The Cincinnati Reds have hired a winner in Terry Francona.Now the front office has to give its new manager the players he needs to turn the Reds into a winner.
It’s hard to give the Reds any credit after they made David Bell the scapegoat for the front office’s years-long ineptitude. But the Reds scored a big public-relations win by hiring Tito, who’s coming out of retirement after sitting out this season.
The Reds hired the best manager they possibly could have. This is a go-for-it hire. A win-now hire. It’s a big step toward winning. It’s not the final step.
The Reds don’t have enough good players. Team president Nick Krall has to go get a run-producer this offseason. If it takes giving up some prospects, go for it. The Reds have to stop falling in love with all these prospects. They have to stop hoarding them. They have enough in the pipeline to go make a deal – and still have plenty still in the pipeline.
Francona, who played for the Reds in 1987, isn’t coming out of retirement to help nurture along a bunch of young players and prospects and be part of an extended development process.
Sure, there’s still a process involved in bringing the Reds’ talented core of young players along. But Tito is coming here to get the Reds to the playoffs next season and win the franchise its first postseason series since 1995. That’s not the ultimate goal.
Tito is 65 years old and probably isn’t on a five-year plan to win it all. Francona must believe the Reds have enough players for him to build around. He must see that he can transform Hunter Greene, Elly De La Cruz, Matt McLain, Spencer Steer and others from good young ballplayers into champions.
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