Cincinnati Reds manager David Bell, right, agues after being injected by home plate umpire Larry Vanover, left, during the sixth inning of a baseball game against the St. Louis Cardinals on Sept. 10 in St. Louis.Jeff Roberson/The Associated Press
The Cincinnati Reds fired manager David Bell on Sunday night after six seasons.
The team announced the move hours after a 2-0 loss to the Pittsburgh Pirates, and named bench coach Freddie Benavides as interim manager for the final five games of the season.
“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,” President of Baseball Operations Nick Krall said on a statement posted on the Reds’ website.
With a week left in the season, the Reds are 76-81 and in fourth place in the NL Central, 13 1/2 games behind division champion Milwaukee. Cincinnati closes out the season with five road games. The Reds have a two-game series in Cleveland on Tuesday and Wednesday before closing out the campaign with three games in Chicago against the Cubs.
The 52-year-old Bell — whose grandfather Gus and father Buddy both spent part of their careers playing in Cincinnati — was hired by the Reds in October 2018. He had a 409-456 record over six seasons.
Under Bell in 2020, the Reds earned a postseason berth in his second season, which was shortened by COVID-19 to 60 games.
The Reds finished the 2021 season with a respectable 83-79 record, good enough for third place in the National League Central. That season also produced a National League Rookie of the Year in second baseman Jonathan India.
In 2022, Cincinnati lost 100 games for the first time in four decades. The Reds improved to 82-80 in 2023, despite leading the major leagues with 650 games missed by players because of injuries.
This season began with high expectations that Bell and the Reds couldn’t meet. An eight-game losing streak in May put them five games under .500. They strung together seven wins in a row in June to get them back to one game under .500 but couldn’t sustain the success.
That lack of consistency would be a trend for the rest of the season.
The Reds swept the Yankees in a three-game series in New York July 2-4 but again faded. They looked as if they could make a postseason run when an Aug. 12-14 sweep of the Cardinals improved their record to 60-61 as they moved into a tie for second place in the NL Central with St. Louis and within a half dozen games of a wild-card spot.
But consistency was a problem again, and Bell lost three of his top starting pitchers, Hunter Greene, Nick Lodolo and Andrew Abbott, to injuries. Cincinnati is 12-8 in September.
During Bell’s tenure, the Reds brought along a talented core expected to put the organization back on top, including India, Greene, Elly De La Cruz and Matt McLain. But Cincinnati hasn’t been able to get over the hump.
Bell becomes the third manager fired this season. The Chicago White Sox fired Pedro Grifol and three coaches on Aug. 8, just days after the team ended a 21-game losing streak that tied the American League record.
The Seattle Mariners fired Scott Servais on Aug. 22, in the middle of his ninth season with the team.
Krall plans to speak to the media on Monday at Great American Ball Park.