The Cincinnati Reds employed David Bell previous to the 2019 season. Within the six years since then he’s compiled a managerial report of 406 wins and 453 losses. Cincinnati has made the playoffs simply as soon as in these six years and it got here in 2020 when the workforce completed 31-29 within the shortened season that noticed eight groups attain the playoffs in every league. That season is one in every of three profitable seasons that Bell has had with the Reds. There’s nonetheless an opportunity that this season could possibly be a profitable one, however the workforce might want to go 9-2 or higher the remainder of the best way.
In talking with Reds.com’s Mark Sheldon, President of Baseball Operations Nick Krall mentioned this of David Bell when requested in regards to the membership’s supervisor and coaches for 2025:
“He’s obtained a contract for subsequent 12 months,” Krall mentioned when requested about Bell earlier than Friday’s sport. “As of proper now, we’re going to judge every little thing on the finish of the 12 months and see what now we have to do to maneuver ahead.”
That’s not precisely a fantastic response to listen to if you’re David Bell or somebody on his teaching workers.
The workforce has not lived as much as expectations this season. A few of that’s in all probability because of accidents. However a few of it may very effectively even be attributed to the teaching workers. And whereas I additionally imagine that it’s completely honest to say that the entrance workplace/possession is at loads of fault, too – we’re speaking about expectations of the workforce for 2024 moderately than what ought to be an try and put collectively a workforce able to contending for the division, league, and so forth.
On paper, a lot of the projection methods had the workforce across the .500 mark coming into the 12 months. It doesn’t appear to be they are going to be getting there until they go on an enormous run beginning tomorrow night time and take it via the subsequent two weeks.
There’s an outdated saying (notably in baseball) {that a} supervisor is simply nearly as good as his gamers. This author believes that to principally be true. You may’t win with a workforce that merely isn’t adequate. This isn’t soccer the place you may scheme your manner round an absence of expertise (or a minimum of try and). Cincinnati’s entrance workplace hasn’t precisely put a great workforce on the sector in the course of the tenure of Bell’s time as supervisor exterior of probably 2020, and we didn’t precisely get to see how they’d play over a full season.
Nonetheless, sooner or later somebody goes to be “accountable” for the entire not profitable the workforce has finished. Even when the workforce has had profitable seasons, it’s been barely above .500 forms of profitable. That actually beats going 62-100 just like the membership did in 2022, however the aim shouldn’t be to completed 83-79. It ought to be to make the playoffs and have a workforce able to profitable a World Sequence.
The Reds have fallen woefully shy of that during the last decade. How a lot of that’s David Bell and his teaching workers’s fault is an inexpensive query. How a lot of it may be laid on the toes of the entrance workplace and possession is one other. However a kind of two teams will get to resolve who responsible in the event that they select that somebody ought to be “accountable” and it’s not going to be Bell and the coaches that get to resolve that.
