The Reds get a head start on the offseason with an early firing of their manager
The Cincinnati Reds have fired manager David Bell, the team announced yesterday.
Generally speaking, manager firing season starts once the regular season ends, but most years one or two teams get things started early by letting their manager go before the regular season officially ends. The Reds have apparently decided that pulling the plug now made more sense than finishing the year out with Bell.
You may recall that the Rangers interviewed Bell in October, 2018, for their vacant managerial position. The 2018 Rangers had, like the 2024 Reds, decided to reliever their skipper before the season officially ended, with bench coach Don Wakamatsu managing the final 10 games of the season. Texas at the time also interviewed Rocco Baldelli, Stubby Clapp, Joe Girardi, Chris Shelton, Brandon Hyde, Dusty Wathan, Joe Espada, Eric Chavez, Jayce Tingler and Wakamatsu before ultimately hiring Chris Woodward, who started off well in 2019 but saw everything go downhill after that.
The Reds ended up hiring Bell as their manager that offseason. After hovering around .500 in his first three seasons, Bell oversaw a 2022 Reds team that lost 100 games. They rebounded to go 82-80 in 2023, and there were thoughts of contention in the N.L. playoff race for 2024. Cincinnati is 76-81 this year, however, and Bell is now gone.
Whether or not Bell should have been axed is an open question, and one that none of us here are going to have a good answer to. I will note that the Reds actually have a better run differential this year (+14) than last year (-38), and their big offseason additions were Frankie Montas, Nick Martinez and Jeimer Candelario.