First MLB manager of 2018 fired after 3-15 start
Bryan Price, formerly of the Cincinnati Reds, has become the first manager to be fired in the early going of the 2018 season.
The Red announced the firing via a public statement posted to Twitter.
Current bench coach Jim Riggleman will immediately take over as interim manager, while Triple-A Louisville manager Pat Kelly will take his spot as bench coach.
Double-A Pensacola pitching coach Danny Darwin will also join the major-league pitching staff, as current pitching coach Mack Jenkins was let go along with Price.
The move is not entirely unsurprising, as the Reds have struggled mightily to start the year. At 3-15, they’re currently the worst team in all of baseball.
And it’s not like Price has been much better in previous years. Price took over as Reds manager in 2014, and his team posted a 76-86 record that season.
Since then, things only got worse, as Cincinnati has won less than 70 games in each of the past three years.
“At this time, we felt a change needed to happen in order to begin the process of getting this team back on the right track. We realize it is early in the season but feel it is important to be proactive,” general manager Dick Williams said, according to MLB.com.
“In addition to these staff changes, we will continue to examine all aspects of baseball operations to ensure we are doing everything we can to improve.”
The team said it will conduct a “thorough managerial search for a permanent replacement” later on in the year.
As noted by USA Today, Price’s tenure was a time of rebuilding for the Reds, who traded away All-Star pitchers Aroldis Chapman and Johnny Cueto, as well as sluggers like Jay Bruce and Todd Frazier.
But while that rebuilding process occurred, the Reds struggled to put a quality product out on the field every day. In fact, in both 2016 and 2017, the Reds had at least 15 pitchers start games for them.
Those struggles carried over into this season. Aside from their poor record, the Reds are also one of the worst teams in the league from a statistical standpoint.
As a team, Cincinnati has the second-highest earned run average in all of baseball (5.42), as well as the fourth-worst batting average (.220).
It remains to be seen if the managerial change will help them improve.
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