This isn’t where Nick Krall, president of baseball operations for the Cincinnati Reds, hoped to be right now.As the team nears the midpoint of the season, the Reds are 37-42 and sit 12 1/2 games back of the National League Central-leading Milwaukee Brewers and 5 1/2 games back of the third wild-card spot.The Reds have 16 games remaining before the All-Star break, with 13 of those against teams ahead of them in the NL standings. With the Aug. 3 trade deadline looming, Krall will have to decide on the club’s immediate future, which entered the season with high hopes.On Wednesday, he spoke with The Athletic about what’s gone wrong and what lies ahead.(Note: The conversation has been edited for clarity and length.)You obviously know where this team sits at the moment.We’ve been inconsistent. We’ve had some ups. We’ve had some downs, but we’ve got to figure out how to be more consistent. It’s great to get some guys back from playing, but we’ve got to figure out how to pick it up and try to win more games.This offseason, you had three stated goals: rebuild the bullpen, improve the defense and help the offense. The bullpen has had its ups and downs.We’ve brought some guys in who have pitched pretty well, and we’ve had some guys who were injured. We brought some guys up who were ready to pitch in the big leagues. We’ve had some guys struggle in the bullpen. We’ve been good some days, and some days we’ve been bad. In April, we were really good in the bullpen, and then, hey, we just fell apart. We’ve got some pieces there that have some chances to be good. We’ve just got to get back to getting consistency.So much of the defense was built around Ke’Bryan Hayes.Ke’Bryan went down, and it changed our defense. TJ Friedl struggled early, both offensively and defensively. Elly (De La Cruz) went down. You start moving guys out of place, and we’ve definitely struggled there. We thought we were a lot better coming into the season from a defensive standpoint.Offensively?Same thing. We have some guys we thought might have a positive impact in the lineup who haven’t. And then we have Nathaniel Lowe and JJ Bleday, who have taken strides forward. It’s about finding consistency in all facets of our game and figuring out how to get better.Entering Tuesday’s game, you were three games out of the wild card, and last year, you were three games out of the wild card on Sept. 17, so it’s far from over. However, do you feel like this team, the way you are built, can make a push to the playoffs?I think we can. I do think there is a path to be able to do it. We have to do it. If you look at our last couple of games, our starting pitching has been giving us innings, and that’s going to help our bullpen out. I think that’s what we had all last year; we had starting pitching. Starting pitching took a lot off the bullpen by not having to tax it so much. Our bullpen has been taxed.