While Pete Alonso was ripping the heart out of every single Milwaukee Brewers fan Thursday night, the Cincinnati Reds also shocked the baseball world by hiring Terry Francona as their new manager. Th 65-year-old’s retirement only lasted one year as he’ll be back in the dugout after saying goodbye to the game following the 2023 season with the Cleveland Guardians.
This move by the Reds was sudden and certainly a surprise not just because Francona came out of retirement, but the hiring comes less than a week after USA Today’s Bob Nightengale reported that Skip Schumaker was Cincinnati’s top target to replace the recently fired David Bell. While Schumaker was seen as the Reds’ No. 1 priority according to Nightengale, former Cubs manager David Ross was supposedly also going to be interviewed for the open manager position.
Now that the Reds hired Francona, Ross won’t get a chance to manage against the team that fired him, but maybe the two-time World Series champion can still find his way back to the NL Central.
The connection may not be strong, at least not on the surface, but could Francona add Ross to his coaching staff in 2025?
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The two crossed paths during the 2008 season, when Ross signed a minor league deal with the Boston Red Sox in August and was then added to the team’s big-league roster for the stretch run of the regular season. Ross was the third catcher on Boston’s postseason roster that October, when the Red Sox were ultimately eliminated from the playoffs by the Tampa Bay Rays in the ALCS.
It was brief, but maybe Francona and Ross have some sort of ties? Ross also has experience in the NL Central, managing the Cubs from 2020-23, so he could give Francona some insight. In his 23 years of managing, Francona has spent 19 years in the American League, 11 years with Cleveland and 9 years with Boston. His first gig as manager came with the Philadelphia Phillies from 1997-2000.
I don’t know, does four years managing the Cubs give Ross an edge over other potential coaching candidates in the eyes of Francona? Maybe? We’ll see if there is actually a link between those two this offseason when Francona puts together a new staff in Cincinnati. If Ross does get a bench job, maybe he will get a chance at some revenge against the Cubs, who stunned MLB last offseason by firing Ross when they were secretly courting Craig Counsell.
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There is no doubt in my mind that David Ross was grinning ear to ear when the Cubs were eliminated from playoff contention this year and I bet he had himself a good chuckle when the team finished the 2024 season with the same 83-79 record that he had before he was fired following 2023. Now, there’s a chance that the former Cubs manager returns to the NL Central.
According to national baseball insider Bob Nightengale, the Cincinnati Reds are expected to interview Ross for their vacant managerial position. David Bell, who was a coach for the Cubs during the 2013 season, had been the Reds’ manager since 2019, but was fired after six seasons in Cincinnati. Just last summer, Bell had agreed to a contract extension that ran through the 2026 season.
The Reds finished 2023 with an 82-80 record and had playoff ambitions this year. Bell was axed after the Reds finished in fourth place in the NL Central this year, taking a step back and ending the year under .500 at 77-85.
Now, the Reds are on the hunt for a new skipper and Ross is under consideration. However, the former Cubs manager does not appear to the be Cincinnati’s top target.
Via USA Today.
Skip Schumaker, who officially informed the Marlins and his players that he had no interest in returning before departing Friday for a family emergency, is the No. 1 target of the Cincinnati Reds. Former Cubs manager David Ross also is expected to be interviewed.
Ross managed the Cubs from 2020-23, and I’ll always say that he had a tough landscape to maneuver through during his time in the dugout. His first year in Chicago was the COVID season and then in 2021 the team’s core was traded at the deadline. The 2022 season didn’t have high expectations and in 2023 the Cubs pretty much played to their pre-season projections.
However, as much as I believe Ross was overly criticized at times in his final year with the Cubs, there were definitely things that were bothersome. But hey, maybe Ross has learned from his mistakes and is ready for a new challenge.
As of now there aren’t many manager positions open heading into next season. Besides the Reds, the White Sox have to decide if they’ll keep Grady Sizemore or look elsewhere, while the Miami Marlins have to replace Skip Schumaker.
In four seasons with the Cubs, Ross was 262-284, winning the division during the shortened 2020 season, while finishing fourth, third and second in the NL Central in the subsequent years.
