Cincinnati Reds: New hitting coach hired away from NL Champions

The Cincinnati Reds swiped their new hitting coach from last year’s NL Champions, the Los Angeles Dodgers. Turner Ward will join David Bell’s staff.

The Cincinnati Reds have poached their newest member of David Bell’s staff from the NL Champions, the Los Angeles Dodgers. Turner Ward, who’d been with LA since 2016 will replace Don Long as the Reds new hitting coach.

Ward represents another brilliant hire by the Reds front office. After swiping Derek Johnson from the Milwaukee Brewers to be the club’s new pitching coach, Cincinnati has now snagged their hitting coach from the very team that the Brewers played in the National League Championship Series.

Under Ward’s tutelage last season, the Dodgers led the National League in home runs. LA was third in slugging percentage and fourth in OBP. All are areas that the Reds need to improve heading into 2019.

The Dodgers won 92 games last season, and their offense was a big reason why. Ward oversaw the development of such up and coming stars as Max Muncy, Cody Bellinger, and Chris Taylor. He’s also worked with veterans Manny Machado, Matt Kemp, and Justin Turner.

The hiring of Ward is another home run for the Cincinnati Reds’ front office. This hire, just like that of Derek Johnson, should send a clear message to all of Reds Country that this franchise is serious about competing and competing quickly.

Ward coming over from Los Angeles, a very analytics-driven team, should also give fans a good idea of which way the club is heading. Both Ward and Johnson are coming to the Queen City from two successful organizations (the Brewers and the Dodgers) that are very reliant on analytics.

Turner Ward will have his hands full of talented offensive players in Cincinnati. With Scooter Gennett, Joey Votto, and Eugenio Suárez at his disposal, I think Reds fans should expect big things from their new hitting coach. One wonders what he might be able to do with the likes of Billy Hamilton.

Hitting coach is yet another position the Dodgers will now have to fill on their coaching staff. The Texas Rangers just hired away Los Angeles’ third base coach Chris Woodward to be the new manager in Arlington.

With Bell amassing a talented staff, fans of the Cincinnati Reds have got to be getting excited about what the future holds for the organization. With the Hot Stove continuing to heat up, will a major free agent acquisition be on the horizon? Stay tuned.