CINCINNATI — The next manager of the Cincinnati Reds figures to have a very talented roster with which to work. It’s how he plans to handle and lead that roster that will drive the hiring of David Bell’s successor in the next several weeks.
President of Baseball Operations Nick Krall spoke to the decision to remove Bell Monday morning just hours before the Reds open a season-ending five-game road trip through Cleveland and Chicago.
“I think the next manager needs to be in on the same page with everybody, it’s not just a player here, a staff member here, I think it’s everybody,” Krall told me Monday. “We need to be all completely aligned in what we’re trying to do and how we’re trying to build this club.”
Bell, 52, was hired by the Reds in October 2018. He compiled a 409-456 record over 6 seasons, including a 76-81 mark this year. In 2020, the Reds finished 31-29 and earned a Postseason berth in his second season, which was shortened by COVID-19 to 60 games.
“You want somebody to come in and lead this clubhouse and be a person that can continue to develop players at this level,” Krall said.
In 2021, the Reds appeared on the verge of another run to the playoffs with a 71-59 mark. But they lost 20 of their final 32 games and missed out. In 2022, the club let go of much of their veteran talent base and went through a full rebuild. They opened 3-22 and finished 6-20 to lose 100 games for the second time in franchise history.
In 2023, they rebounded thanks to an infusion of young talent and finished 82-80, just two games out of a wild card spot to eventual National League champion Arizona. Then this season they suffered through a number of injuries in spring training and the suspension of Noelvi Marte. They opened 14-10 but four games over .500 was their high-water mark for the season.
“We’ve made many improvements to this organization because of David. When he came here in 2018, over the last few years, he was the right person for this job. With that said, I didn’t take this decision lightly. This was a very tough decision, but I believe this is what we need to do to move forward as a major league team. I said a few weeks ago that everyone in this organization needs to be better myself included in order for this team to take the next step and perform like we are capable,” Krall said Monday.
Last year, the club gave Bell a three-year extension after directing a ship that included a bounty of new faces and new talent. Krall and – by extension – the Castellini family thought the hometown Bell would be the perfect voice and leader of the the talent that included Elly De La Cruz, Matt McLain, Spencer Steer, Noelvi Marte, Christian Encarnacion-Strand, Hunter Greene, Nick Lodolo and Andrew Abbott.
“We made the decision to extend David last season because I thought we were moving in the right direction as we promoted the younger core of players to develop in the big leagues” Krall said. “But after reflecting on everything from this season, I decided that we need to move in another direction with the leadership in the major league clubhouse. That’s why we made the change.”
While the win-loss record is what it is, the bigger picture spelled Bell’s doom. Young talented players like Marte, Steer and Ashcraft regressed significantly.
“Obviously, you want to win more games, but at the same time, we want to make sure that we’re making better decisions, players making better decisions, players are moving forward and getting better at this level, continuously getting better,” Krall said “I think that’s extremely important as we have a young group.”
Somewhere along the line, Bell’s message got lost. The defensive metrics on the infield were abysmally bad. Too often, the same players were making the same mistakes. Some of that was out of Bell’s control as Matt McLain never made it back and Bell didn’t feel comfortable taking De La Cruz out of the shortstop position as the team tried to give De La Cruz one position to master.
“We were what, 50 runs, behind the Brewers in terms of defense? That’s a that’s a big difference. Look at that versus the one-run games,” Krall said. “That does make a huge difference. I mean, our defense needs to get better across the board, and it’s infield (and) outfield.”
The club hasn’t won 90 games since their last playoff run in a non-shortened season in 2013. They’ve won 90 games just seven times in the last 45 seasons. Cincinnati hasn’t scored a run in a postseason game since 2013 and they haven’t won a postseason series since 1995.
While the next manager doesn’t have to be in the mold of Lou Piniella, the last manager to lead the Reds to a World Series, he does have to have a firm grip on the clubhouse and demonstrate that the players are accountable for their performance.
“David is one of the nicest most genuine and caring individuals I’ve worked with in 25 years in baseball,” Krall said. “He brought that caring attitude to the ballpark every day and in his interactions with players and staff members all around the organization.”
There’s no doubt that Bell was class all around. But in this results-driving business of major league sports, there needs to be a payoff and there’s been precious little of that at GABP in its 22 years of existence. Five playoff games and zero wins. Two other seasons (2013 and 2020) three playoff games on the road, all losses.
Too often, fans watched one-run loss after one-run loss and felt a sense of exasperation that the performance of the players wasn’t being held up for critique by their manager. Not that a manager has to throw their players under the bus, but that the performance of the team was no where near good enough. There were certain moments where that was unavoidable, like after the 14-0 loss to Milwaukee in the second game of a day-night doubleheader, a game started by Rhett Lowder and was 1-0 when he left.
Too many unforced defensive screw-ups on the infield, especially by Elly De La Cruz. The young superstar has a wealth of major league talent. No disputing that. But could he use a firmer hand?
Maybe that’s what a Skip Schumaker, Terry Francona or David Ross – or dare we suggest him – Barry Larkin could bring to the dugout.
Krall said the process will begin immediately. He wouldn’t speculate Monday on potential candidates or a timeline to hire Bell’s successor.
That will all work itself out.
“David provided the kind of steadiness that we needed in our clubhouse over the last few seasons. We felt a change was needed to move the Major League team forward. We have not achieved the success we expected, and we need to begin focusing on 2025,” Krall said.
David Bell took the Reds as far as he could. That was the sentiment from Krall and the front office Monday. Now it’s time to find the next manager to take them to that next level, and do it before desperation turns to apathy among a fan base that hasn’t had much to celebrate in the last 34 years.
