David Bell made a philosophical change to prevent Cincinnati Reds injuries

GOODYEAR, Ariz. — At the end of the first day of 2023 spring training, Cincinnati Reds catcher Curt Casali was trying to catch his breath.

The Reds’ strength coaches had just had Casali run sprints. He took more at-bats in the cage than he usually would on the first day of spring training. His throwing program was more intense than it had been in previous seasons.

This spring training felt different to the veteran catcher who had participated in Reds manager David Bell's first two spring trainings as the Cincinnati manager. Casali was all-in with Bell’s plan, but he was curious to learn why so much had changed since the Reds released Casali in 2020.

“They might have eased into it in spring training last year and had a lot of injuries,” Casali said. “From day one this year, we went pretty hard right out of the gate. It wasn’t necessarily fun. But once we got our legs under us, it’s helping. What they’re doing seems to be working.”

In 2022, the Reds’ best players always seemed to be injured. Tyler Stephenson, Joey Votto, Jonathan India, Mike Moustakas, Nick Senzel, Tyler Naquin, Jake Fraley, Donovan Solano, Jose Barrero and Max Schrock all missed a significant amount of time with injuries last season.

Starting pitchers Luis Castillo, Tyler Mahle, Mike Minor, Nick Lodolo, Hunter Greene and Graham Ashcraft all spent time on the injured list. The Reds’ bullpen was a liability as some of their best relievers, including Tejay Antone, Lucas Sims and Tony Santillan, spent most of the year injured.

At multiple points last season, the Reds had a better looking squad on the injured list than they had in the starting lineup and the rotation.

The Reds’ bad injury luck started with the 2022 lockout. During the offseason, the Reds weren’t able to communicate with their players about their conditioning programs. Then, there was a shortened spring training. But every MLB team dealt with the same circumstances.

This spring, Bell shifted his philosophy on spring training. There are more sprints, more at-bats and more innings so the Reds’ players are close to “midseason form” on Opening Day.

“A big part of this game is playing when you're a little bit fatigued and not being overly protective of that,” Bell said. “I think maybe not just us, but people throughout the game or even in other sports where I think we would want it so bad, that we would be a little bit overprotective and under trained our athletes. So (now we are going to) just let them be baseball players and let them be athletes.”

Bell developed a new spring training schedule in 2023. Over the previous few seasons, the Reds mostly did afternoon workouts and played games at night. This year, the Reds shifted the workout schedule to earlier in the day.

Players used to have individual defensive work and time in the batting cages with the coaches after batting practice. Now, the window for individual work with the coaches is right before team stretch in the morning. There’s a seamless transition from individual work to team stretch to team workouts and batting practice.

Position players are getting more at-bats in spring training games and playing deeper in games earlier in the spring. In 2021, the last full spring training, Reds hitters rarely got more than two at-bats in a spring training game until the third week of the spring. This year, most of the Reds’ top hitters have had multiple games with three-or-four at-bats.

“It’s held us more accountable,” Casali said. “I feel good now. I was tired after Week 1. But I feel good now.”

It’s been the same process with the Reds’ starting pitchers. At this point of the spring in 2021, Luis Castillo, Tyler Mahle and Wade Miley hadn’t thrown more than two innings in a game, and Jeff Hoffman was the leader with a three-inning start.

Hunter Greene already has thrown four innings in a spring training game.

“I’m stronger, and my endurance is there,” Greene said. “Last year, I would have been a bit more tired. That comes with knowing the expectations. I feel like I prepared well enough in the offseason to put myself in a good position.”

Even though the Reds are deep in a rebuild, Bell is managing the roster to win as many games as possible early in the season. Using Tyler Stephenson more as a designated hitter, building up the starting pitchers more and prioritizing defense and baserunning in spring training are all moves designed to help the Reds avoid another awful start to the season.

In 2019, the Reds started the year with a 1-8 record. They started 2-5 in 2020 and 3-22 in 2022. After poor starts in three of Bell’s first five season, he changed his approach to spring training.

“The more work you do in spring training that you can handle and is healthy, the better your legs get in shape,” Bell said. “The best years you have are when you push yourself in spring training to get really ready. It gets you into midseason form as best as possible by Opening Day. That’s the goal.”

This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Cincinnati Reds manager David Bell makes change to avoid injuries