The Cincinnati Reds must go all-in and rehire Dusty Baker to lead the team to baseball’s promised land in 2015. Cincinnati is doomed after the 2015 season — not just a little — and the team will struggle for the next 10 years. Instead of trading Johnny Cueto or any 80 percent of the starting rotation headed to free agency after 2015, bring Baker back for one last shot at a World Series.
Baker was the wrong man from his get-go hiring in 2008, but he is now the perfect choice for a 2015 Reds epilogue.
With Dusty at the helm, the team played overachieving ball; unlike current manager Bryan Price, who would have a tough time motivating a 5 year old to eat cookies. Price is a great pitching coach — one of the best — but he is not MLB managerial material. Make him agree to red shirt his sophomore manager campaign and move back to coaching the arms. If he nixes the idea, dump him. Say Price wants to return and try to lead the Reds out of the NL Central cellar for the next 10 years, by all means, let him. But not before offering Baker a one-year deal.
Baker was the guy who carried Joey Votto off the field in 2009 when he suffered a mental meltdown during a game. Baker refused to field questions concerning his first baseman, and waited for Votto to take his time and come back to tell the press he was suffering severe depression due to pent grief over the death of his father the previous season.
He was the guy who let Brandon Phillips be Brandon Phillips, a reject from the Cleveland Indians stolen in a non-Walt Jocketty deal for Jeff Stevens. Remember him? Don’t feel bad, no one but close relatives remember his brief MLB career.
Baker was patient with Jay Bruce, always showing faith in him. And guess what? Fans could count on the streaky Bruce to single-handedly carry the offense for at least one month every season.
There’s no reason to think the newer Reds would play any worse than they do for Price. Devin Mesoraco, Todd Frazier and Billy Hamilton each played briefly for Baker. With Ryan Hanigan now in Tampa, Baker would have no choice but to play Mesoraco on a daily basis.
The 2014 Reds season is the pudding’s proof that the Reds’ woes were hardly of Baker’s doing. Firing him exposed the true problem with the Reds, overly loyal ownership and dreadful upper-management — specifically GM Jocketty. Bring the 65-year-old Baker back to manage the grown up kids he fostered to three playoff berths. Maybe he’d get lucky and give Reds fans a World Series victory, Baker’s first. After 2015, let him retire a happy man.
It’s a classic case of not knowing how good you had it until it’s gone. After 2015, it will be too late, and Reds fans will be stuck for the next decade with a big case of the “what ifs?”
Illya Harrell is a writer for www.RantSports.com. Follow him on Twitter @Illya_Harrell, like him on Facebook and add him to your network on Google.
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