The Reds have signed manager David Bell to a three-year contract extension that runs through the 2026 season, the team announced. His current two-year deal was set to expire at the end of this season.
Bell, 50, is in his fifth year at the helm in Cincinnati. The club went 75-87 in his first season before posting a slightly above-average showing (31-29) in the shortened 2020 schedule. Cincinnati made the expanded postseason that year but was promptly swept in the opening round without scoring a run.
It was a similar situation over a full season in ’21. The Reds hovered around .500 for the majority of the year. They were in possession of a Wild Card spot as late as mid-September but ultimately came up a bit shy of the postseason. After finishing 83-79, Cincinnati cut payroll and kicked off a retool.
The Reds dealt away a number of veterans both leading up to and immediately out of the lockout. A disastrous April portended a brutal 2022 season that saw Cincinnati lose 100 games for just the second time in franchise history. The Reds continued to deal away veterans at the deadline. After another relatively quiet offseason, few expected Cincinnati to make much noise coming into 2023.
After a middling first six weeks, the Reds have gotten hot. They’re 30-19 since the start of June, entering play Friday. They sit eight games above .500 overall and are firmly in the mix for a playoff spot. The Reds are just a game and a half behind the Brewers in the NL Central. They’re in possession of a spot in a tightly-contested Wild Card picture.
Whether this’ll result in the second playoff appearance of Bell’s tenure is to be determined. Yet it’s hard not to view the first four months of this season as anything other than a strong success. Cincinnati has graduated a number of young players from the farm system. The likes of Matt McLain, Andrew Abbott and Spencer Steer have been excellent from the jump. Elly De La Cruz has had an inconsistent first month in the majors but is one of the sport’s most talented young players. Injuries to Hunter Greene and Nick Lodolo have forced Cincinnati to use a patchwork rotation for most of the year, but they’ve managed to overcome that.
Now, the club finds itself in position to add to the roster within the next five days. Unsurprisingly, ownership and the front office appear pleased with the organization’s progress. They’ll ensure continuity atop the dugout by keeping their skipper from starting the offseason unsigned. Bell is the seventh-longest tenured active manager in the National League. The Reds have a 307-343 regular season record since he was hired but are trending towards a third above-.500 showing out of five.
Image courtesy of USA Today Sports.
Cool…
He’s done a hell of a job with little front office support building a competent major league roster in the offseason.
He deserved it. Well done.
Your wife/mistress/mom/boyfriend could coach this lineup. Not that difficult
@slide Umm, I’ll take bell in skipper vs skipper swap with Shelton. Just to test your theory. I bet that Shelton doesn’t remotely come close to what Bell has done with that roster
What are you talking about?
The front office either traded/drafted the entire roster. Barely any free agents on this team.
This team is 100% a product of a great front office and player development.
Reading is a skill. You might want to use it sometime.
Player development and team building are different things and actually run by different people when you get down to it.
This front office is good at scouting and player development, which is the background, so thsy mzkes sense. As far as building a competent MAJOR LEAGUE roster and bringing established talent in, not so much.
Hunter B’s dealer misses you
Again, acting like Freud, except you know nothing about baseball players or ego. Pulling for the Reds and their front office despite the malarkey coming from jr hs simps
Go back to Twitter or were you banned there?
Most likely since you cannot understand plain English.
The front office is responsible for the players being on the roster Einstein. If Bell is your uncle, fine… otherwise you’re dumping, plain and simple. Love the Reds story, however you have no clue who you are talking about.
I’m not convinced that this seasons success has anything to do with Bell
I’d argue the opposite. It has everything to do with Bell and the players and very little to do with the folks upstairs who didn’t support them.
Just because Castellini is dumb doesn’t mean Krall is. In fact I wouldn’t be surprised if it was Castellini that made this move. Krall is the one who pulled the trigger on the trades and the minor league coaches developed the players. It was Castellini that wasn’t giving Krall any additional money to work with so he made the best of the hand he was dealt and I think Krall, the scouts, and the development team in the minors have done an excellent job. They definitely got the Reds in a decent position at least a year earlier than expected. Bell had nothing to do with this outside of not screwing it up completely. Let’s hope he can “not screw up” enough to keep things going.
