Six days after firing David Bell, the Reds’ seek for a brand new skipper won’t take full flight till the season is over. The membership has “been doing loads of due diligence this week with loads of completely different individuals,” president of baseball operations Nick Krall informed the Cincinnati Enquirer’s Gordon Wittenmyer and different reporters, although “we haven’t arrange something formal with anyone.”
As per Wittenmyer, the names already linked to the early phases of the search embody now former Marlins supervisor Skip Schumaker, former Cubs supervisor David Ross and present Reds interim supervisor and longtime bench coach Freddie Benavides. It could seem as if the Reds are wanting primarily at candidates from outdoors the group, as Wittenmyer writes that “Benavides is taken into account the lone in-house candidate.” Neither Schumaker or Ross are precisely strangers to Cincinnati both, as each performed for the Reds throughout their on-field careers.
Inside minutes of the announcement of Bell’s firing, USA Right this moment’s Bob Nightengale reported that Schumaker was “on the Reds’ radar” because the potential subsequent skipper. Although Schumaker is technically nonetheless below contract with Miami, it has been broadly recognized that the supervisor and the group have been parting methods after this season, so presumably the Marlins gave permission for no matter contact has taken place between the Reds and Schumaker’s camp.
In an indication of simply how shortly the bottom can shift beneath a supervisor’s ft, presently one yr in the past, each Schumaker and Ross appeared to have loads of job safety with their groups. The Marlins made a shock run at an NL wild-card berth throughout Schumaker’s first season as supervisor, and Ross’ Cubs emerged from a two-year rebuild to complete with an 83-79 document.
The Cubs’ progress below Ross wasn’t sufficient for higher administration, nonetheless, and Craig Counsell’s presence in the marketplace led the group to stun the baseball world by swooping in to rent Counsell for a five-year, $40M contract. Ross discovered himself immediately searching for work, and whereas he was linked to the Padres’ managerial emptiness and the Yankees’ bench coach job, “Uncle Rossy” as a substitute spent the 2024 season on the sidelines. Regarding the New York job, Ross was reportedly wanting to get again into managing reasonably than teaching if he was to shortly pivot to a different function after his unexpectedly late entry onto the open market.
Ross performed with seven completely different groups on the MLB stage throughout his 15-year taking part in profession, together with a stint with the Reds from 2006-08. After capturing a World Sequence ring as member of the curse-breaking 2016 Cubs, Ross retired from taking part in and transitioned right into a particular assistant’s place inside the entrance workplace. Ross was then employed as supervisor following the 2019 season and delivered a 262-284 document over 4 seasons in Chicago’s dugout. The Cubs reached the playoffs in 2020, however Theo Epstein’s departure as president of baseball operations then led to a two-year step backwards for the group earlier than the 2023 group posted a profitable document.
Schumaker has already confronted loads of tumult over his two seasons as a big-league supervisor. Employed for Miami’s prime job after a five-year stretch on the Padres’ and Cardinals teaching employees, Schumaker’s work in main the Marlins to the playoffs led him to the 2023 NL Supervisor of the 12 months award. Nevertheless, on the heels of that profitable debut yr, proprietor Bruce Sherman needed the Marlins to construct a greater minor-league basis and seemed to put in a brand new president of baseball operations to supervise basic supervisor Kim Ng. Slightly than settle for a demotion, Ng declined her finish of a mutual choice for the 2024 season, and Miami then went into rebuild mode below new PBO Peter Bendix.
This left Schumaker in one thing of a limbo state, and when the Marlins voided their 2025 membership choice on his contract again in April, it was fairly obvious that 2024 was going to be Schumaker’s final yr in South Seashore. Given how little he needed to work with, Schumaker hasn’t been assigned any blame for the Marlins’ woeful 60-100 document this yr, and he’ll head into the open market as maybe the highest managerial candidate accessible. The White Sox are additionally recognized to have curiosity in Schumaker’s companies, however as Wittenmyer observes, managing a Reds group with loads of younger breakout expertise may effectively have extra attraction to Schumaker than overseeing what’s more likely to be a reasonably prolonged rebuild on the South Facet of Chicago.
