A new year dawns for the Cincinnati Reds

Pitchers and catchers report to Goodyear for spring training today!

The Cincinnati Reds have a new manager, one for whom a plaque in Cooperstown is already reserved. With him comes not only a track record of excellence but a refreshing personality, one whose candid voice alone could quickly sum up what the Reds went through during spring training 2024.

Brutal. Just brutal.

Terry Francona surely can’t put himself retroactively in the shoes of David Bell from spring of last year, but for the same reason Tito took the job he can certainly look back and do the math.

Last spring, the Reds entered camp riding high off an unexpected surge in the 2023 standings, and did so with the kind of position player depth that was was so deep it was confusing. By April 8th, they’d lost Matt McLain and top prospect Edwin Arroyo for the year with shoulder injuries, lost Noelvi Marte to an 80 game PED suspension, and watched as Jonathan India went down after being hit by a Nick Martini foul ball. India, fortunately, would end up being OK, but Christian Encarnacion-Strand and TJ Friedl would both also be sacked with injury troubled, something the 2024 Reds simply never could overcome.

The Reds made some changes over the winter, but none monumental. Moving from Bell to Francona was the single most impactful move the front office made, and those two lines in the sand may well be an indication of the overarching theme here:

Terry Francona was impressed with the potential he saw on the Reds roster when all the pieces were healthy and together, and that was good enough for him to want the job. And, now, the 2025 season is on the horizon with most all of those pieces ready and raring to go, with pitchers and catchers heading in to Goodyear, Arizona to start camp today.

Francona, most recently of the Cleveland Guardians, knows Goodyear well. The Reds and Guardians have split the facility there for a decade and a half now, and there could be no easier way for him to ease in to his new gig than in familiar confines. As Hunter Greene and Tyler Stephenson roll in today and begin plotting their path to 2025 greatness, he’ll get his first true glimpse at the potential on this roster at full strength, something we can only hope sustains itself well beyond where it did just last year.

The baseball season is not yet back, but baseball itself is. To channel former Red Eugenio Suarez, I hope this spring camp is filled less with the brutality of last year and solely, wholly with the good vibes only Reds fans sorely deserve.