Terry Francona's stubborn refusal to fix glaring lineup flaw threatens Reds' success

Cincinnati Reds manager Terry Francona, as he stubbornly did throughout the entire 2025 season, chose to slot TJ Friedl and Elly De La Cruz atop the batting order with a left-handed starter — Boston Red Sox pitcher Connelly Early — on the mound for the series finale.

The Red Sox took full advantage of Tito's mistake, and even left Early in to face De La Cruz for a third time during the sixth inning before turning to right-handed reliever Greg Weissert. The result of the at-bat was a strikeout. Friedl and De La Cruz ended the day going 1-for-6 against the Early after a 1-for-6 showing on Thursday against Red Sox's left-hander Garrett Crochet.

Friedl and De La Cruz are combined 2-for-15 against southpaws to begin the season, and neither player was good against left-handed pitching last season. Friedl hit just .243/.330/.341 against left-handers and De La Cruz posted a .236/.276/.342 slash line when facing lefties. It's time for Tito to make an adjustment.

Elly De La Cruz & TJ Friedl don't belong atop the Reds lineup vs. lefties

This isn't a call to remove Friedl or De La Cruz from the starting lineup altogether — that would be madness. But there's little-to-no reason for both players to be hitting among the top-3 spots in the batting order when a left-handed pitcher begins the game. It offers the opposing manager an inherent advantage, something Alex Cora benefited from on Sunday.

Francona is an old-school manager, and therefore prefers to keep the majority of his lineup set in stone. Fans saw as much last season, and even with two lefties on the mound during the team's opening series against the Red Sox, Francona chose to roll out the same six players in the batting order through the first three games of the season.

There's something to be said for consistency in the lineup, and it's difficult to question the in-game strategy of a Hall of Fame-caliber manager like Francona. But the oft-quoted definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over while expecting a different result. How many times does Francona need to see Friedl, and to a greater extent De La Cruz, struggle against left-handed pitching before he decides to bump them down in the batting order?

The alternatives are admittedly not perfect. But a top-3 of Dane Myers, Matt McLain, and Sal Stewart, would be preferable to the usual suspects. Given last season's results, slotting Friedl and De La Cruz into the bottom-half of the batting order would prudent, if not advisable.

We're just three games into the regular season, so it's far too soon to be overly critical of Francona's lineup decisions. But if Tito is still sending out Friedl and De La Cruz atop the batting order against lefties on May 1, then it's time to start providing a more sharp rebuke of the skipper's lineup choices.