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Reds Hire Mike Napoli

By Mark Polishuk | November 25, 2024 at 12:55pm CDT

November 25: Per Mark Sheldon of MLB.com (Bluesky link), Napoli will be a staff assistant who is not officially on the coaching staff.

November 23: The Reds have hired Mike Napoli for an unspecified role within the organization, WEEI’s Rob Bradford reports (Bluesky link).  Napoli spent the previous five seasons on the Cubs’ staff as a quality assurance coach and then as first base coach before being let go in October.

New Reds manager Terry Francona is quite familiar with Napoli, as Napoli played under Francona on the 2016 Indians team that fell just short of winning the World Series.  Napoli hit .239/.335/.465 with 34 homers in 645 plate appearances as Cleveland’s everyday first baseman/DH, bringing plenty of pop to the club’s run to the American League pennant.  That ended up being the second-last season of Napoli’s 12-year career in the majors, as his production fell off with the Rangers in 2017, and a return to Cleveland in 2018 didn’t result in any time at the big league level.

It isn’t yet known what Napoli’s duties will entail with the Reds, as the team has already announced its coaching staff for Francona’s first season as the club’s skipper.  Co-bench coach Brad Mills and hitting coach Chris Valaika are new hires who also have past Cleveland ties to Francona, though the majority of the coaching staff are holdovers from former manager David Bell’s staff.  Since there hasn’t yet been word of any sudden departures from the Cincinnati staff, a new position could be created for Napoli to join the mix, or is it possible Napoli is taking on a non-coaching job.

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Cincinnati Reds Mike Napoli

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View Comments (50)
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50 Comments

  1. Poolhalljunkies

    11 months ago

    Party at Napolis

    13
    Reply
    • Big whiffa

      11 months ago

      Save it til October. We got business to handle in the meantime

      Reply
      • GMTomGrieve

        11 months ago

        You seem like you’d be fun at said party

        1
        Reply
  2. retsubllab

    11 months ago

    Hopefully he’s maintained his shirt-off dad bod!!

    3
    Reply
  3. Slider_withcheese

    11 months ago

    Reds getting all their holiday shopping done early this year.

    6
    Reply
    • debubba

      11 months ago

      I loved that he wasn’t fast but could read pitches heading for the dirt and steal bases. I haven’t seen that very often.

      Reply
  4. Old York

    11 months ago

    Reds owner to the GM: Just hire someone this offseason.

    GM: Mike, you need a job? Boss wants me to hire someone. Not sure what you’ll do though.

    8
    Reply
    • sad tormented neglected mariners fan

      11 months ago

      Reds would’ve been better off making him unretire instead of hiring

      Reply
  5. Logjammer D"Baggagecling

    11 months ago

    Should’ve never been let go by the cubs. I understand the move. Craig Counsell wants his own coaching staff.

    1
    Reply
  6. Kk 4

    11 months ago

    Wanted him on the Sox 🙁

    2
    Reply
    • CC Ryder

      11 months ago

      He could play for the White Sox

      7
      Reply
    • Fever Pitch Guy

      11 months ago

      Kk – I wanted him on the Sox too, but on the Phillies would have been cool. Perfect fit with those guys. Can you imagine Napoli and Schwarber together? It would be an updated version of The Man Show.

      3
      Reply
  7. User 2143990195

    11 months ago

    Great hire by Tito and the Reds.

    10
    Reply
    • cr4

      11 months ago

      I’m too traumatized to be excited as a reds fan but I have to say if I let myself be excited I would ecstatic at the moves they’ve made

      1
      Reply
      • User 2143990195

        11 months ago

        As a Pirates fan, I understand the trauma. Allow yourself to be ecstatic even if only for a moment.

        4
        Reply
      • JoeBrady

        11 months ago

        As a RS fan, it is now okay to dream. Tito has won 90+ in 12 of his last 19 years. The dude is like the Pied Piper with the younger guys.

        3
        Reply
    • CubsAreMidButTheresAlwaysHope

      11 months ago

      Nap is a good guy, I hate that the Cubs let him go. He’s the one that worked closely with PCA on how to steal and run bases.. If he can get in Elly’s head, the kid might end up stealing 100 bases

      4
      Reply
      • User 2143990195

        11 months ago

        I wanted Napoli to come to Pittsburgh for that exact reason. Nap has a great baseball mind. Caught my attention when the Cubs moved on.

        2
        Reply
    • Dumpster Divin Theo

      11 months ago

      Knows all the Cub dirty secrets

      2
      Reply
  8. rememberthecoop

    11 months ago

    In 2011, he didn’t get a single down-ballot vote for MVP, despite hitting 30 bombs with a slash of 320/.414/.631. That’s crazy.

