MLB WINTER MEETINGS

December 5, 2022

David Bell

Cincinnati Reds

Press Conference

Q. Is it difficult to be this late in the way of an off-season and not necessarily fully knowing who might be on your roster yet? Obviously you're still looking to fill some holes. Is it more and more challenging?

DAVID BELL: Yeah. I think it's probably true for most teams, I would say. You get to this point in the off-season, and you know things can change.

I'm focused on kind of the guys that we had at the end of the season, the second half of the season. It's just the way the game goes. I know that can change between now and Spring Training.

Of course you're always looking to make improvements, and that's just kind of the way things go. But for the most part, really focused on the guys we have.

A guy like Jose Barrero going to winter ball, making sure he's set up with the adjustments he's making, things like that that we can control as a staff, especially now that we have our staff in place.

So for us, that's what it's all about for us, and that's where our focus is.

Q. Is Jose just playing short or also at third?

DAVID BELL: As far as I know. Typically, we don't have a whole lot of say. We can talk to Jose and request it and all that, but my understanding is that he'll play mostly short.

If he ended up playing other positions, that wouldn't be a bad thing in our mind. Right now the focus is still on Jose being a shortstop.

Really the big thing is just getting the at-bats. That's all that -- he's a good enough athlete to handle moving around if they end up doing that?

Q. Any of the young pitchers like Joel, or pitching coach is working with Greene or Ashcraft or any of those guys? I know Ashcraft said he's working on finding a new pitch.

DAVID BELL: All that is about to wrap up. I spent the last couple weeks with D.J. and our pitching coach, the two pitching coaches that, actually over the last month. That was such a focus and so intense really that a lot of time during those discussions we were talking about how nice it will be to shift over to the players.

And the timing's right as far as like their throwing programs are starting to build up. We like to be a little hands off early in the off-season. I know that communication between all three of the pitching coaches is going to ramp up now.

There hadn't been a whole lot of work with them. The things they were talking about, D.J. spoke with them at the end of the year, and they kind of took it into the off-season.

Q. The reason I was following up, winter ball question. De La Cruz made quite a splash in the Dominican this year. What reports have you got? What did you find out?

DAVID BELL: I know Elly played great. It was a short amount of time. He's not there anymore. I think in the end that was probably a really good decision. He played a lot last year, and just to have kind of a full off-season where he can build up to strength and make sure he's ready to come into Spring Training.

I know his focus is having a great Spring Training and seeing what can happen as far as making the team. So I think -- yeah, I think this break that he has where he'll be able to use that to help him prepare for that.

The reports are about as good as they can be. From the regular season, winter ball, whatever, there's a lot of excitement around Elly. Just spending time with Elly. I've had a few good conversations with him over the last year. Besides the talent and what kind of baseball player he is, he has such a confident way about him, and he has a presence because he just really believes in himself. He's really positive.

I think he's also -- the way he plays is very contagious too so it makes people around him better. That's just kind of a gift. So there's a lot to be excited about.

Q. He only has 50 games or so above A ball, AA last year. How realistic is his opportunity to make the team in camp? How much -- a lot of people obviously are clamoring to see him, but you and Nick and everyone obviously have to temper that and bring him along slowly. Where is the chance, I guess, for him in camp?

DAVID BELL: I think it's really important to, number one, do what's best for the player. Of course you have a team and an organization to make decisions for, but the best way to do that is to do what's best for the player.

I think being open and not trying to predetermine too much what the timeline may look like for a young player because things change fast. Things change really fast. Every player has their own timeline.

If you get too set, sometimes you can miss a window. You can always recover from it, but sometimes you could wait too long, and certainly it's happened at times where you do it too quick.

You just have to really rely on people and evaluation. It's an art, but we have the right people in place to make those decisions. I think Elly is seeing it the right way. He's approaching it the right way, and we just see what happens. I think it will become clear when the time is right.

Q. I think I asked this inarticulately the other day. I'll do it in a different inarticulate way. How many places do you have set spaces when you look at your roster? Like where are the competitions is kind of the other part of that. What is open? And I guess Joe at first, Tyler behind the plate, and then after that.

DAVID BELL: There's still questions. Some are based around health. Some are based around guys just come in and just surprise you.

I think we got a pretty good sense of who guys were last year. A guy like Spencer Steer came in, and even it was only a couple months, I think it really sets him up for year two. I think he's going to factor in. I think he's going to get a good look probably at third base.

