Reds Vice President and Senior Advisor Buddy Bell resigns

Buddy Bell reportedly resigned from his position of Vice President, Senior Advisor to the President of Baseball Operations for the Cincinnati Reds several weeks ago. It went unreported until this morning when Jon Heyman of MLB  Network broke the news this morning.

Bell, the father of Reds manager David Bell, joined the organization in his role in 2018. Prior to joining the Reds he worked for the Chicago White Sox, with the final five seasons in the same role with them as he would serve with Cincinnati.

While Heyman’s report did not specify why Buddy Bell chose to resign, the Cincinnati Enquirer’s Jason Williams follow up report did.

Bell, who will be 72-years-old next month, told Williams, “None of this was nefarious. It was just a personal preference on my part to spend time with my family.”

The Draft signing deadline comes and goes

The Cincinnati Reds signed 17 of their 21 draft picks from the 2023 draft. The only players who did not sign were taken in rounds 17-20, meaning that the club signed all 17 of their picks in rounds 1-16 (they had one pick in each round, plus a competitive balance round A pick – the 38th overall selection in the draft).

The deadline to sign was Tuesday at 5pm ET. But only sort of. College seniors and junior college players can still sign up to a week prior to the 2024 draft. For Cincinnati, that means that they can still sign their picks from rounds 17, 18, or 19. Their 20th round pick was a high schooler and he will not be eligible to sign. It is unlikely that the players from rounds 17-19 will sign. The Reds spent nearly every penny they could without having to give up next year’s 1st round selection. Those players can still sign for up to $150,000 each without the Reds going deeper into penalties, but if the players were willing to sign for that amount then they likely would have already signed. Things can change between today and next July, but I wouldn’t count on that.