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Reds Hire Brad Mills As Bench Coach

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The Reds announced today the coaching staff that will be working under new manager Terry Francona. One new hire that was not previously reported is Brad Mills in the bench coach position. Freddie Benavides, who got Cincinnati’s bench coach gig going into 2019, is listed today as bench coach/field coordinator.

Mills, 68 in January, is a familiar face for Cincinnati’s new skipper. Francona managed in Philadelphia from 1997 to 2000, in Boston from 2004 to 2011 and then Cleveland from 2013 to 2023. Mills was first base coach for the Phillies during those years and bench coach for the Red Sox during most of Francona’s time there. Mills left to manage the Astros from 2010 to 2012, but then reunited with Francona in Cleveland in 2013.

He started his Cleveland tenure as third base coach but moved to bench coach in 2014. He stayed in that role through 2019 but then sat out the 2020 season, which was played in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, but Gordon Wittenmyer of the Cincinnati Enquirer reports that Mills actually stepped away from the game due to the tragic drowning of his 18-month-old grandson. For the 2021 season, Mills was reassigned to some unspecified non-coaching role with Cleveland, so this will be his first stint in the dugout in many years.

Francona himself was away from baseball in 2024 as he focused on his health. He will return in 2025 by taking over the managerial job for the Reds and has filled in the staff with some old friends. Chris Valaika had been the hitting coach in Cleveland from 2022 to 2024 but was whisked away to Cincinnati last month. Now Mills will be brought in to return to Francona’s side, with Benavides also sticking around, though perhaps in an altered role.

NL Notes: Adames, Braves, Giants, Francona, Yamamoto

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Willy Adames has long been mentioned in trade rumors, with the Dodgers one club known to have had past interest in the star shortstop.  It is fair to guess that any number of teams at least checked in with the Brewers about Adames’ availability, and the New York Post’s Jon Heyman (via X) writes that the Braves and Giants also had Adames as a “target” in the past.  As Adames is now set to become a free agent this winter, any of these teams could well be suitors again on the open market, though naturally a free agent pursuit and a trade pursuit can be very different endeavors.

Atlanta shortstop Orlando Arcia had a dismal year at the plate after posting solid numbers in 2022-23.  Arcia is still under contract for 2025 but only for $2MM (and a $1MM buyout of a $2MM club option for 2026), so the Braves could sign Adames and still keep Arcia around as veteran infield depth.  With Adames likely to command a contract in the $150MM range, signing the shortstop would represent something of a departure for Braves president of baseball operations Alex Anthopoulos, whose free agent signings have been fairly limited during his seven seasons running Atlanta’s front office.  Still, a more aggressive foray into free agency might be seen as necessary after three straight playoff disappointments, and Anthopoulos certainly hasn’t been shy about spending in general, as evidenced by the Braves’ heavy slate of contract extensions.

Tyler Fitzgerald hit well in his rookie season but was a subpar defender as the Giants’ primary shortstop in 2024.  That said, Fitzgerald has played at six different positions during his two years in the big leagues, so it is easy to see San Francisco shift him to another spot on the diamond to accommodate Adames.  The Giants have long been eager to bring top-tier free agents to the roster, and with Matt Chapman already signed to a new contract, adding Adames would give the team arguably the league’s best left side of the infield.  Landing Adames (or another big name) would be an easy way for Buster Posey to make a splash in his first offseason as the Giants’ new president of baseball ops.

More from around the National League….

  • The Reds’ hiring of Terry Francona came together quickly, as Gordon Wittenmyer of the Cincinnati Enquirer reports that president of baseball operations Nick Krall first touched base with Francona via a phone conversation on September 26.  Krall had gotten permission from the Guardians to speak with Francona (who was still with the team in a special assistant role), as Francona was atop the Reds’ list of nearly 100 possible managerial candidates but “with an asterisk,” depending on the longtime skipper’s health and whether he wanted to return after a year away from the sport.  Krall and GM Brad Meador met with Francona in Tucson on October 2, and were impressed enough to call owner Bob Castellini to fly to Tucson the next day to finalize the contract.  In other details on the managerial search, interim manager Freddie Benavides had put himself on the Reds’ short list with an excellent set of interviews, and Rangers associate manager Will Venable was also on the list of top targets.  It appears as though Benavides might’ve been the only other candidate to actually interview, as Francona’s emergence precluded the Reds’ need to speak with Venable, or other rumored candidates as David Ross or Skip Schumaker.
  • Yoshinobu Yamamoto was rocked for five runs over three innings in Game 1 of the NLDS last night, though the Dodgers came back for a 7-5 win over the Padres.  Manager Dave Roberts told reporters (including The Athletic’s Fabian Ardaya) that the Dodgers were exploring the possibility that Yamamoto was tipping his pitches when runners were on base, and Ardaya notes that Yamamoto had a similar pitch-tipping issue during Spring Training.  Or, the problem might just be that the Padres have Yamamoto’s number, as they tagged him for eight runs over six innings in two starts during the regular season.  Either scenario is naturally a concern for L.A. in the rest of the series, and Roberts only said Yamamoto was “in play” to pitch during a potential Game 5, if not necessarily as a starter.

