Six days after firing David Bell, the Reds’ search for a new skipper might not take full flight until the season is over. The club has “been doing a lot of due diligence this week with a lot of different people,” president of baseball operations Nick Krall told the Cincinnati Enquirer’s Gordon Wittenmyer and other reporters, though “we haven’t set up anything formal with anybody.”
As per Wittenmyer, the names already linked to the early stages of the search include now former Marlins manager Skip Schumaker, former Cubs manager David Ross, and current Reds interim manager and longtime bench coach Freddie Benavides. It would appear as though the Reds are looking primarily at candidates from outside the organization, as Wittenmyer writes that “Benavides is considered the lone in-house candidate.” Neither Schumaker or Ross are exactly strangers to Cincinnati either, as both played for the Reds during their on-field careers.
Within minutes of the announcement of Bell’s firing, USA Today’s Bob Nightengale reported that Schumaker was “on the Reds’ radar” as the potential next skipper. Though Schumaker is technically still under contract with Miami, it has been widely known that the manager and the team were parting ways after this season, so presumably the Marlins gave permission for whatever contact has taken place between the Reds and Schumaker’s camp.
In a sign of just how quickly the ground can shift underneath a manager’s feet, at this time one year ago both Schumaker and Ross seemed to have plenty of job security with their teams. The Marlins made a surprise run at an NL wild card berth during Schumaker’s first season as manager, and Ross’ Cubs emerged from a two-year rebuild to finish with an 83-79 record.
The Cubs’ progress under Ross wasn’t enough for upper management, however, and Craig Counsell’s presence on the market led the team to stun the baseball world by swooping in to hire Counsell for a five-year, $40MM contract. Ross found himself suddenly looking for work, and while he was linked to the Padres’ managerial vacancy and the Yankees’ bench coach job, “Uncle Rossy” instead spent the 2024 season on the sidelines. In regards to the New York job, Ross was reportedly looking to get back into managing rather than coaching if he was to quickly pivot to another role after his unexpectedly late entry onto the open market.
Ross played with seven different teams at the MLB level during his 15-year playing career, including a stint with the Reds from 2006-08. After capturing a World Series ring as member of the curse-breaking 2016 Cubs, Ross retired from playing and transitioned into a special assistant’s position within the front office. Ross was then hired as manager following the 2019 season, and delivered a 262-284 record over four seasons in Chicago’s dugout. The Cubs reached the playoffs in 2020 but Theo Epstein’s departure as president of baseball operations then led to a two-year step backwards for the organization, before the 2023 team posted a winning record.
Schumaker has already faced a lot of tumult over his two seasons as a big league manager. Hired for Miami’s top job after a five-year stretch on the Padres’ and Cardinals coaching staff, Schumaker’s work in leading the Marlins to the playoffs led him to the 2023 NL Manager of the Year award. However, on the heels of that successful debut year, owner Bruce Sherman wanted the Marlins to build a better minor league foundation, and looked to install a new president of baseball operations to oversee general manager Kim Ng. Rather than accept a demotion, Ng declined her end of a mutual option for the 2024 season, and Miami then went into rebuild mode under new PBO Peter Bendix.
This left Schumaker in something of a limbo state, and when the Marlins voided their 2025 club option on his contract back in April, it was pretty apparent that 2024 was going to be Schumaker’s last year in South Beach. Given how little he had to work with, Schumaker hasn’t been assigned any blame for the Marlins’ woeful 60-100 record this year, and he’ll head into the open market as perhaps the top managerial candidate available. The White Sox are also known to have interest in Schumaker’s services, but as Wittenmyer observes, managing a Reds team with a lot of young breakout talent might well have more appeal to Schumaker than overseeing what is likely to be a pretty lengthy rebuild on the South Side of Chicago.
Ross? Haven’t Reds fans suffered enough?
Revitalized: Not a cub fan, but I admire what Ross did with them. He lost almost his whole team 2021(?), then oversaw a tough rebuild. They signed so many players for Ross to sift through. Ross had to find capable players to start with the rebuild. By year two the cubs came close to winning a wild card spot. Then Hoyer did a Reinsdorf, blindsiding a manager who worked to so hard on the rebuild only for Hoyer to abruptly replace him with his team’s nemesis manager. They fell even shorter of a WC this year. You wonder where Ross could’ve taken them this year, just like I wonder where Renteria could’ve taken the Sox in 2021.
Ross is a good manager, you could argue that 2023 under Ross was a more impressive season then counsell in 2024
Ross had no help at the deadline and almost made the WC and counsell got parades but still didn’t do a ton
tormented: I have friends who are cub fans and they were skeptical about Counsell even before the season started. Looks like Hoyer went for the name but his replacement in Milwaukee, without their top two pitchers from last year, has done better than Counsell did.
The players played hard for Ross but he had some faults. The Cubs failures are on Hoyer. He didn’t fix any of the weaknesses from the previous year. He basically brought back the same team and he got the same results.
I’m glad to read I was wrong about Ross after these comments. Forgive me, as I’m a Pirates fan and used to players jogging out ground balls, admiring fly balls that drop in for long singles or infielders holding hands full of seeds while a ball is live in the outfield. And fundamentals? Wow, what a concept.
