Last week it was announced that the Cincinnati Reds were bringing back the entire coaching staff under Terry Francona from 2025 for the 2026 season. That isn’t going to be the case, though. While that may have been the intention for the front office, the Reds are losing third base coach J.R. House to the Arizona Diamondbacks. Nick Piecoro of the Arizona Republic reports that House is being hired by the Diamondbacks to serve as their new third base coach.
J.R. House joined the Cincinnati Reds organization in November of 2018 as the team’s new third base coach and catching coach. He remained the catching coach from 2019-2022, but has served as just the third base coach (at least in title) since the 2023 season. His 7-year run as the team’s third base coach is the longest since Mark Berry held down the job from 2004-2013. It’s the second longest tenure of a third base coach since at least the mid-60’s for the Reds, which is when I can last find data for the job.
For House, he’s returning to where he got his post playing career started. He was a manager, hitting coach, and minor league field coordinator (at different times) with the Arizona farm system from 2012 through 2018. It’s also a return home as Phoenix is where he and his family reside, and where his family stays year round.
Randy Wynne elects free agency
The Cincinnati Reds also lost a little bit of pitching depth this week. Randy Wynne elected free agency and is going to see what’s out there for him. The right-handed pitcher has spent two stints with the Reds at the big league level in his career. He was an undrafted free agent signing when he was 26-years-old back in 2019. He worked his way up through the farm system and made his big league debut at age 30 with the Reds. His outing against Atlanta on June 25th or 2023 saw him allow one run in 2.1 innings. That was his only outing with the club until this past season when he got the call to pitch in April and he took the mound on the 20th in Baltimore and picked up a 3-inning save in a game that Cincinnati won 24-2.
I’m available
Nice for House that he gets to go home.
I know he got his fair share of criticism at times for sending/not sending runners, but I think that’s pretty universal for all 3rd base coaches. All in all, I think he was good at his job.
Hope they can find someone at least as good to replace him.
Hiring House was one of the good things that Bell did for the Reds. Wynne was a great depth piece for the Reds too and there is probably a 50% chance he resigns.
House has been strongly criticized on these pages by many over the years. And perhaps, it is common for all 3rd base coaches. Going home can be a good thing and best wishes to him. This also provides Francona to fill out the team with his own guys. Sometimes holdovers help and sometimes they don’t. Who they hire for 3B will tell us a bit more.
We still have our old pitching coach and bench coach I believe.
Good for JR. The Snakes seem to be a pretty well-run club. Interested to see who fills that slot for us.
The door was open for House to stay. He chose to return home because Arizona was a better fit for him professionally and personally. Wish him well except against the Reds and, like him, move on with life.
So, House must have gotten a pay raise, huh?
That’s not a given.
He may have been willing to accept less just for the convenience of being closer to home. The classic “hometown discount”.
But in all likelihood, his pay is probably about the same as it was in Cincinnati.
I remember Reggie Otero was longtime Reds 3B coach many years ago. Not sure how long.
In Major League Baseball, he served as a coach for the Cincinnati Reds (1959–1965).
Jimmy Dykes from 1955-58. He was also interim manager in ’58 when Birdie Tebbets was either fired or resigned (depending on which version one reads). As interim manager, Dykes won 24 of 41 games; but, the Reds declined to bring him back for 1959.
Tebbets and Dykes are the first Reds manager and third base coach I recall from personal memory.
Same for me, Jim.
Me too. Everything else is pre-history.
It’s uncomfortably true that for many people what we remember is prehistory.
And everything after 2020 is post-history.
1956 Reds first team I remember. 1958 Reds first game I saw.
Dykes managed White Sox and some other AL teams in 1940s and 1950. He was traded from Detroit to Cleveland in 1960 for Joe Gordon in the only trade of managers I can remember.
Reds tried Mayo Smith in 1959 but fired him for Fred Hutchinson mid-season. Smith managed Detroit to WS championship in 1968.
Not many remember but Birdie was a nickname for Tebbetts. George was his given first name.
It is, so the conclusion must be that history occupies a small slice of time. Why on earth do people major in it in college?
I remember Birdie, OT. I didn’t remember what his given name was. Am I correct in recalling that he was an outstanding pinch-hitter?
Birdie Tebbetts as a player was before my time on Earth. Smoky Burgess may be the pinch hitter you remember.
You’re absolutely right, OT, and I knew that: senior moments–you never know when one will strike.
Hate to see a fellow West Virginian leave.
JR was a highly recruited quarterback out of Nitro (yes, named for nitroglycerin) HS near Charleston. He decided to play baseball instead, but did play qb for WVU a few years later as a back up for one season.
Like a lot of Mountaineers he has left the state. But also like many of us, it never leaves you. It’s a bittersweet relationship.
Hard to beat the Kanawha River valley in the fall.
Tito, go and get Mike Sarbaugh. Very successful coach and minor league manager previously in the Cleveland organization and has served as the 3rd base coach for many years in MLB. He’s also an infield coach that can help EDLC. To me, it would be a positive reunion that could help the Reds.
Somewhat ironic that House to be “going home” while having been (justifiably, in my opinion) criticized for his seemingly haphazard approach to sending runners home…or not.
Particularly last season when TOOTBLANs were the name of the game for the Reds.
Folks here have been critical of the Reds more conservative approach on the base paths this year, but the number of times the Reds (read EDLC or Fraley) ran them out of innings was appalling in 2024.
House seemed often enough asleep at the wheel or unwilling to make the call to stop or send runners effectively.
That he’s giving himself the ‘green light’ to head home brings a crooked smile.
