This story was excerpted from Mark Sheldon’s Reds Beat newsletter. MLB digital content fellow Courtney Hollmon pinch-hit on this edition. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.
Player development in modern baseball often gets boiled down to biomechanics, pitch design and exit velocities. But to Terry Francona, none of those data points matter if young players don't first learn the most critical habit in professional sports: how to win.
When Single-A Daytona and High-A Dayton earned postseason berths this September, Cincinnati's manager wasn't just checking box scores. Instead, he saw the playoff atmosphere as a crucial opportunity for the organization's rising core to build a culture together -- one that starts long before a prospect ever sets foot inside Great American Ball Park.
"If one of those teams wins, they honor them in Spring Training," Francona said earlier this week. "I'll make sure I'm there. And not pooh-poohing it. I don't give a [expletive] if the rings are real, if they're fake. Winning is winning, and I want to make sure that they know [that]. In the Minor Leagues, you have to have parameters and guidelines on what you're going to do to develop guys. But winning is still good."
For Francona, that emphasis on winning isn’t just about collecting hardware in September; it’s about the tangible chemistry built when prospects go through high-stakes games side by side.
To ensure the affiliates were fully equipped for meaningful September baseball, the organization made strategic late-August roster moves, reassigning select prospects from Double-A Chattanooga down to Dayton and Daytona specifically to satisfy playoff-eligibility requirements.
COMPLETE REDS PROSPECT COVERAGE
To Francona, bringing players up through a farm system in an environment that prioritizes winning fosters a shared mindset that carries all the way to the Major Leagues.
"I think when guys win together, and if they move up together, you can tell," Francona said. "There's a little bit of a bond there, a little bit of a swagger maybe. And that's a good thing."
For Francona, maintaining connection across every level of the organization isn't about issuing orders from the big league manager's office. It is about showing up and demonstrating genuine respect for the people doing the work.
Rather than micromanaging young prospects or stepping on the toes of Minor League personnel, Francona’s philosophy relies on setting clear boundaries and letting coaches coach.
"I think there's a way to be respectful," Francona said. "Like the Draft, I went up to the Draft room, I didn't talk. But I wanted to show that I gave a [expletive], but I don't need to be telling them who to Draft. That's a little different than being respectful."
That boundary extends directly to how he interacts with Minor League coaching staffs regarding daily execution and instruction. While Triple-A manager Pat Kelly and organizational instructors make sure prospects understand foundational team concepts -- like first-and-third defense and bunt coverages -- Francona refuses to dictate how the Minor Leagues operate on a day-to-day basis.
"I don't need to be the roving, hitting guy in the Minor Leagues," Francona said. "I've been places where the manager [is consistently around, but ...] We're going to do ours the way we think it fits our skill set. The young kids, they need to learn the fundamentals, and they don't need to have me dictate those. That's not why I'm here."
Whether it's standing in the dugout early during Spring Training to cheer on affiliate champions or quietly supporting front-office staff behind the scenes, Francona's overarching message remains simple: establishing a winning standard isn't a switch you flip at the big league level -- it is a habit built from the ground up.