Jonathan India, I mean, he's determined to have a better year than his rookie season this year. So we expect that to happen.

Joey, the way he's talking, like he's ahead of schedule. So obviously he's going to be in the lineup if that's the case.

Tyler looks great, feels great. He's going to be in the lineup every day.

Nick Senzel, setback with his injury, but he's on track to be back for Opening Day.

So I think it may not be a set -- I don't know if I could tell you a set nine, but we have a pretty good idea of who the group is going to be, unless things change over the next couple of days. I expect it to change a little bit, but we know who the core group is.

Q. Does any of your thought process, maybe even with Jonathan, change with the rule changes with no shift, just because you guys won't have that available to you?

DAVID BELL: The rule changes are going to affect this game in a big way, there's no question. Really it's been fun thinking ahead to try to turn those into an advantage and try to think ahead. Our team will evolve over time, but like right now it's how can we prepare our team the best way we can?

Number one, it's really understanding the rules. It's talking to people in player development that have experienced them, creating practice strategies around that.

But a guy like -- for Jonathan, in my mind, he's coming in to be our second baseman. He had several injuries last year that he played through. I think he learned a lot about how to keep his body healthy last year, and he looks great. He was in Cincinnati this weekend running sprints, and he looked better than he did the entire year last year.

He's a young player. He's plenty athletic. He's determined to kind of maximize his range. In my mind, he's our second baseman right now.

Q. You mentioned Zel. He mentioned at Redfest he hasn't walked in three months. He's on that scooter and all that. You guys really think he can be ready in time for camp and make Opening Day?

DAVID BELL: I hear you. It was tough to see him scooting around still. That's how he left the season.

He's going to be walking in a couple weeks, and once that happens, it's going to go really fast. We're still four months away from Opening Day, so there is time for him to get back.

He's done a great job of taking care of himself. He looks really good. I mean, it's tough for anyone to manage their weight and their physical conditioning when you can't run or do anything. So I give him a lot of credit.

He's being tested right now, and he's handling it really well. So, yeah, I expect him to be back on time.

Q. You mentioned him as like a utility guy possible for this year. Going to be more likely that happens just based off DE last year with a couple of leg injuries?

DAVID BELL: It could be. The way our team is today, I still see a need in center field. He's played well enough. I think he's learned a lot. A lot of it has to do with his physical health and the kind of shape he's in. And when he's at his best, he can play a good center field.

Right now the need is kind of there, but we've kind of established that, if the need changes, that he's ready to be moved around. Where we are today, I don't see that being the case.

Q. You mentioned the rule changes earlier. Is there one you're personally looking forward to and maybe one that you said, I don't know why they'd mess with that? One either way?

DAVID BELL: I've shifted all my thoughts to really being really excited about them and just like seeing how it can make our game better.

The more I've thought about it, I think it's going to do just that. It's going to be a faster game. All of each of them are going to affect the game differently.

The big one for me that I've been thinking a lot about is just the two disengagements and the throw-over restrictions, that's really going to change the game. From a stolen base standpoint, speed.

But even the no shifting is going to lead to more hits. Contact is going to be more important. Base running in general is just going to be more of a priority. I think a lot of us enjoy that style of play.

Q. Spring Training, especially the disengagements, I guess, are there going to be real good instructions about that? Like, okay, use one but be careful about using two?

DAVID BELL: I really believe that you have a chance to get off to a quicker start in some ways, like you can create an advantage at the beginning of the season.

Q. If you're on top of it?

DAVID BELL: Yeah. We don't have that nailed down yet, but we're already talking a lot about it.

I've talked to a lot of people in the Minor Leagues who picked up some really good strategies. I think practicing those during workouts in Spring Training, just talking about it, making sure our players like really understand what the rules are and doing different type of presentations and really like having some fun with making it -- trying to create an advantage that way.

I think the speed and the athleticism and all that, like teams are going to be who they are, but I think from a coaching staff standpoint, it's kind of fun to think about how you can make a difference in that way.

Q. You guys haven't been a real good base running team. You haven't had a lot of speed. How do you change that? Especially because I'm sure it is exciting and it looks like that's a way to get some advantages.

DAVID BELL: I think it's kind of a style of play based on like the personnel that make up your roster in a lot of ways. Base running has always been important to me. It's always been important to our staff. It's been important to our team.

