Former Reds infielder Valaika named club's hitting coach

CINCINNATI – The first coach on the staff of new Reds manager Terry Francona was hired on Thursday, when Chris Valaika became the hitting coach and director of hitting.

Valaika, 39, spent the last three seasons as the Major League hitting coach for the Guardians – including 2022-23 under Francona. In 2021, he was the assistant hitting coach for the Cubs.

“The few games we did see each other, it was a really exciting team," Valaika said of the Reds. "I’m really excited to jump into that and hopefully start putting some of these pieces together and create some identity for this offense, something that I was really happy about that I got to do in Cleveland that I hopefully get to replicate with a lot of these guys in Cincinnati.”

A third-round selection by the Reds in the 2006 Draft and the organization's 2008 Minor League player of the year, Valaika was an infielder for Cincinnati over parts of the 2010-11 seasons.

“The biggest thing personally is being able to come back to Cincinnati, somewhere that gave me an opportunity with the Draft and gave me the opportunity to play in the big leagues," Valaika said.

Valaika also played for the Marlins in 2013 and Cubs in ‘14. Over 99 career games, he batted .238 with five home runs.

After retiring as a player following the 2015 season, Valaika got into coaching in 2017 and spent five years in the Cubs' system.

The Reds parted ways with all three of their hitting coaches earlier this month in Joel McKeithan and his assistants, Terry Bradshaw and Tim LaMonte.

With the director of hitting title, Valaika's philosophy will be the standard at all levels of the Reds’ player development system. It will be similar to pitching coach Derek Johnson, who is also the organization's director of pitching.

“In year one, the biggest thing will be creating that identity, creating alignment between the message in the Major Leagues and the message in the Minor Leagues – that we’re reading off the same music here," Valaika said.

"We’re going to work towards the same kind of game-planning technique just for when these guys do make that transition to the Major Leagues, that it’s seamless. These guys are not going to be drinking out of the firehose.”

Cutting down on strikeouts and improving line-drive contact are two of president of baseball operations Nick Krall's primary offensive objectives for 2025. Reds batters ranked 26th in batting (.231) and had the ninth-most strikeouts in the Majors. Elly De La Cruz led the Major Leagues with a club-record 218 strikeouts this past season.

• How can EDLC take the next step in '25? 'Get better every day at everything'

Although Cleveland ranked 22nd in hitting with a .238 team average in 2024, the club’s batters had the fourth-fewest strikeouts in the Majors. The Guardians' whiff rate last year was sixth-lowest (23.0%) and the lowest in MLB over the past three seasons (22.0%). The Reds, by comparison, had a 26.4% whiff rate last year and 26.1% from 2022-24, both above league average.

The drawback of Cleveland's high-contact approach was that it didn't create much optimal contact. The Guardians' barrel rate last year was the second-lowest in MLB (5.8%) and the sport's lowest over the past three seasons (5.3%). The Guardians' xwOBA, which takes into account quality of contact plus strikeouts and walks, ranked tied for 23rd or worse each year from 2022-24, including 26th this season (.300), which was slightly worse than Cincinnati (.302).

"I think if we can tactically be a little bit cleaner, we can start game planning. We can start focusing on putting the right pieces together, how the lineup is constructed and create chaos," Valaika said. "I know how much we steal bases, some of the ballpark factors there, especially Elly – how special he is with everything he does. I don’t think I’m going to come in there and try to ask these guys to be contact [hitters] and shorten up and be something that they aren't."

However, the Reds have some younger players with some innate power in De La Cruz, Christian Encarnacion-Strand and Noelvi Marte. That could potentially mean fewer wasted outs and a more productive offense.

“We’re already ahead of the curve when it comes to that stuff," Valaika said. "I think the more you can impact the ball, that’s the nature of the game right now. I do think we’ll focus around the decision making. I think we’ll focus around creating a team identity – hitting with runners in scoring position, finding ways to establish more of a two-strike approach."

Other than Valaika and Johnson, the rest of Francona's staff has not been named. Johnson is currently the lone holdover from former manager David Bell's regime, but Krall indicated others on Bell's staff could be retained.