It’s been an interesting 24 hours for the Cincinnati Reds when it comes to non-player personnel. Terry Reynolds is leaving the organization to be the president of the Advanced-A Florida State League.
Reynolds had been with the Reds organization for over a decade. His time spanned multiple general managers and two different owners. He first joined the Reds in 2004 when he took over as the director of amateur scouting. That role only lasted for two seasons before he moved to the head of the farm system as director of player development. Reynolds served in that role through the 2010 season, when he then took over as the senior director of professional and global scouting. Most recently he’s been a special assistant to the general manager, player personnel. He’s been in that role since 2016.
When he served as the scouting director for 2004 and 2005 the Reds drafted and signed Homer Bailey, Craig Tatum, Paul Janish, Jay Bruce, Travis Wood, Adam Rosales, Sam LeCure, Logan Ondrusek, Carlos Fisher, and Jeff Stevens – all future Major Leaguers. They also drafted but didn’t sign future Major Leaguers Jake Arrieta, Robert Coello, and John Axford. In 2004 he also drafted, but didn’t sign current Reds assistant hitting coach Donnie Ecker in the 28th round.
Reds letting go of several coaches in the minor leagues
I wrote about this over at RedsMinorLeagues.com yesterday, so for a more detailed approach to that one head over there to read it. But the Cincinnati Reds spent the early part of last offseason revamping the very top of their scouting and development departments. But what they didn’t do was make hardly any changes at all to the coaches and managers within the organization at the minor league level. It felt strange at the time that they would take that approach.
But now that the 2019 season is over it seems that’s changing. First reported by Bobby Nightengale of the Cincinnati Enquirer, the Reds are not retaining or bringing back a handful of coaches/mangers/coordinators for the 2020 season.
Coordinators not coming back
The Reds farm system will not be bringing back the hitting coordinator Milt Thompson or their outfield/baserunning coordinator Billy Hatcher. Thompson had been in that role for three seasons. Hatcher just completed his first year in that role with the organization after spending the previous decade plus on the big league coaching staff.
Managers and coaches not returning
Triple-A manager Jody Davis is not returning. Neither will Triple-A pitching coach Jeff Fassero. Double-A pitching coach, and former interim Reds pitching coach Danny Darwin is also not returning for 2020. Davis had been with the organization in a manager and hitting coach role for four seasons. Fassero had been a pitching coach and for one season the pitching coordinator with the organization for the previous six seasons. Darwin had been with the organization for four years.
Doug, it feels like some aspects of re-tooling (I won’t say rebuilding) the organization’s approach in many areas are end-to-end…how they handle X at the MLB level is how they handle X at the Arizona League level.
Other aspects, like who’s managing in Louisville, seem to be fraught with so much cause-and-effect…if there’s no stability in the Reds’ lineup, then you could probably have a cigar-store Indian standing on the Derby City dugout steps and you’d probably still see a 59-81 result.
I dunno, man…I know there has to be some kinda movin’ ‘n shakin’ after losing seasons at multiple levels, but it’s hard to see, at this point, how replacing those gentlemen is going to help.
I think the most important thing for the reds is to develop the international scouting. For a lot of different reasons USA baseball is just failing us, especially the position players. I mean look at our draft picks over the past 10 years or so. it is just taking so long to develop them. you look at a guy like Phil Ervin. he is just now coming into his own and he is 27. I think Winker and Senzel will probably the same way. late 20s before they really put things together.
The international players just seem more mlb ready at a younger age.
Perhaps its more on the adults stateside than USA baseball. If you do youth coaching, you will see some burnout.
Our league has our spring/summer rec league, tourney team (Cal Ripken), a separate travel team, and we just started a fall ball intercommunity league that is more instructional. Some of the kid my boys play with (9-10 year olds) play some sort of organized ball 7-8 months out of the year.
Maybe some sort of time away would do some of the kids good. A baseball player in the minor/majors I think plays better when they are still having fun with it, rather than it being a chore. Not to minimize the work it takes to get better, but a mindset.
Talk about change Brad Asmus out as Angels manager, 1 season, losing record on a team with injuries and a player death.
Joe madden is available so why is bell still here?
Because, as Bill J said above, Ausmus is out in Angel land.
Which means Maddon will have his Halo returned in short order. Never even a possibility the Reds would eat Bell’s salary and pay even more for a manager like Maddon.
Joe Maddon worked for the Angels for thirty years and was a bench coach when they won the World Series.
This makes sense to me; you bring in a new coaching staff with top down philosophies, so you hold most of the huge infrastructure through the lower levels to see who’s gonna stick and who doesn’t. Hopefully, everything becomes a lot more cohesive through the organization.
I’m not sure the best place to post this, but here’s an interesting article on Castillo’s season: https://www.billjamesonline.com/luis_castillo_making_a_name_for_himself/