David Bell’s time in Cincinnati has come to an end.
The Reds officially fired their longtime manager after six seasons on Sunday night, shortly after the team’s 2-0 loss to the PIttsburgh Pirates. The Reds have just five games left in the 2024 season, and they are set to miss the playoffs for a fourth straight year and fifth time in Bell’s six seasons with the team.
“David provided the kind of steadiness that we needed in our clubhouse over the last few seasons,” Reds president of baseball operations Nick Krall said in a statement. “We felt a change was needed to move the Major League team forward. We have not achieved the success we expected, and we need to begin focusing on 2025.”
Bell, 52, was first hired ahead of the 2019 campaign, and he led the franchise to the playoffs during the COVID-19 shortened season in 2020 — though they were knocked out in the wild card round that year. That was the only postseason berth the organization has seen in more than a decade.
Bell finished with a 409-455 career record as the Reds’ manager, which marked his first head job in Major League Baseball in his career. He finished over .500 twice, though his best campaign was an 83-79 finish in 2021 when they missed the playoffs.
The Reds currently hold a 76-81 record with five games left in the regular season. They sit in fourth in the NL Central, and are 13.5 games back from the Milwaukee Brewers, who have already clinched the division. They will wrap up the regular season this week with a two-game series against the Cleveland Guardians and a three-game run against the Chicago Cubs. Bench coach Freddie Benavides will lead the team the rest of the way.
