Nick Krall Reveals Key Details About Cincinnati Reds’ Bullpen Plans

Nick Krall spoke with members of the Cincinnati media after making a trade that shipped Gavin Lux to the Los Angeles Angels. His comments about the bullpen pointed to the team’s plan for it this year.

The Reds added yet another relief pitcher to their roster with their most recent trade. Left-handed relief pitcher Brock Burke is joining the Reds from the Angels.

“(Burke) is a quality lefty reliever to add to the bullpen,” Krall said. “Having two veteran guys in he and Caleb Ferguson and a third lefty in Sam Moll, who ended the year not where we wanted him to be but he has a chance to come in and have a third lefty to your bullpen, is a nice thing to have.

A Reds bullpen with three quality lefties would be lethal down the stretch. That sounds like it is plan A for the Reds for 2026, supposing Moll can put in the work to get back to where he was in 2024.

Depending on how you view Connor Phillips, you may see no open spots in the bullpen. Krall did not approach it from that angle.

“Bullpen-wise, we wanted a lot of options. We wanted a deeper bullpen than last year. We had a couple of guys who pitched a lot. We have those veteran guys but we also have some younger guys in Zach Maxwell, Connor Phillips, and Luis Mey who will compete for spots in the bullpen.”

The fact he included Phillips with Maxwell and Mey could surprise some people. No one would dispute that Maxwell and Mey will need to prove it to make the MLB bullpen, but including Phillips means the Reds are not sold on the 25 innings they saw from him last year.

Phillips shows promise, but as we have plenty of examples to this, that doesn’t always mean production. Krall did well not to bet on Phillips, Maxwell, and Mey being mainstays in the bullpen for Cincinnati.

Reds' pitching should be able to keep them in every game. Yes, I am including ones against the Los Angeles Dodgers.

See what else Krall had to say in the full interview:

Reds make it official - trade Gavin Lux ($5.525 million) to Rays in three-way trade, get lefty reliever Brock Burke ($2.325 million) back from the Angels. Nick Krall says Reds deepening and strengthening their pen even more. Unclogs the roster for players like Sal Stewart and… pic.twitter.com/wDG3MAYGTG
— Mike Petraglia (@Trags) January 16, 2026