Jim Riggleman Interviews For Reds Job Monday

Jim Riggleman wants to return as Reds' manager in 2019.  He will make his case to Nick Krall and Dick Williams on Monday.

Riggleman had the Reds playing good baseball for two months, a span in which the Reds were among the leaders in baseball during that stretch.

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From May 10 to the All-Star break the Reds were 27-23 and within 10 games of the ,500 mark.

Bryan Price was fired on April 19 with a 3-18 record.  Under Riggleman the Reds were 64-79 pending Sunday's season finale.

"I think I came into this feeling like it’s been an honor to be asked to do this job," Riggleman said. "I came into it with some negative feelings, because my good friend Bryan Price was walking out the door as I’m walking in."

Riggleman thought that Price did a good job in spite of the record and took as much responsibility for it as Price.

"I think Bryan became a really good manager. You don’t do this on the first day and you’ve got it all figured out. Over time, I think Bryan really figured it out. The 3-15 (start). I was responsible for that just like Bryan Price was. I was standing next to Bryan. I saw him make decisions that I totally agreed with. Didn’t mismanage any games."

Riggleman was not making excuses for the adversity the team suffered, pointing out that it happens to every team.

"We just came out of the blocks and weren’t hitting at all. Suarez got hurt immediately. I think Schebler was down too. We were competitive for about two months. We had as good a record as anybody. Then the same thing kind of took place. We lost Winker and that hurt. Those injuries are par for the course. That’s part of the grind. You have to understand you’re going to have injuries. You have to find a way to win anyway, and not far so far behind you can’t make it up."

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Riggleman really loves to manage and wants the job but will is up for anything the team needs if they determine, he's not the man for the job.

"If I continue to do it, it’s best case scenario. If I don’t, I’ll respect whatever decision the Reds come up with. I’ve been in the organization now seven years. Extremely familiar with the player development system, our current major league roster and our coaches. I love to manage. I think our internal candidates would have some of the same familiarity with what our needs might be. Externally, the candidates will be gathering information from the outside in. There's something to be said about paying your dues (managing in the minors)."


"The first few months I was on the job, things were going ok, not great, going in a direction where we were starting to get over the hump and turn the corner a little bit," Riggleman said. "There was a lot of encouragement that has been deflated with the way we performed since somewhere in August. That falls on the manager. That’s the nature of it. You have to find a way to minimize those down times. You have to keep the losing streaks to a minimum and here of late we’ve had a hard time doing that."

The self evaluation is not the type of thing an applicant would cop to but Riggleman is as honest as the day is long.  He self evaluates.  He is honest with himself.

"One of the progressions for myself is learning more and adapting to the analytics in the game. I like it. I’m as old-school cave-man as anybody in the game. We factor that into how we manage the ballgame now. That’s been a progression for me," Riggleman said.

As for his evaluation of the Reds for next year.  Riggleman sees what needs to change in starting pitching for the team to improve.

"I think offensively we’ve got a pretty good core there. We have three All-Stars in the infield," Riggleman said. "I think the addition of Casali with Tucker has a good chance to be a plus for the ballclub. Winker really impressed me the first half. We’ve got a nice young prospect coming in Senzel. If the next question is what didn’t’ work, it’s that we need to make some adjustments with our pitching. Maybe it’s the way we attack hitters. It might not be personnel, might be the way we get hitters out."