Photo: Doug Gray
It’s almost Baseball Writers Association of America award season. And on Monday evening the three finalists were named for their awards. Cincinnati didn’t have any finalists among the awards that will be handed out to players, but manager Terry Francona is one of three finalists for National League Manager of the Year.
Francona is up for the award against Pat Murphy of the Milwaukee Brewers and Rob Thomson of the Philadelphia Phillies. All three managers helped their team make the playoffs. Murphy won the award in 2024 and is looking to be the first manager to win the NL award in 20 years twice in a row. Murphy’s Brewers had the best record in baseball this season, finishing 97-65 in the regular season and winning the central division. Philadelphia was one game off of that pace as Thomson’s club won the east division at 96-966, besting the second place Mets by 13 games.
For Terry Francona, he took the Reds to the playoffs with a 3rd place finish in the division at 83-79, finishing 14 games back of Murphy and the Brewers. If Francona were to win the award it would be the 4th time that he has done so in his career. He won the award in the American League in 2013, 2016, and 2022. All of those wins came while he was managing in Cleveland.
Changes to the coaching staff
There are some changes coming to the coaching staff in 2026. The Reds already lost J.R. House when he took the job as Arizona’s third base coach last month. Bench coach Brad Mills, who joined the team in 2025, is also gone. Mills decided to retire.
Willie Harris is now on the big league coaching staff and will be the team’s new third base coach. He was the manager for Single-A Daytona this season and has worked in the Reds farm system in the past. He also served as the third base coach for the Chicago Cubs from 2021-2024.
Mike Napoli will be taking over as a bench coach for the Reds. He was on the staff in 2025 but was simply listed as a “coach”, with no real designation. Napoli joined the Reds for the 2025 season after spending the previous four years in Chicago as a part of their big league coaching staff.
Bill Haselman is a newcomer to the organization and will be taking over the role as Cincinnati’s catching coach. A big league catcher for parts of 13 seasons from 1990-2003, he moved into coaching the year after he retired and that just so happened to be under Terry Francona for three years in Boston. After that he spent time working for the Rangers, the Reds Sox (for a second time), the Dodgers, and Angels where he was their third base coach in the big leagues for a season and spent three years in their farm system working with catchers.
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