Latest On Reds’ Managerial Search

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Six days after firing David Bell, the Reds’ search for a new skipper might not take full flight until the season is over.  The club has “been doing a lot of due diligence this week with a lot of different people,” president of baseball operations Nick Krall told the Cincinnati Enquirer’s Gordon Wittenmyer and other reporters, though “we haven’t set up anything formal with anybody.”

As per Wittenmyer, the names already linked to the early stages of the search include now former Marlins manager Skip Schumaker, former Cubs manager David Ross, and current Reds interim manager and longtime bench coach Freddie Benavides.  It would appear as though the Reds are looking primarily at candidates from outside the organization, as Wittenmyer writes that “Benavides is considered the lone in-house candidate.”  Neither Schumaker or Ross are exactly strangers to Cincinnati either, as both played for the Reds during their on-field careers.

Within minutes of the announcement of Bell’s firing, USA Today’s Bob Nightengale reported that Schumaker was “on the Reds’ radar” as the potential next skipper.  Though Schumaker is technically still under contract with Miami, it has been widely known that the manager and the team were parting ways after this season, so presumably the Marlins gave permission for whatever contact has taken place between the Reds and Schumaker’s camp.

In a sign of just how quickly the ground can shift underneath a manager’s feet, at this time one year ago both Schumaker and Ross seemed to have plenty of job security with their teams.  The Marlins made a surprise run at an NL wild card berth during Schumaker’s first season as manager, and Ross’ Cubs emerged from a two-year rebuild to finish with an 83-79 record.

The Cubs’ progress under Ross wasn’t enough for upper management, however, and Craig Counsell’s presence on the market led the team to stun the baseball world by swooping in to hire Counsell for a five-year, $40MM contract.  Ross found himself suddenly looking for work, and while he was linked to the Padres’ managerial vacancy and the Yankees’ bench coach job, “Uncle Rossy” instead spent the 2024 season on the sidelines.  In regards to the New York job, Ross was reportedly looking to get back into managing rather than coaching if he was to quickly pivot to another role after his unexpectedly late entry onto the open market.

Ross played with seven different teams at the MLB level during his 15-year playing career, including a stint with the Reds from 2006-08.  After capturing a World Series ring as member of the curse-breaking 2016 Cubs, Ross retired from playing and transitioned into a special assistant’s position within the front office.  Ross was then hired as manager following the 2019 season, and delivered a 262-284 record over four seasons in Chicago’s dugout.  The Cubs reached the playoffs in 2020 but Theo Epstein’s departure as president of baseball operations then led to a two-year step backwards for the organization, before the 2023 team posted a winning record.

Schumaker has already faced a lot of tumult over his two seasons as a big league manager.  Hired for Miami’s top job after a five-year stretch on the Padres’ and Cardinals coaching staff, Schumaker’s work in leading the Marlins to the playoffs led him to the 2023 NL Manager of the Year award.  However, on the heels of that successful debut year, owner Bruce Sherman wanted the Marlins to build a better minor league foundation, and looked to install a new president of baseball operations to oversee general manager Kim Ng.  Rather than accept a demotion, Ng declined her end of a mutual option for the 2024 season, and Miami then went into rebuild mode under new PBO Peter Bendix.

This left Schumaker in something of a limbo state, and when the Marlins voided their 2025 club option on his contract back in April, it was pretty apparent that 2024 was going to be Schumaker’s last year in South Beach.  Given how little he had to work with, Schumaker hasn’t been assigned any blame for the Marlins’ woeful 60-100 record this year, and he’ll head into the open market as perhaps the top managerial candidate available.  The White Sox are also known to have interest in Schumaker’s services, but as Wittenmyer observes, managing a Reds team with a lot of young breakout talent might well have more appeal to Schumaker than overseeing what is likely to be a pretty lengthy rebuild on the South Side of Chicago.

