In a somewhat surprising development, the Redlegs have parted ways with manager David Bell just one year after signing him to a three-year contract extension. The news dropped under cover of darkness late on Sunday evening, and it comes at the end of a week in which Cincinnati’s slim 2024 playoff hopes were officially dashed. With one more loss, the Reds will clinch their 18th losing campaign in the last 23 full seasons. Something is very wrong with this picture.
Looking back, this year was doomed from the start, with one of last year’s breakout stars, Matt McLain, suffering a season-ending shoulder injury—and subsequent surgery—before the opening bell even rang. Toss in the 80-game PED suspension of another exciting young prospect, Noelvi Marte along with management’s steadfast refusal to improve the club last winter, and, well, the Reds were simply climbing uphill all the way in 2024.
It’s hard to remember, now that the Reds have been also-rans for the last couple of months, but there were a few moments early on when the club appeared to be on the verge of competing. With a 7-4 win over Philly on April 24, Cincinnati improved to four games above .500, just a game and a half out of first. That turned out to be the high-water mark of the season; less than a week later, they embarked upon a dispiriting 10-game losing streak. The Reds spent most of the rest of the season in last or next-to-last place.
There was another faint glimmer of hope in early June, when Cincinnati reeled off a seven-game winning streak. Immediately, however, they lost six of their next nine. While the Reds weren’t exactly bad the rest of the way, they were never able to put together any sustained stretch of baseball good enough to climb back into the playoff picture. Since that streak, Bell’s Reds have posted a 43-48 record (including a 12-8 September) and were never closer than 8.5 games out of first since the All-Star break. Also-rans.
To be sure, there have been some highlights this season. Phenom Elly De La Cruz became the first shortstop in MLB history to hit 25 homers and steal 65 bases in the same season. Not bad for his first full campaign, and he notched his first All-Star appearance as well. As did Hunter Greene, who began to fulfill his promise as the next Reds ace and even looked like a Cy Young candidate for much of July and August before elbow soreness sidelined him.
Other positives included Tyler Stephenson’s bounce-back campaign; finally healthy, he hit .262/.340/.453 with 25 doubles and 19 home runs in 133 games. Lefty Andrew Abbott (10-10, 3.72 ERA, 117 ERA+) had a solid sophomore season at age 25 and solidified himself in Cincinnati’s future plans. And Nick Martinez probably pitched himself out of the Reds’ plans with a 10-6, 3.22 (136 ERA+) season. He has a $12 million player option for next season, but if he wanted to bet on himself Martinez will decline that option and try to get a bigger payday on the free agent market. And we know the Reds won’t try to actually pay market value for a player if they don’t have to. Good luck, Nick, and Godspeed.
So how do we view this season in the aftermath of Bell’s firing? Reds President Nick Krall gave his manager a young, rebuilding team and decided to use this year to let the young guys play and learn. That’s what happened, with everything made worse by injuries. The failure of Krall and ownership to invest anything in shoring up the team is out of Bell’s control.
David Bell is clearly the scapegoat for management’s failures to put together a competitive roster, but he didn’t do himself any favors either. The team often looked unprepared, continually making embarrassing mistakes on defense and on the basepaths. That will often happen with a roster full of young players, but other than Elly none of the kids took a big step forward in terms of performance as Krall hoped they would. Bell took his share of the blame for that.
Ultimately, I think my friend Wick hit the nail on the head: “What rubbed a lot of people wrong about David Bell as Reds manager was … that he never seemed to outwardly be nearly as angry about all the losing as he was at most every umpire.” Vibes, you know, but Wick isn’t wrong. But what rubbed me wrong personally was Bell’s ridiculous decision to bench Joey Votto at the end of the 2023 season. Sure, he’s a scapegoat, but I’ll never forgive him for that one.
In the end, only two managers have survived longer at the helm of the Reds than David Bell’s six years: Sparky Anderson and Bill McKechnie, both Hall of Famers and both World Series winners. Only Anderson, McKechnie, and Dusty Baker lost more games than Bell, but all three of those managers had winning records during their time with Cincinnati and all won at least a division championship during their tenure.
More interestingly, only 11 managers in Reds history have managed the club in at least five seasons. Of those, only two have losing records: David Bell and Bryan Price—both during the Castellini era, when losing baseball games has become not only acceptable but expected. Krall cited “philosophical differences” as the reason for Bell’s dismissal; one wonders what those differences could have been.
Krall also made some comments about what Reds fans should expect this winter: “I think we’re going to have to go through the offseason and see what that (potential improvement) looks like. We’re always going to be a small-market club. That’s not going to change.”
Sheesh. I’ll have much more to say about the team’s offseason options next week in this space.
Chad Dotson helms Reds coverage at Cincinnati Magazine and hosts a long-running Reds podcast, The Riverfront. His newsletter about Cincinnati sports can be found at chaddotson.com. He’s @dotsonc on Twitter.
Facebook Comments