Changing the Game

As a baseball operations analyst for the Cincinnati Reds, Katie Krall ’18 is living out her dream. With the team’s front office, she works on player acquisition and development to create a cohesive and competitive club.

The Reds made the playoffs for the first time since 2013 in the pandemic-shortened 2020 season, Krall’s first year with the organization. Before joining the Reds, Krall spent more than a year as a league economics and operations coordinator at Major League Baseball’s commissioner’s office as part of the inaugural Major League Baseball Diversity Fellowship Program. Northwestern professor Bill Savage ’88 MA, ’92 PhD recommended that Krall look into that opportunity, which gave her a seat at the table for macro-level decisions on salary negotiations and rule changes that resulted in faster games.

At Northwestern, Krall created the varsity baseball team’s student promotions coordinator position. In 2016–17 she coordinated the Chicago Cubs’ World Series Trophy Tour in the Midwest. And she spent one season as an assistant general manager for the Hyannis Harbor Hawks of the Cape Cod Baseball League.

While being considered for MLB’s Diversity Fellowship Program, Krall was interviewed by the league’s then–senior vice president for baseball operations, Kim Ng, who in November joined the Miami Marlins as the league’s first woman general manager.

Krall hopes Ng’s milestone is just the beginning and would love to see more progress on adding diversity of thought in baseball front offices. “I want to make sure that there are people in the room who have experiences that are vastly different and, as a result, are going to help me and my organization make better decisions,” she says.