REDS VS THE BENGALS!
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 51
AND
THIS ONE
BELONGS
TO THE
THE CASTELLINIS ARE NOW CINCINNATI’S
NO. 1 SPORTS VILLAINS, AND THE BROWNS
ARE THE COOL KIDS. HERE’S HOW THE
REDS CAN DUPLICATE THE BENGALS’
RETURN TO FAVOR.
BY
C HAD DOTS ON
ILLUSTRATION BY
M I K E TOFAN E LLI
49
holders in Castellini’s ownership group—
the Reds reshaped nearly everything about
the minor league system and began filling
holes on the big league roster. Williams
signed Nick Castellanos, Mike Mousta-
kas, and Wade Miley and traded for pitcher
Trevor Bauer.
Cincinnati finished the pandemic-
shortened 2020 season with a 31–29 re-
cord, actually sneaking into an expanded
playoff structure, where they were prompt-
ly crushed by the Atlanta Braves. But it was
“BENGALS FANS FINALLY SEEM UNBURDENED, NO LONGER
FILLED WITH THE APPREHENSION THAT CAME WITH
DECADES OF NOT ADVANCING TO THE POSTSEASON.”
something to build on. Curiously, Williams
stepped down immediately after the season
in what was a harbinger of things to come.
Within two months, Cincinnati had essen-
tially given away two quality relief pitchers
for free, and the Reds did little to improve
the roster over the winter.
The 2021 Reds won 83 games and fell
just short of the playoffs only because own-
ership quit on them. That’s when every-
thing devolved into chaos. General Man-
ager Nick Krall revealed that he had been
ordered to “align payroll to our resources.”
The Reds cynically gave away players (Miley
and Gold Glove catcher Tucker Barnhart)
because Castellini didn’t want to pay them.
Krall executed a fire sale, trading away the
core of the roster: Jesse Winker, Sonny
Gray, Eugenio Suarez, Luis Castillo, and
Tyler Mahle.
Phil Castellini then verbally vomited
all over himself on Opening Day 2022, and
things went from bad to worse. The Reds
lost 100 games for only the second time in
franchise history and finished the season
with the lowest attendance totals since the
early 1980s. Things don’t figure to get any
better in 2023, as Phil warned the Rosie
Reds.
While the Reds have continued to
alienate an already-frustrated fan base, the
Bengals have engineered a stunning turn-
around. “It’s night and day right now,” says
Mo Egger, who hosts the afternoon sports
talk show on ESPN 1530. “Bengals fans fi-
nally seem unburdened by the franchise’s
past and no longer filled with the apprehen-
sion that came with decades of not advanc-
ing to the postseason. Even with the disap-
pointment of losing in the AFC title game,
there seems to be a legitimate feeling that
a championship—while not inevitable—is
very, very likely.”
Sara Elyse, a news anchor with WLW
radio as well as iHeart Media, is a lifelong
Cincinnatian who’s been attending Reds
and Bengals games for years. She’s had a
similar experience as Egger. “Bengals fans
are definitely energized right now and feel-
ing optimistic about the future,” says Elyse.
“In the AFC Championship game in Kansas
City, as soon as the field goal was good and
the Chiefs were crowned winners, Bengals
fans were sad, yes, but also still feeling op-
timistic. Like, Hey, we’ll get them next year.
Key word here: optimistic. We all know the
Bengals are capable of getting back to the
big stage.
“Sadly, Reds fans are not optimistic
right now. It’s a glass half full vs. glass half
empty situation.”
IF MIKE BROWN’S REPUTATION HAS BEEN
resurrected from the dead, there’s no rea-
son Bob Castellini can’t do the same. First,
though, we must acknowledge the obvious:
A P R I L 2 0 2 3 C I N C I N N AT I M A G A Z I N E . C O M 7 1
The NFL and MLB operate different busi-
ness models in many ways.
The NFL has a payroll cap and a robust
revenue sharing system that reflects the
fact that pro football is a national product,
while baseball is more of a local one. MLB
teams don’t have a payroll cap; they have
a luxury tax. Teams that spend more than
the luxury tax threshold are “taxed” on the
amount by which they exceed the number.
The amount collected is then disbursed to
the other baseball franchises.
In practice, MLB teams can essentially
spend any amount they want on salary.
There is a penalty for exceeding the luxury
tax threshold, but that hasn’t discouraged
baseball owners who actually want to win.
Case in point: The New York Mets’ 2023
payroll is projected to be in excess of $330
million. That’s nearly five times the Reds’
projected payroll ($70,624,500).
Though there are differences between
the economic systems in each sport, there
are specific lessons that Bob Castellini can
learn from the example of the Bengals and
Mike Brown. Here are five of them.
1. STOP MEDDLING!
In recent years, Brown has stepped away
from day-to-day operations within the
Bengals front office. He began by ced-
ing control of many on-field decisions to
former coach Marvin Lewis. Off the field,
Brown’s daughter Katie Blackburn and her
husband Troy have steadily taken a more
active role in nearly every arena of front of-
fice operations, from contract negotiations
to marketing, while Duke Tobin—Cincin-
nati’s director of player personnel—has
acted more like a typical NFL general man-
ager. The product, both on the field and off,
has improved substantially.
The Castellinis must similarly fade into
the background. “I’ve often been critical of
Castellini leadership,” says Egger, “either for
being meddlesome or for not going all-in
when they could have. Their almost con-
stant switching from one plan to another
has yielded very, very limited results. Re-
member when [former minor league pitch-
ing coordinator] Kyle Boddy was going to
lead a total overhaul of how the Reds de-
veloped pitchers?
“Is Nick Krall the right person to run the