Reds’ latest coaching poach shows how well-respected Guardians pitching factory is 

For 11 years, Terry Francona got a first-hand look at the Guardians’ pitching factory when he served as Cleveland’s manager. 

It seems like that affinity hasn’t gone anywhere. 

On Wednesday, Francona and the Cincinnati Reds named Guardians assistant pitching coach Joe Torres as their new pitching coach, making him the fourth Cleveland head pitching coach to be poached by another team. Matt Blake became the first when he defected for the Yankees in 2019, before being followed by Ruben Niebla leaving for the Padres in 2021 and Brian Sweeney leaving for the Royals in 2023. 

While they’ve had some mixed results since leaving Cleveland, MLB keeps dipping into the well, with the Reds being the latest example. 

The Reds just stole coach Joe Torres from the Guardians

Torres is going to be joining a Reds organization that has plenty of other Cleveland connections outside of just Francona, as former Cleveland hitting coach Chris Valaika currently serves in the same role on Francona’s Reds staff, while one-time Guardian Mike Napoli is the Reds’ first base coach. 

The Reds also have former Guardians infielder Juan Brito on their 40-man roster. 

Torres is going to have his work cut out for him on a Reds team that’s full of high-ceiling young pitchers (sound familiar?). Along with having All-Star Chase Burns at the top of their rotation, the Reds also have Andrew Abbott, Nick Lodolo and others. Their bullpen is a bit of a work-in-progress, however, as they just lost closer Emilio Pagán to free agency and don’t have a strong relief pipeline. 

Torres is also going to be without former All-Star Hunter Greene, who is going to miss all of 2027 after undergoing Tommy John surgery. 

While Torres’ loss is going to be a short-term blow to the Guardians’ coaching staff, Carl Willis’ overarching presence should help mitigate some of those losses. Torres likely played a huge part in helping Gavin Williams and Parker Messick reach the highs they got to in 2026, but he wasn’t the only reason. 

Another reason why the Guardians should still be in good shape is the fact they’re used to this. As mentioned earlier, Torres isn’t the first Guardians pitching coach to leave for somewhere else, and he isn’t going to be the last. All of those coaches held some kind of wisdom that helped give Cleveland an advantage, but the system the team has put in place around them is one of MLB’s strongest. 

Plenty of teams have tried to copy the Guardians’ pitching method, but none of them have been able to fully copy that blueprint. Time will tell if the Reds are able to do so. 

Add us as a preferred source on Google

Follow