Reds hiring former Astros coach Anthony Iapoce brings a curious twist

The Cincinnati Reds have been in the market for a new assistant hitting coach since cutting ties with Will Remillard after the 2026 regular season came to a close. Reds president Nick Krall has spoken at length this offseason about the desire to move away from such a home run-dependent offense, and focus more on situational hitting. That makes the hiring of Anthony Iapoce all the more curious.

On Wednesday, it was reported that Cincinnati selected Iapoce — who was most recently the Houston Astros assistant hitting coach — to replace Remillard in the Reds dugout. The Astros' offense led the league in home runs last season, so you can understand why the pairing seems to be somewhat odd.

Reds selection of former Astros hitting coach flies in the face of their new hitting philosophy

Following a successful 2025 campaign that saw them return to the playoffs for the first time in a 162-game season since 2013, the Reds decided to chase a power-bat. Cincinnati failed in their efforts to bring Middletown native Kyle Schwarber back to his Ohio roots, and turned instead to former All-Star slugger Eugenio Suárez.

The results were somewhat mixed. An early-season injury and countless strikeouts limited Suárez's effectiveness during the early-going, but he started to look more like his old self during the second-half of the season and hit .235/.363/.529 with 12 home runs and a 141 wRC+ over the final two months of the season.

As a team, Cincinnati was second in the National League in home runs (213) and the Reds led the league with 48.9% of the runs coming via the long ball. Interestingly enough, the Astros led all of baseball with 226 round-trippers last season, and 45.8% of their runs were scored off homers. Conversely, the Milwaukee Brewers and Tampa Bay Rays — the two teams who appeared in this year's World Series — ranked at the bottom in this category.

Iapoce was also, at one time, the Chicago Cubs' hitting coach. From 2019-2021, he headed up the Cubbies' hitting philosophy, and lo and behold, relied heavily on the home run. The Cubs' 540 homers during his time in the Windy City were the third-most in the NL and the eighth-most among all MLB teams.

Both Houston and Chicago are home run hitter -friendly ballparks, so it shouldn't come a shock to see those teams at or near the top in that category. Nevertheless, the selection of Iapoce is a curious one, and fans may be wondering whether or not the team's newfound emphasis on hit-over-power is real or imaginary.

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