Reds Fire David Bell

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The Reds announced that they have parted ways with manager David Bell.  Bench coach Freddie Benavides will act as the club’s interim manager for the remainder of the season.

In a statement released to the media, president of baseball operations Nick Krall said that “David provided the kind of steadiness that we needed in our clubhouse over the last few seasons.  We felt a change was needed to move the Major League team forward.  We have not achieved the success we expected, and we need to begin focusing on 2025.”

Bell’s tenure ends just short of six full seasons as Cincinnati’s manager.  Three of Bell’s six seasons saw the Reds finish with a winning record — their 31-29 record in the shortened 2020 season that led to a playoff berth, an 83-win campaign in 2021, and an 82-win season in 2023.  That latter season hinted at bigger things ahead for the Reds, given how the team seemingly had an overload of young position-player talent all breaking out at the same time.  The organization even awarded Bell for his role in the Reds’ progress, as Bell was signed to a new contract extension in July 2023 that covered the 2024-26 seasons.

However, it perhaps shouldn’t be ignored that the Reds waited to give Bell a new deal until he was only about two months away from the expiration from his previous contract.  That might’ve been the first hint that the Reds’ ownership and front office was only willing to give Bell so much leeway in continuing as the club’s skipper, and the disappointing nature of the 2024 season sealed Bell’s fate.

The announcement of Noelvi Marte’s 80-game PED suspension in early March was the first sign of trouble for the Reds, and the bad news continued during Spring Training when Matt McLain had to undergo a shoulder surgery.  McLain ended up missing the entire season recovering from that surgery and then a stress reaction in his rib cage suffered during his rehab work.  Christian Encarnacion-Strand didn’t play after the first week of May due to a wrist injury that required surgery, thus leading to a lost year for yet another of the Reds’ promising young infielders.

Injuries continued to deplete the roster at other inopportune times, including a near rotation-wide slate of injuries that hit the pitching staff in August.  Beyond the injuries, other would-be cornerstones like Spencer Steer or Alexis Diaz provided only average levels of production, and offseason acquisitions like Jeimer Candelario and Frankie Montas also disappointed.

It all added up to an underwhelming season in Cincinnati, and while Bell is hardly the only culprit behind the Reds’ lack of success, the organization will now shake things up in the dugout.  USA Today’s Bob Nightengale (X link) has already reported that Marlins manager Skip Schumaker is under consideration to be the Reds’ next field general, and Schumaker has past ties to the club as a former Reds player in 2014-15.  Schumaker won NL Manager of the Year honors in leading Miami to the playoffs in his first year as skipper in 2023, but the Marlins’ decision to part ways with GM Kim Ng (who hired Schumaker) and then shift into rebuild mode has all but confirmed that Schumaker is leaving South Florida at season’s end.

Bell finishes with a 409-456 record over his time as the Reds’ manager.  That lone postseason appearance in 2020 ended in a two-game (and scoreless) sweep in the wild card series, and Cincinnati still hasn’t won a playoff round since the 1995 NLDS.  The pandemic’s impact on Bell’s managerial career can’t be understated, as the organizational loss of revenue over the 2020-21 seasons led ownership to suddenly change course after a payroll increase in the 2019-20 offseason, and the Reds started to heavily rebuild following their winning record in 2021.

Viewed through this lens, the Reds have done well to get back to playing competitive baseball so soon after the misery of a 100-loss season in 2022.  Krall has done well in reloading the organization with premium prospect talent, and Bell’s work in helping some of this young talent adjust to the majors shouldn’t be overlooked.  It wouldn’t be surprising to see the Reds take that expected next step in 2025 if the team enjoys better health and the younger players fare better with more experience under their belts, and indeed a new voice in the dugout might be a key piece in helping Cincinnati turn the corner.

Benavides is a longtime member of the Reds organization, dating back to when the club selected him in the second round of the 1987 draft.  The first two of Benavides’ four Major League seasons were played in a Reds uniform, and after retirement, he spent close to a decade working in Cincinnati’s farm system before joining the big league coaching staff in 2016.  Benavides has been acting in the bench coach role since Bell was initially hired following the 2018 campaign.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images

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