Evaluating the Bryan Price Decision
It's hard to place all of the blame entirely on Bryan Price, but this is something that was long overdue and a change had to be made sooner than later. In fact, the Reds could have done this at the end of last offseason, but wanted to give Price one more chance to prove himself and show that the team had grown somewhat out of the gate to start the year, but that ultimately didn't happen.
Granted, the Cincinnati Reds had a roster of mixed results this season and their best quality on the 25-man roster was probably was entirely on the offensive side in Joey Votto, Scooter Gennett, Eugenio Suarez, Adam Duvall, and up and coming prospect, Nick Senzel. On the pitching side of things, there is plenty of potential in the starting rotation with youngsters, but none of them have yet to quite show their full potential. In the bullpen, there is some talent, but by far the pen the most fascinating piece in the pen is young closer, Raisel Iglesias.
Given all of those things, the Reds weren't going to finish higher than 5th place in the NL Central this season and are still in the midst of their rebuild, but there could be bigger questions looming later on down the road beyond the manager and pitching coach vacancies. What happens if the talent currently on the 25-man roster doesn't end up panning out as expected and can't perform at the big league level? If that happens, what route will they take to build a competitive starting rotation and will they ever spend enough money to enhance their pitching staff with outside resources?
All of those things are questions that could loom later on down the road, but for right now, let's focus on Bryan Price. Some might argue that the decision to fire him is unfair and that could be justified because he never was really given the opportunity to compete with a highly competitive roster due to budget constraints, thanks to the market that Cincinnati play's in, which happens to be the smallest market in all of baseball.
In addition, none of us truly know what type of leadership or influence Bryan Price had on the team away from the field in the clubhouse. Was he able to adequately lead a clubhouse and get the most out of all 25 guys in there or was there turmoil that existed between his relationship with some of the players? None of those questions will ever be fully answered unless someone asks Price personally or has an inside source that is willing to reveal that information. Either way, the way a manager acts in the clubhouse and the leadership they display in there pays huge dividends in terms of job security and being viewed positively by the ownership group of their team.
Finally, the Cincinnati Reds had Bryan Price in their managerial chair for 666 games. That means that Price had 666 games to show what he was worth and prove that he was capable of turning the Reds into a competitive club with the help of the front office. Looking back on his tenure with the Reds, you can't say that he really ever showed that based on the performance of the pitching staff and some of the decisions that he would make on a day-to-day basis.
When someone is a manager of a major league baseball team, they are constantly being evaluated. Evaluated by the General Manager of the team, the front office staff, and even ownership. If something goes wrong or if the front office/ownership members disagree with the direction that a manager is running the club, then a change is made. That is ultimately what happened here and time will tell if it ends up being the right decision or not.
All we know is that Cincinnati Reds fans deserve better than what they have witnessed on the field as of late and this is something that should be highly celebrated by their fan base in hopes of brighter days ahead.
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