Bell drafted all the players? Yeah…
I agree. Castellanos tends to get in the more than help. Krill deserves credit for picking up productive players in trades. Bell deserves to be resigned. He has done a great job this year with a patchwork starting rotation and bullpen. Let’s hope they can add a key player at the trade deadline to help make the playoffs. Too many Refs haters on here
Bell has gotten better for sure. He was an absolute disaster his first 2 seasons. I still don’t think he’d qualify for another managers job in all of mlb but that means less when the team is winning
Elly saved his job!!
You guys have said it here before, but he looks like my bro in law. Do you like the space?
I’m fine with this I guess. I’m not one of those guys that feel the manager in baseball is one of the most important parts kinda like the head coach in the NFL. I wish it was a Braves style extension for Elly though.
Right now McLain is the best looking major leaguer.
Elly needs to adjust but his ego won’t allow it yet.
Cardinals fans may disagree as Marmol is horrible. White Sox fans that blamed LaRussa for the team’s problems have realized TLR was the least of them
Fans in all of sports blame Managers and Coaches when teams fail to meet expectations. Some give coach credit some don’t. Either way sometimes it’s out of their hands and sometimes it is not. When Ausmus coached Tigers I was regularly baffled by his decisions, as were many. Baseball has been played for a long time. It is pretty much known what works and what does not. Aside from instances like that, I have trouble putting blame on coaches. It’s easy to criticize every move in hindsight, but they often make the moves most fans even know to do. There are just some years teams don’t have it. Now if u want to lay blame for a coach not rallying the players and keeping morale up, I ll agree I think that happens. Hard to say definitively when it does tho without being in the clubhouse.
Ultimately some teams just click and the pieces complement each other well and it’s hard to put together lineups to succeed against their starters and bullpen. Or their lineups bats just complement each other very well and it’s conducive to run production.
There is no way EDLC is 21 years old. He’s an electric athlete but no way he’s 21.
Just like Sammy Sosa isn’t black anymore.
He went full Neapolitan
That’s bc he’s Dominican, not black.
He needs to lay off high fastballs and other pitches out of the zone or he’ll end up back in Louisville.
Wish Giants promoted him instead of waiting a year and ending up Gabriel. You can listen to Bell speak and not want to pull your face off.
Winning in spite of him. His in-game management is horrid.
And your ignorance is astounding
Completely unrelated, but has anyone heard what Philly is going to do with Noah Song? I’m hoping they decide not to add him to the 26-man roster and have to offer him back to Boston. DD selected him in the Rule V draft as an FU to Boston.
Song had wicked tools when he was drafted. I don’t blame them for wanting to take a flier on him
If Philly doesn’t want him, he has to go through waivers unclaimed, before he would go back to Boston. Song will get claimed. He won’t be going back to Boston.
Walt Jocketty at it again.
Good for him. He earned this extension.
Are the Reds really gonna make the playoffs? I doubt it…. Lol
A dumpster divimg front office won’t cut it. It will continue to take the players motivation and will. But they have a better chance thsn the Cubbies lol.
So far this year, almost every team has used at least 40 players, many over 45.
EVERY team dumpster dives.
The day after the All Star Game there should be an Argue-Off between managers. Bell would do pretty well.
Not a Bell’s supporter but good for him, he’s improved this season. Should rotate more often the position players but has done good with what has been given in terms of pitching.
I’m a little surprised this happened now in the middle of what should be a hectic time in the front office. I would think they would be knee deep in negotiations to try to improve the roster. I’m not opposed to a new deal for Bell. Maybe this is a sign they are standing pat at the deadline.
You said the magic word. Should.
I’m just glad they can’t use Bell as the fall guy now for their seeming ineptitude to improve the roster.
The trade deadline actually turned out the way I expected all along except that they didn’t cut any payroll.