3...2...1: Why anything short of playoffs is failure for Cincinnati Reds in 2025
Forget windows and patience and especially any sense of wait till next year.The time is now for this Cincinnati Reds team.
Win now.
Starting with Hunter Greene on the mound Thursday against the San Francisco Giants in the season opener.Its time to get to the playoffs and long past time to actually win a game in the postseason.Close enough isnt good enough.
Progress without the playoffs is failure.Patience is for losers at this point if youre the Reds, and even the guys in the clubhouse know that.Thats the message, newly added free agent outfielder Austin Hays said.
Thats the whole idea behind Tito being here.Tito, of course, is Terry Francona, the man who came out of retirement for one more run with one more team on his way to the Hall of Fame as a manager.The last time he took on a new managing job, he took over a 68-win team and turned Cleveland into a 92-win American League Central champ in his first year and got that team to the World Series three years later.The Reds front office needed all of 45 minutes to decide Francona was their man on the day they met with him at his home in Tucson in October, closing a three-year deal (plus an option) almost immediately.
The fact theyre paying him a franchise-record $5 million a year for a manager, along with the fact they had him hired barely 11 days after firing David Bell with a week left in the season, underscores exactly whats at stake.
Exactly what the intention is now.Right now.Were a playoff team, infielder Spencer Steer said.
We know who we are.
Lets just go do it.Its easier said than done.
The National League is filled with star-studded, big-money lineups and pitching staffs.
The path to October probably a one-route proposition through the Milwaukee Brewers and Chicago Cubs in the NL Central.Second place probably wont get it done.And shouldnt be an option.After last years high expectations and 77-85 face plant after all those fielding and base-running mistakes, after all those one-run losses the margin for error is used up.
That was the mulligan that never should have been allowed.
A waste of a season.If you think the players know whats at stake and what all that offseason aggressiveness by the front office means when it comes to winning this year, imagine the plight of the paying customer.Fans lived through the ugly teardown and selloff of every veteran of value and watched some of their favorite former Reds players enjoy October competition since then.
Fans actually were asked to pay full admission prices for that 2022 abomination of a 100-loss season (some actually did).Ownership and the front office got a pass from some in the media because they finally had a plan.
And when Elly De La Cruz, Matt McLain and Andrew Abbott broke through with debut success in 2023 to carry the team into that surprising pennant race, the clock started ticking.Until its face got smashed on the floor last year.There are no more excuses.
No more time.
Francona was brought in to tighten up the baseball, hold these talented young players accountable for the only the thing that matters.
The only reason theyre here.People talk about having fun, Francona said at his first press conference as Reds manager, but what I think is enjoyable is playing the game right and trying to kick somebodys ass.The time has come to start kicking.
And keep kicking.
Not next year.
Now.
And tomorrow.
And the next day.
All the way to October.Second baseman Matt McLain, whos back from last years season-long shoulder injury, said he felt that kind of urgency from the moment camp opened and Francona held his first meeting.
I dont think its changed, he said on the final weekend of camp.
I just think it becomes more real as you get closer and closer to Opening Day.It definitely gets real now.Right now.This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Why anything short of playoffs is failure for Cincinnati Reds in 2025.
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