Good move for him. It sounds like he was a ‘good guy’, in the David Bell sense.
But: good to be gone.
The Reds can do better.
I wonder how much of the House sending runners home was under direction of Bell. I remember a game last year where India was sent and didn’t even slide. Out by ten feet. I only remember two players being thrown out at home this year and that was on close plays at the plate.
There were a lot of maddening TOOTBLANS, but apparently base running was still a net positive for the Reds in 2024. There were a few games this year when the Reds’ running game was aggressive, and while opposing pitcher /catcher combos would logically seem to account for that, there were games when the opposing combos had terrible records controlling the running game when the Reds stayed anchored to the bases, waiting for a hit to move them along.
Third base coach is kind of a thankless job. If you send a guy home, you better hope he scores or everyone in the stands will blame you for sending him.
Of course, if you hold him, you better hope the outfielder doesn’t make a bad throw home, or you’ll be criticized for not sending him after all. Either way, there’s a good chance you’re getting the blame.
In the end, I would venture that it probably doesn’t make much of a difference who’s filling that position next year. He’ll do his best but still make some bad calls, and fans will be unhappy.
Maybe.
But the 3rd base coach’s job is to observe the play in the field (because the runner can’t) and make a good judgement call on the odds of advancing or stopping.
And to stop runners who are ignoring the situation… or him.
This is where I fault House. The mentioned play with India was one of the more egregious examples.
Sure fans second guess most decisions. But I think that’s giving House too much of a free pass.
He’s got a job to do, and along with Bell he was one of the key TOOTBLAN enablers.
Despite the so-called “Net Positive” numbers, how does one really calculate the cost of getting thrown out at home, or…commonly with EDLC last year (along with other Reds) of making the 1st or 3rd out at third base?
How do you calculate what would have happened after the 3rd out was made?
The Reds had problems getting runners to score from 2b and 3b this year (and the year before(, not getting runners to 2b and 3b.
Sure, I’d love to see the Reds’ running game return in 2026, but with more smarts.
I’m sure House is a “great guy!” and I’m happy he’s happy to be moving to AZ.
We enjoy the sun down here.
But the Reds can do better with their running game and they can do better at the role the 3B coach plays in navigating that.
IMO, RE24 is about the only way to calculate the net difference of having a guy thrown out on the bases versus having the guy safely where he was when the play started or would have been had he stopped at the last base he safely reached, with or without an additional out, as the rest of the play would have unfolded.
It would be helpful if someone who performed the actual calculation that the outs on bases in 2024 were a net positive would explain their assumptions and methodology.
Add to the difficulty of the calculation the impact that a very aggressive running game has on the opponent’s pitchers and defensive alignments. I have no idea how that could possibly be factored in, particularly because it would be variable.
Curt Casali a replacement?
I suspect Casali is at or very near the top of Krall’s very short list to be the next Reds manager if someone else doesn’t poach him first.
I know we have said House made a lot of bad decisions but could it be that the Reds have some players that just don’t pay attention to the coaches.
Good. I never liked him anyway lol. The Brewers, Marinerds AND the Steelers all lost tonight. I’m happy.
The 1975-76 Reds are still the last NL team to win back to back world series.
I do not wanna see the Dodgers repeat.
They seem….unstoppable. And they may win it again next year.
Ownership will spend whatever they need to get whomever they want.
The bestest team money can buy, and it will be.
So it is written, so it shall be. Same as it ever was….same as it ever was.
Sarbaugh as the 3rd base/infield coach and Casali as the catching coach. Great baseball people who can help the team continue to move in the right direction.
Maybe they simply juggle the existing staff and Mike Napoli, the Major League Staff Assistant, assumes a more traditional role.
This thought also crossed my mind. It seems like they have about as many “coaches” as some football teams for half (or fewer) the number of players.
Would love to see that team play the 27 Yankees in a series in a field of dreams kind of world. I think the Big Red Machine would be very competitive. Rose Morgan Bench, etc. played with fire hated to lose.
The 75-76 Reds that is.
Dodgers are NL Champs! Brewers go down in 4 straight. Ohtani had a game for the ages with 3 (solo) home runs at the plate and 6 shutout innings with 10K on the mound. He did walk three and allow a couple of hits though 😉
And old friend Eugenio Suárez had a big game in his own right as the Mariners took a 3-2 lead in the ALCS. He hit 2 home runs and drove in 5 of the Mariners 6 runs in the game.
This is not House’s fault or concern, but CIN needs to steal more bases. Our catchers are at the bottom of the barrel in steals. That won’t change and that’s fine. Steer was pretty good in 2024 but not so much in 2025. If he is not traded, he needs to run more. I’m not sure if Stewart can steal or not. McLain needs to run more too. De La Cruz just needs to get healthy again and run like crazy. Hayes keeps us respectable at 3B in terms of running. LF needs to improve and perhaps moving Friedl over there will allow us to run more about that spot. We faded bad in the running game in the second half of 2025. Defensive metrics are poor too. We need a fast, glove first CF. Marte needs to run more from the RF spot but he did look like he was willing to run when he got the most of his playing time. DH is ok at running but will probably disappear WHEN we sign Schwarber. 🙂
It just seemed to me the reds lost a lot of team speed from 2023. Particularly EDLC, Friedl, Steer. They just seemed like they lost a couple of steps. Call it fatigue, injury, wear and tear or whatever.
McClain was the only gut who seemed faster in 2025 but he probably had fresher legs from missimg 2024. I think Framcona wamted to run but just didnt have the horses to do it this year.