San Francisco Giants Should Replace Bruce Bochy with David Bell Now

The San Francisco Giants hired David Bell last off-season to run their minor league system as the vice president of player development.

Now, Bell has been a hot name around baseball for job openings around the league. And he’s one the San Francisco Giants should consider.

Baseball reporter Jon Heyman of Fan Cred Sports is reporting that he is the favorite for the Cincinnati Reds managerial opening.

If team president Larry Baer and executive vice president of baseball operations Brian Sabean really do think highly of Bell, they should hire him as their manager now.

This would mean letting current manager and future Hall of Famer Bruce Bochy go, but they are in a tough position.

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If they allow Bochy to finish out his contract, as they have said they would, they could lose Bell and then be without both in a year.

Bochy deserves to be allowed to finish out his contract. He is arguably the greatest manager in San Francisco history and his three rings give him the right to say when he is done. Ultimately, this will come down to what the Giants want to do after Bochy retires.

He has been clear that he has a strong desire to manage in 2019, so he would have to be fired to be replaced. It would be a shocking development if Baer and Sabean came to that decision.

They might make that decision for Bell.

Bell, who played one season for the Giants in 2002, helped lead San Francisco to the World Series. After his 12-year playing career ended in 2006, he was hired to be the Double-A manager for the Reds.

Bell spent three seasons as the Carolina Mudcats manager. In 2011, he was named manager of the Reds’ Triple-A affiliate, the Louisville Bats.

The following year, the Chicago Cubs named Bell the third base coach and the next year the St. Louis Cardinals hired him as their assistant hitting coach.

Bell became the Cardinals’ bench coach in 2015 and held that position for three years. The Cardinals, who fired manager Mike Matheny during the 2018 season, may have thought about replacing Matheny with Bell last season, but chose not to.

That same situation can happen to the Giants. If they do not promote Bell to be their next manager, they could lose him and Bochy and be wondering what if.