Reds Latest Hire Highlights Pirates Dysfunction
Will the sixth season be the charm for the Pittsburgh Pirates and their regime that's headed by general manager Ben Cherington and manager Derek Shelton?
The Pirates brass is banking on that despite being 294-414 since hiring Cherington and Shelton, including a pair of 100-loss seasons and going 76-86 in two straight years. Meanwhile, the National League Central rival Cincinnati Reds pushed all their chips to the middle of the table to set their young team up for success for the next few seasons.
The Reds shocked the baseball world when they hired Terry Francona as their next manager. Francona is one of the better managers in baseball history and has a track record of taking a young team and getting them over the hump.
Francona won two World Series as the Boston Red Sox's manager in 2004 and 2007 and was a game away from winning a third as the Cleveland Guardians' manager in 2016 before the Chicago Cubs came back from down 3-1 to win their first championship in 108 years. The veteran manager is seventh in postseason wins with 44 and 13th in wins with 1,950. Should he coach the duration of his three-year contract, cracking the top 10 in wins all-time is well within reach if Cincinnati improves.
Francona is the winningest manager in Guardians' history, winning 921 games over his 11 seasons (2013-2023) at the helm. For the Red Sox, the future Hall-of-Famer ranks second all-time in wins with 744 over his eight seasons (2004-2011) in Boston.
The Reds have solid pieces in place, led by pitcher Hunter Greene and shortstop Elly De La Cruz, but their regression led to the firing of Josh Bell in his sixth season as the team's manager. Still, Cincinnati was able to hire a proven winner and developer of talent in Francona.
Meanwhile, the Pirates will enter their sixth season with Shelton as their manager and seeking their first finish over .500 with him on the top step.
Expecting a team to take the next step by running it back with the same people atop the organization is the definition of insanity. Will having Paul Skenes for a full season help? Sure. But unless there are philosophical changes that lead to meaningful improvement and the Pirates are willing to spend money on free agents, to expect next year's team to be that much better than they were this season is asinine.
Pittsburgh likely would have had a shot to land a solid manager if it moved on from Shelton. Skip Schumaker led the Miami Marlins to a playoff berth in 2023 before the organization's dysfunction caught up to him this season. Rick Renteria had the Chicago White Sox on the right track, including a playoff appearance in his final season at the helm of their budding roster before getting ousted in favor of Tony La Russa. Mike Scioscia was the longtime manager of the Los Angeles Angels, winning a World Series with them and helping make them a perennial playoff team for much of his tenure.
If you were to ask any manager which pitcher they'd start a franchise with, Skenes would be the overwhelming answer. Having Jared Jones and other top pitching prospects waiting in the wings also would have helped make the Pirates an attractive destination for a manager. Bryan Reynolds and Oneil Cruz also are solid building blocks at the plate.
The Reds didn't improve in Bell's sixth season at the helm and opted to move on and hire one of the most successful managers of this generation in Francona. Whereas for the Pirates, they'll just be running it back with the same group of people who are largely responsible for them still being unable to take the next step.
The definition of insanity is trying the same thing and expecting different results. Cincinnati went in a different direction and it may reap the benefits next season, while Pittsburgh is hoping things can finally turn around for them despite already having a five-season sample size with Shelton and Cherington running the show.
