Reds Beat: Reds Offensive Priority for 2025 ‘Hitters First, Then Power’

CINCINNATI — Reds President of Baseball Operations Nick Krall wants to see a change in the way his batters attack the strike zone. In general, he wants a more consistent offense in 2025.

He made that clear Tuesday speaking with reporters in a season wrap-up post-mortem touching on a number of different topics.

“You want line drive hitters, because line drives are going to go out in this ballpark,” Krall said. “You want hitters in an approach that you can use the whole field and hit line drives and take good at-bats before you like that’s more important for us than power, especially in this ballpark.

“I think it’s just getting guys to make more contact and be better hitters, hitters first, then power.”

That’s what Krall wants when the batters actually swing the bats. The other half of that is being more selective. It’s the art of forcing pitchers to throw pitches that batters want to hit and working counts.

The Reds relieved all three hitting coaches relieved of duties, Joel McKeithan, Terry Bradshaw and Tim LaMont and will be moving forward with a search for a new batting coach. The Reds allowed 127 fewer runs in 2024 but scored 84 fewer.

Francona’s teams, especially in Boston, were legendary for having hitters that worked counts relentlessly and drove starting pitchers out of games by the fifth and sixth innings.

“We did talk about that, especially when you’re facing a number one starter, going into it, this is going to be a long one. Let’s, let’s have longer at bats. That’s where it counts,” Reds GM Brad Meador said. “Let’s get into the bullpen. That’s where you’re gonna need to win the game. So it was something we talked about philosophically.”

One batter that demonstrated the ability to work at-bats this season, having plenty of at-bats that featured foul after foul after foul, was Santiago Espinal. He was Cincinnati’s best hitter in the final half of the season and one of the hottest in all of baseball. As an added bonus, he started showing power, finishing with a career high nine home runs. Espinal batted .432 with three homers in July and .338 in August with two homers before slumping to .182 in September.

“That’s been our approach to hitters as well,” Krall added. “Let’s just continue to get on base, continue to hit line drives. We talked to Espinal at the end of the year. He had a career high in home runs. Here you’re going to hit home runs in this ballpark. Look, that’s just going to happen. The more, the more line drives, more contact you make, the better chance you’re going to have hitting the ball out of the ballpark.”

Espinal, who turns 30 in November, is entering his third arbitration year, meaning the Reds have him under control for 2025 and ’26 before his free agency year of 2027.

Free agency has to work itself out as part of the offseason roster-building process but Espinal could have a significant role again in 2025.

“He played a big role on this team, especially in the second half. He’s a leader. He wants to play every day, and he’s willing to play any position,” Meador said. “I’m certainly glad we have him.”

More Reds news from GABP per President of Baseball Ops Nick Krall and GM Brad Meador:

Pitching coach Derek Johnson is remaining on the staff. “He knew how we felt about (Johnson) and from everything he’d heard about D.J. — and he’s done his work since then and talking to D.J. — he’s all in. He’s very, very comfortable with him,” Meador said.

RHP Julian Aguiar, who injured his elbow in last week, had Tommy John surgery and is out for 2025.

Jonathan India had a procedure to “clean up” his ankle.

Terry Francona and the team starting to have discussions on putting together staff.

Spots will have to be earned in spring training, nothing set at this point. “People need to come in to get to work and earn spots.”

Spencer Steer and Jonathan India are open to moving around to different spots next season, including India at first and the outfield.

Elly De La Cruz starts the offseason as a shortstop.

Edwin Arroyo is Cincinnati’s designated Arizona Fall League player at shortstop, meaning that will be his primary position. Matt McLain and Christian Encarnacion-Strand will also play in AFL while Noelvi Marte will play in the Dominican League this winter.