Revitalized: As a White Sox fan, I’m sad to hear that the Pirates are stealing our thunder.
Avenger, local columnist Gene Collier reminded us of numerous teams that have done better than the Bucs in the past thirty years:
“The White Sox, who are about to complete the all-time losingest baseball summer since 1900, have had 14 winning seasons since 1993, plus a World Series title”
You’ll pardon me for not feeling a great deal of sympathy. I’m betting the Sox right the ship and contend before the Pirates
Ross might be good for the Sox rebuild. He holds players accountable for the fundamentals. He could help develop Lee behind the plate. He’s a World Champion player. He’s good with the Chicago media. If Sox fans could get past the stupid Cubs/Sox stuff, he could help.
Korey Lee can be a quality catcher or even fringe all star caliber
Ross was fired because among other things, he completely mismanaged the bullpen the last couple of months of ‘23.
Gonna be GEORGE LOMBARD
Dark horse candidate – Miguel Cairo.
I could see David Ross too.
At the very least, David Ross would be a more energetic manager and get the young core to develop a more structured clubhouse. I can only comment on some of the Reds games from this year, but David Bell gave off low energy vibes, maybe that’s just me.
Not just you. India also made some comments that echoed what we all thought.
Another dark horse candidate: Eduardo Perez. ESPN may be giving up Sunday night baseball after 2025, so Perez may try to get back in a dugout in some capacity.
Dad would probably advise against it given his experience as Reds manager.
You never know, they would probably give Eduardo at least 45 games if they hired him.
He was known as “Grandpa Rossy”, not Uncle.
Bobby Valentine may be ready to take a chance again.
Please! Please! Please! Take Alex Cora! I’ll personally drive him to make sure that he’s out of Boston.
Who’s the replacement?
You know you Red Sox fans are something else, most successful franchise over the last 20 years and yet complain about the owner,the manager,the players,the front office,the ticket booth,the teams travel schedule,the hot dog guy, you name it. Oh let’s not forget your football team either.
It’s not just red Sox fans. Dodgers fans have been calling for a new manager for a couple years now, despite the fact the team.. Oh, I dunno… makes it to the playoffs every year?
As an Angels fan, y’all just need to shut the f up.
Except the Red Sox have won 4 championships in 20 years and the Dodgers won 1 in an abbreviated season. Dodgers have done a lot of regular season success since the 2012 trade with the Red Sox but never been the threat they should be in October.
Get Skip Schumacher on the phone now.
Not sure why anyone would want to work for Castellini and Krall. If Mozeliak and Marmol are let go that seems like a much better destination for managers.
Limited number of jobs. Sometimes you need to take what’s available.
I said the hour after Bell was fired that stupid ownership and worthless management would find a former Red to hire. Never mind getting the best guy for the job, I have boycotted the Reds due to their ownership and management for 7 years now. I won’t go back till new owners take over.
For sure it will be some off the wall candidate after the top-tier candidates publicly say no to some embarrassingly low Reds offer. Looking for someone the likes of Eduardo Perez for $1.5M/yr, or something like that.
With their core, highly desirable job. No need to rush, but you gotta imagine Schumaker is the guy.
The core is interesting but Schumaker might be a little leery of the future budget. He’s leaving Miami in part because they aren’t going to spend.
The Reds aren’t cheapskates all the time, but they do frequently run a bottom 10 payroll. They’d be an upgrade over Miami, but there might be better options depending on who else may get fired in the coming days.
It’s not “Uncle” Rossy. His nickname with the Cubs was “Grandpa” Rossy, due to him being older than most of the team’s players.
From a Cubs fan….Compared to Craig Counsell Ross was a genius. Hire Counsell away from the Cubs PLEASE!
I agree! This guy Counsell has to be the most overrated manager I’ve ever seen. And tacticly he’s nothing special. He has little emotion. He’s like a statue. Look at Milwaukee without him. It wasn’t him.
No, no! As a Pirates fan, I think the Reds need to pry Derek Shelton from the Pirates.
Why is Nick Krall getting a pass here? He’s as much leftover stink from the rotten Dick Williams era as Bell. As Dick’s ‘step and fetch’, he was an in-house cheapskate hire to begin with and he’s accomplished nothing since. They’re all losers. It’s been one mistake after another. Unfortunately with Cincy owners (Reds and Bengals) it’s gonna take prying these teams out of their dead hands to bring in the new ownership that it’s really gonna take. Feel bad for pro sports addicts in the greater ‘Nati. Long time comin’ Long time gone.
Predictions:
David Ross to reds
Schumaker to cards* (because of bloom hire) (I hope)
Sox keep Sizemore for some reason
Marlins hire Freddy B
Pedro Grifol never gets a meaningful job again (marmol too)
Scott servais waits a year and gets hired by the… Yankees!?!?!?
Sox hire Willie Harris, and put Sizemore back into some sort of AGM position or maybe manage at AAA Charlotte.
Hire Mark DeRosa, please.
Barry Larkin, Chris Sabo (he’s been managing in that Middle Eastern league with a lot of former big Leaguers), Brett Boone if they want former players. Or how about Joey Votto?
I like Bobby Valentine. I think they need someone who is not their buddy, but more like a hard assed old school guy.
Schumaker to St. Louis