Reds release David Bell – MLB trade rumors

The Reds announced that they have parted ways with their coach David BellBench coach Freddie Benavides will serve as the club’s interim coach for the remainder of the season.

In a statement sent to the media, president of baseball operations Nick Krall said that “David provided the kind of stability we needed in our locker room over the past few seasons. We felt a change was necessary to move the Major League team forward. We have not achieved the success we hoped for and we need to start focusing on 2025..”

Bell’s tenure ends just shy 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 final season hinted at bigger things ahead for the Reds, given that the team seemingly had an overload of young position talent awakening at the same time. The organization even rewarded Bell for his role in the Reds’ progress, as Bell signed 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 contract until there were just two months left before his previous deal expired. That might have been the first indication that Reds ownership and management were only willing to give Bell limited leeway to continue as club captain, and the disappointing nature of the 2024 season sealed Bell’s fate.

The announcement of Noelvi MarsThe Reds’ 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 He had to undergo shoulder surgery. McLain ended up missing the entire season recovering from that surgery and then suffered a stress reaction in his rib cage during his rehab work. Christian Incarnation-Strand He didn’t play after the first week of May because of a wrist injury that required surgery, leading to a lost year for another of the Reds’ promising young infielders.

Injuries continued to plague the roster at other inopportune times, including a rash of injuries that affected almost the entire rotation in August. Beyond the injuries, other potential pillars such as Spencer Bull either Alexis Diaz provided only average levels of production and off-season acquisitions as Jeimer Candelario and Frankie Montas Also disappointed.

All of this contributed to a disappointing season in Cincinnati, and while Bell is not solely to blame for the Reds’ lack of success, the organization will now shake things up in the dugout. USA Today’s Bob Nightengale (link X) has already reported that the Marlins manager Schumaker Jump is being considered to be the Reds’ next field manager, and Schumaker has past ties to the club as a former Reds player in 2014-15. Schumaker earned NL Manager of the Year honors by leading Miami to the playoffs in his first year as skipper in 2023, but the Marlins’ decision to part ways with general manager Kim Ng (who hired Schumaker) and then go into rebuilding mode has all but confirmed that Schumaker will leave South Florida at the end of the season.

Bell finishes with a 409-456 record during his tenure as 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 impact of the pandemic on Bell’s managerial career can’t be understated, as the organization’s loss of revenue during the 2020-21 seasons led to ownership suddenly changing course after a payroll surge in the 2019-20 offseason, and the Reds largely began rebuilding after their winning record in 2021.

Viewed from this perspective, 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 to reload the organization with top-quality 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 younger players perform better with more experience under their belts, and indeed, a new voice in the dugout could be a key piece in helping Cincinnati turn around.

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. He played the first two of Benavides’ four major league seasons in a Reds uniform, and after retiring, he spent nearly a decade working in Cincinnati’s farm system before joining the major league coaching staff in 2016. Benavides has been acting in the role of bench coach since Bell was initially hired following the 2018 campaign.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images