After a very disappointing season, the Reds finally decided it was time to move on from manager David Bell. Bell had been with the Reds for 6 years and sported an all-time record of 409-456. In that time, Bell had 3 winning seasons (although one came in the 60-game season) and made the playoffs once. But also in that time, David Bell managed the second worst season in Reds history, losing 100 games for the first time since 1982. This, tied together with some of his other disappointing seasons, finally drove the Reds to let him go and look for new management.

The Reds new manager came 12 days later in the form of 3x AL pennant winner 2x World Series champion manager Terry Francona. Francona, up to that point, had been in retirement for 2 years after a 23-year career where he managed the Phillies, Red Sox, and Indians. Francona sported an all-time record of 1950-1672 and had 17 winning seasons, including 13 seasons of at least 90 wins and 1 season where he eclipsed 102 wins with the Cleveland Indians. With his signing, Francona aims to become only the 13th manager in history to eclipse 2000 wins for their career. During that time, Francona made the playoffs 11 times and has an all-time playoff record of 44-34. He won 2 World Series which is good enough for 11th all time and has an all-time world series record of 11-4. His only 4 losses coming in 2016 when his Cleveland Indians lost to the Chicago Cubs.

This signing has had a lot of mixed reviews. At first, almost everyone was excited and confident with the signing, but as the news has settled in, questions have started rising about whether the signing was the right idea, or if Francona is even fit to manage anymore, and while we obviously don’t have a clear answer, it was definitely time to move on from David Bell, and taking a chance on a former World Series champion doesn’t hurt. As far as predictions go however, I predict that in his first season, Francona will lead the Reds to a winning season although it won’t be pretty. The first year of a new manager is always an adjustment, so when it comes to Francona, patience is going to be important in order for him to have success here. But I don’t think it’ll be long before he takes this young squad to their first postseason appearance and possibly brings the NL Pennant back to Cincinnati.

David Bell, YOU’RE FIRED!

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