    Reply
    • Fever Pitch Guy

      11 months ago

      Coop – Only 113 games, that’s why.

      7
      Reply
      • davidrocholl

        11 months ago

        The Rangers had 4 players in 2011 get down-ballot MVP votes and 2 of those players only got into 121 and 124 games respectively.

        1
        Reply
  9. Angels2WS

    11 months ago

    I’ll always wonder what could have been if Angels didn’t let him getaway and then totally rip Angels pitching. It seemed that it was not due to performance—at least not hitting—but due to Scioscia not tolerating any level of disagreement or healthy debate, which may be this is unfair as it is only my impression.

    2
    Reply
    • HalosHeavenJJ

      11 months ago

      Keeping Napoli, avoiding the Vernon Wells disaster, and reallocating those funds to pitching would’ve been great.

      2
      Reply
      • SODOMOJO

        11 months ago

        Funny how things play out. I remember the Mariners being in on Vernon Wells and feeling like it was a huge loss when you guys snagged him

        Reply
  10. SODOMOJO

    11 months ago

    Didn’t play for Tito in Boston? Huh

    1
    Reply
    • Poolhalljunkies

      11 months ago

      Played for john farrell on the 2013 red sox then in cleveland for tito

      4
      Reply
    • WaterfallEconomics

      11 months ago

      Curiously enough, Farrell is a scout for the Reds.

      Reply
  11. This one belongs to the Reds

    11 months ago

    It will be interesting to see what they have in mind.

    2
    Reply
    • DockEllisDee

      11 months ago

      Maybe he’ll be the power bat they’ve been searching for

      Reply
  12. swanhenge

    11 months ago

    Love ya Nap!!

    2
    Reply
  13. BPrice's 77 F-Bombs

    11 months ago

    he can back up Tyler – give Napoli a uniform!

    1
    Reply
    • cr4

      11 months ago

      Can’t be any worse than Maile was at the plate last year

      1
      Reply
    • This one belongs to the Reds

      11 months ago

      He couldn’t be worse can the literal nobody they have now.

      Reply
  14. BigBallsLongBat

    11 months ago

    They are hiring for concessions

    Reply
  15. letitbelowenstein

    11 months ago

    He can be coach of how to whiff every third at bat and still be popular.

    Reply
  16. CaseyAbell

    11 months ago

    His career nosedived after 2014 but he was a fine player up until then. To be fair, he didn’t exactly have the body to last deep into his 30s as a productive player.

    1
    Reply
    • JoeBrady

      11 months ago

      He was heavy, but it always seemed like weight-lifter heavy.

      1
      Reply
      • unpaidobserver

        11 months ago

        Matt Stairs heavy.

        Reply
    • unpaidobserver

      11 months ago

      They brought him up as a catcher. Cant have helped…

      Reply
  17. CubsAreMidButTheresAlwaysHope

    11 months ago

    This is kind-of, sort-of, off-topic but since the Reds have always been my 2nd favorite team after the Cubs, I’ll throw this out to anyone looking for a couple good books to read; “If I Never Get Back”, and it’s sequel “Two In The Field” Both books are by Darryl Brock and are about a guy named Sam Fowler (who has always reminded me of Mike Napoli) that travels back in time from 1990’s California, to 1869 Cincinnati and ends up playing for the Red Stockings. It’s a highly detailed look at early baseball, and the 19th Century just after the Civil War. I have no life so I’ve spent a lot of time on Baseball Reference looking up all the real-life players mentioned in the books. For the life of me, someone’s really missed out on making this a mini-series.

    5
    Reply
    • Joe It All

      11 months ago

      Thank you for the suggestions. Those sound like they could be fun reads. I like the premise.

      3
      Reply
  18. spooky

    11 months ago

    Hope Terry and Co. are ready for the drunken Napoli to make his presence felt every road trip

    1
    Reply
  19. Mildred

    11 months ago

    Great hire. The NAP DAWG sweats success and is good guy

    2
    Reply
  20. Rsox

    11 months ago

    Unspecified role, eh?

    New Reds First Baseman?

    Reply
  21. The biggest tr0ll

    11 months ago

    Good hire. This guy was a smart player.

    1
    Reply
  22. olmtiant

    11 months ago

    Love Nap!!! His bomb off Verlander only run in game 3 win 2013!! True professional….

    Reply
  23. unpaidobserver

    11 months ago

    Napoli! Napoli!

    Reply
  24. This one belongs to the Reds

    11 months ago

    The old “special assistant”, which means whatever they tell him to do.

    Reply
  25. msmartin8888

    11 months ago

    I still have my Party At Napoli’s shirt and I live in Cincinnati

    Reply

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