But I agree, we haven't been as good at it as we should be or can be. But our team has changed. Even last year we got younger. It's going to continue to change.

We brought in Collin Cowgill, who his mentality towards base running is -- it's fun talking to him about it. I think base running more than anything is just an attitude. It's a mentality. He's pretty recent running the bases himself. And I got really excited just hearing him talk about it, how passionate he was about it.

So things like that can make a difference by just making it important and having your team believe in the ability to win games that way. That's the big thing with -- I mean, it is technique for sure, and certainly now with the rule changes. But more than anything, it's just an attitude. So it's going to be a big focus for us.

Q. You see guys like Siani, Friedl, they actually have some speed. That's something you've had in your time here. Maybe those guys have more utility because of the ability to steal a base?

DAVID BELL: Steal a base. Go first to third. Score from second on a base hit. It's a fun style of play. We are getting faster, and I think over time that's even going to increase more.

Yeah, just making it important. Making sure you get secondary leads and all that and get really good at that, but the speed is going to come into play a lot more. I'm looking forward to that.

I think a lot of the -- our staff is committed to like being really great at those kinds of things. Hitting too, like contact is going to be -- it's going to be more important. So that's something Joel and I have talked a lot about.

Q. David, a couple of development questions. The Braves brought up two guys from AA this year, great young talents. I asked Brian Snitker about that, longtime Minor League manager, if he thinks players need as much time in the Minors as they used to, and he actually said he doesn't think they do. He was more comfortable with coming up right from AA. Did Grisham and Harris coming up create more discussion about, hey, maybe this works?

DAVID BELL: No one player in particular that we talked about or one example, but there's a ton of examples over time where you bring up a great young talent. Even players that went on to have great careers, sometimes you bring them up, sometimes they get sent down and continue their development and then come back at a later time.

There's no one right way. So, no, we didn't look at one particular example. I just think it's different for every player, very individual.

Q. And the one other thing is I know some the last year or two have talked about having more collaboration between the Big Leagues and the Minors. So when guys come up, everybody is on more of the same page as ever. Sending Big League coaches down for a week to the Minor League teams. Have you guys done anything like that?

DAVID BELL: We've done a ton of work to make sure all of our people are aligned. Definitely the Major League staff and the Minor League coordinators, Minor League managers, Minor League coaches. Like we established a few years ago. It's always been important, but it's been a real focus at the least the time I've been here, and I know it was even before I got here.

That's extremely important. And it's probably more important now with just how fast the game is changing, just making sure you're on the same page with everything.

Q. What exactly though have you implemented to make it better? Just more frequent contact or different types of reports?

DAVID BELL: Communication. Just talking a lot. Like, for example, at the end of our season, we had the entire pitching coordinator group and our Major League coaching staff. They just talked about everything to do with pitching just to make sure they're speaking the same language.

We reviewed all our pitchers, just making sure that everything we're doing is aligned. I mean, all the communications and reports and all that is Major League and Minor League. It's not separate. It's all integrated together.

Now, it is different, the Major Leagues and the Minor Leagues, but just trying to blend it as much as we can to make it easier for the players when they get there.

Q. You mentioned the roster changes. Has anything, like your managing style or coaching style change based on the fact that minus Joey and Cessa, there's guys with less than two-year service time that are going to be on this roster.

DAVID BELL: Yeah, it is a young group. One of the things about -- I think I'll put myself into this category, but when we look at our whole staff, one of the most important things to me was, yes, it's the Major Leagues, like the competitive, they all have an edge, but they're all player development at the core. They love players, and they're great at connecting and building those relationships.

They're all very knowledgeable, really well rounded, they have great skills. But without that ability to connect, it doesn't do you much good. So that was like the priority, and we love that part of it. That's our passion really is just developing people and players. That's really the approach.

It has gotten younger. Obviously we lost Kyle. I've said this a few times already, but you can't replace a guy like that, but you look at creating the opportunity for guys to step up. Our staff all agree on this. We don't appoint leaders or appoint anybody to take over the clubhouse or things like that. We let it happen naturally.

Even though we have really a young team, they've all been there for -- a lot of them have been there now. They kind of know what to expect. They understand what's important to me and to our culture and what it means to be a Red. I take it will just kind of happen. So we feel pretty confident about that.