The Reds’ young core isn’t so young anymore. Tyler Stephenson has two more years of team control before he’s eligible for free agency. TJ Friedl, Hunter Greene and Nick Lodolo are already entering their fourth full big league seasons. Elly De La Cruz, Matt McLain, Andrew Abbott and Spencer Steer are entering Year 3.

Jeimer Candelario (two more guaranteed years under contract) and Hunter Greene (under team control through 2029) are the only players on the roster with guaranteed salaries past 2025.

Krall said that there’s a “rough outline” for what the next four years look like.

“You’ve got some guys that are under control,” Krall said. “You’ve got some guys that have to make adjustments to continue to be that guy. There are a lot of considerations. You can look one-to-four years, and that’s probably what you’re looking at most of the time.”

With another offseason comes another year of losing established leaders on the big league roster. It happens to every team every year, and the Reds are no exception as rosters turnover.

After the 2021 season, they traded Tucker Barnhart. After 2022, they traded Kyle Farmer. Joey Votto’s tenure with the Reds ended at the end of the 2023 season, and now Jonathan India (traded) and Luke Maile (free agent) are both off the roster following the 2024 season.

In previous years, the Reds made a point to get veteran presences like Tommy Pham, Luke Maile, Wil Myers, Frankie Montas and Candelario.

The Reds continue to be active in the trade and free agent markets. But they don’t have to add a “leader” type this offseason.

Again, the young core isn’t that young anymore.

“You’ve got a lot of guys who have a chance to be leaders on this club,” Krall said. “It starts with Tito (Francona) and the coaching staff. It’s guys like Friedl who have been here for a while. They don’t have a lot of service time, but they are older. They’ve gone through a lot of stuff.”

“Elly has a chance to take that role,” Krall added. “It might be, some guys are going to lead by example, and some guys are going to be a bit more vocal. It just depends on who it is. A lot of the younger guys have the abilities and skill sets to be leaders on this team.”

The Reds are becoming De La Cruz, Steer, McLain, Friedl and Greene’s team, among others.

The window to compete should be open.